Felicia Day is rocking the elf ears, in this awesome exclusive image. Day just announced she’s starring in a new six-part webseries based on the Dragon Age video game series, coming out later this year.
She’s playing Tallis, an elf assassin who’s hired by the Qunari to find a rogue mage who’s bent on causing havoc throughout the world. And she’s joined by a host of companions on her quest – the band of followers don’t always agree on everything, but they band together to defeat their enemy and restore balance to this dark fantasy universe.
We talked to Felicia Day about creating a new fantasy character.
Here’s another image that’s non-exclusive:
Here’s what Felicia Day told us about her Dragon Age webseries:
What can you tell me about Tallis? How is she different from your typical Elven assassins? What kind of leadership qualities does she have to have, to be able to gather a whole fellowship on her quest?
Tallis is snarky, so I’m not sure that’s typical of your Elven Assassin. She doesn’t have GREAT leadership qualities, and that’s a challenge along the way, but she has a great outfit, ha. She WORKS for the Qunari, so that’s something new we haven’t seen in the Dragon Age universe.
How is doing a webseries for a big gaming company different from doing one on your own? Do you have a lot more money to play around with?
Working with Bioware was a dream, they allowed us creative freedom to delve into their world. The budget may have been higher than The Guild, but we shoot that show in my garage! This show needed everything made FROM SCRATCH. We had stages, location shooting. We wanted it to look amazing, and on a web series budget that was challenging. The great part is that everyone believed in the script enough to call in tons of favours. We have top tier talent working on this: Peter Winther my director, John Bartley from Lost was our DP, Dan Kaplow, who produces “United States of Tara” helped me and Kim Evey, my producing partner, produce, etc. All stops were pulled out, and it shows!
Do you have to be careful about going too far with the snark and humor? Are there things you can’t do, because you’re working within an existing franchise that has die-hard fans?
I think the Dragon Age universe is so well-written, it has a wonderful sense of humor at the core that doesn’t undermine the drama. I wanted to capture that exactly in my script. Luckily Bioware thought I did a great job, they had minimal notes. We kinda geeked out together, I would send them stuff we were building, they would send me Dragon Age II assets before anyone else had seen them, it was kinda a dream come true. 🙂
Have you read the novels, and did you get a sneak peek at the new anime film? Were there elements introduced in the other extended media that you felt like you really wanted to include in this series?
I did read the novels, but I didn’t see the film. The great thing about Dragon Age is that it’s like LIVING a novel, with Dragon Age II even MORE like living a novel with its scope of a 10 year storyline. I gathered every nugget of information I could to fill out the world. Then I backed away to make sure people who hadn’t played the game would enjoy the series too. It was a balance, but I do the same thing on the Guild, writing for insiders and outsiders at the same time. I’m proud of what we ended up with.
Also, what cool new stuff was included in the new Dragon Age II that you wanted to include in this series?
Well, this is a WEB series, so all the CGI to make tons of monsters wasn’t available, and we couldn’t shoot in a medieval city exterior, but we tried to capture everything we could. The sets we built look fantastic.
Finally, do you think that epic quest fantasy is coming back? Does the popularity of stuff like Dragon Age mean that people still really want to be elves and fight monsters and go on quests?
I think escapism in general is huge, and will continue to be huge. The challenges of humanity are few and far between now, and fantasy and sci-fi and comics allow us to imagine challenges beyond our everyday lives. With Game of Thrones coming out, The Hobbit down the line, I think fantasy worlds are definitely due for some love. I’ve read pretty much every fantasy novel ever written, so I am looking forward to a resurgence in interest and respect!
Oh, and now that you’re rocking the ears, would you want to play Arisia in the Green Lantern sequel?
Yes please, this idea is WIN! 🙂 I love my web work, but I’ve yet to do a mainstream movie, that is on my bucket list this year!
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