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Spoilers: Rob Thomas Talks iZombie’s Ending and How it Differs from Veronica Mars

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WARNING: Spoilers for iZombie’s series finale

How are you recovering from the series finale of iZombie? The CW show that was loosely based on the comic of the same name ended last night after five great seasons. Starring Rose McIver, Rahul Kohli, Malcolm Goodwin, Robert Buckley, Aly Michalka, and David Anders, this zom-rom-com had previously been renewed for a fifth and final season. With high stakes on the line, viewers watched as they hoped for their favorite characters to make it alive to the end. Not only that, but to be happy. Which, besides Blaine; they all did!

Which, is a stark deviation from Rob Thomas’s other series, Veronica Mars. After Thomas killed off Jason Dohring’s fan-favorite character Logan Echolls in an explosion in season four’s conclusion, fans were worried. Especially when it seemed Liv Moore (McIver) would suffer the same fate. But, no! Everyone was alive and happy!

iZombie Spoilers Ahead

EW caught up with Thomas to talk about the end of this underrated show and the differences between the endings of his two series.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Last time we talked, you were more hands-on with Hulu’s Veronica Mars revival than with iZombie’s final season, so when did you come back to iZombie?
ROB THOMAS: I was in the room breaking the first seven episodes [of the final season], and I was in there for the writing and shooting of the first five. And then Diane [Ruggiero-Wright] and I came back on the last two, episodes 12 and 13.

Did you always know you were going to end on this flash-forward epilogue?
That only occurred to me when we started breaking that episode. Even though what played out was all stuff that we had on the board for a long time, the idea of a flash-forward virtualcast, that didn’t come to me until really the week I started breaking the episode.

How has the series ending changed over the course of the five seasons? Is it still the same idea from when you first created the show?
The broad strokes remain the same. I think you could have asked me five years ago how will the show end and I would have said that our crew will be victorious in some way, and Major and Liv will find their way back to each other. I’ve always known that, hey, I’m not doing a noir show for once! Let’s give them the happy ending! That much has always been in my head. I had no idea that Ravi and Peyton would end up together. That is just a product of those two are fun on screen together, they work well together, people like them together. That was a new idea. I probably would have told you that Blaine [David Anders] would have died in the finale, but I was happier with where we ended up. I like him living forever at the bottom of a well with Don E. [Bryce Hodgson], who hates him, down there with him. That only occurred to us about midway through the final season, how we would end with those two.

That definitely felt like poetic justice.
Yeah. [Laughs] It was a way for both Liv and Don E. to give Blaine his comeuppance. Both of them got a piece of it. Don E. shoves him down the well and then Liv shoves Don E. down the well with him. That felt good to us.

The interviewer then asked about the flash-forward epilogue at the end, which in my opinion opens up the door for maybe a revival down the line. A fan can be hopeful!

The end of the flash-forward feels a little ambiguous, with Liv and Major offering Ravi, Peyton, and Clive a literal forever home Zombie Island. In your mind, are the three humans actually considering reuniting for good by moving there?
I have my own idea in my head about whether the friends said, “You know what? We’ll live on a deserted island with your zombie family!” I have a definite view, but I don’t know that I want to give my answer to it. I kind of like the audience getting to put them wherever they want in their own minds. And that’s the end of that.

What was your ultimate goal with ending the series on such a happy note for all the characters? I’m still shocked none of them died.
I felt like if all of America was watching iZombie, our nation would be healed by now. [Laughs] Unfortunately, doing our share, that didn’t happen. But that was really what I was going for: the lessening of eternal strife in America. I don’t think we accomplished it, sadly.

Then again, Thomas did state:

The human-vs.-zombie war may have ended, but there are still so many lingering story lines even 10 years later, like the Dead Enders still hunting down well-known zombies, Seattle become a rebranded zombie city, the creation and sustainment of Zombie Island, and more. Would you ever consider doing a spin-off or revisiting this story at some point in the future?
I don’t think it’s going to happen for iZombie. Though if in the future there is a call for more iZombie, I love this group of actors so much, I would be game to work with them any time, anywhere. Obviously, if we never do another iZombie I predict that you will see these actors in future projects of mine. I just adore them all.

I want an iZombie spin-off! We need to know more about Zombie Island and Blaine and Don E’s time in the well!

Comparing iZombie’s Finale to Veronica Mars’

The conversation then shifted into Veronica Mars:

This is a big few weeks for you, since you also just debuted another high-profile finale with Veronica Mars season 4, which decidedly did not end on a happy note. Obviously, that one saw an extremely passionate response from fans, so has that made you worry about how this one will be received?
I’m probably happy that I provided a happier ending in iZombie. I think this one is more apt to make fans excited than Veronica Mars. But with Veronica Mars, because I imagined that show was going to go on and we were going to continue to do more mysteries, I wasn’t building that as the grand ending of the series, whereas I was on iZombie. The closest I had ever thought I was writing the end of the entire Veronica Mars universe was when I wrote the movie. In the end of the movie, I did give the audience a reasonably happy ending with Veronica [Kristen Bell] back working as a private detective and she and Logan [Jason Dohring] back together. It’s only now that I’m starting to believe I’m going to get the opportunity to do a bunch more [seasons of Veronica Mars] that that happy ending didn’t work for me moving forward.

If Veronica Mars is the shot, then iZombie is definitely the chaser.
[Laughs] I may steal that… I really can’t go online these days. I will find out the reaction secondhand through Google alerts the next day. Hopefully, it’s more positive.