Below are highlights from our panel interview with Joshua Gomez and co-creator/executive producer Chris Fedak from the NBC hit show, Chuck.  Season 4 premiers Monday, September 20th at 8:00, 7:00 Central.

Question: All right. Josh, the last time we saw you at the end of Season 3, you had blown up the Buy More so...

Josh Gomez: It was an accident.

Question: I hope your hands are better at the start of this season. Are you still part of the spy team after that and what can we look forward to in the new season on Morgan?

Josh Gomez: Yeah, I mean, definitely part of Team Bartowski. I don’t know how much the CIA loves me but Team Bartowski, I suppose, yeah, and I guess the Buy More actually becomes - it’s rebuilt and taken over by the CIA - and Morgan basically kind of becomes the sort of the through there.

He kind of is in charge of keeping the Buy More’s CIA cover so he’s there to kind of make it feel and look and run like a real Buy More. Meanwhile, it’s now I guess owned and operated by the CIA, is that right, Chris?

Chris Fedak: That’s absolutely correct.

Josh Gomez: So yes, yeah, the answer is yes although I’m like, you know, I’m not jumping out of any planes yet or anything like that.

Chris Fedak: But we also, I mean, the other thing we did...

Josh Gomez: There’s, you know, there’s room to grow.

Chris Fedak: No, no, I was just going to is like one of the things we realized last year is that Josh Gomez is just wonderful in the spy world so we do look forward to bringing him back on missions at some point.

Question: Josh, what keeps challenging you about playing this role of Morgan?

Josh Gomez: You know, the wonderful thing about playing him is that every season he’s sort of has had these sort of (done) evolutions and done more greater I guess than in Season 3 when I finally get to learn about Chuck so it’s a blast.

It’s the challenge I guess is trying to find ways to have a character evolve and mature and yet keep him the same, you know, the same from when you first started, you know, the same sort of likeability or, you know, whatever it was that originally was, you know, likeable about that character, keep that, keep the core the same and then but find ways to just, you know, find little
differences, little changes, little, you know, so that’s been - I wouldn’t know if it’s a challenge - but it’s definitely been a blast.

I mean, I just have so much fun because every season it’s sort of been - it hasn’t felt - stale, you know, I don’t have to play the same - it’s almost like not playing the same dude because he has changed to much so I don’t know. That’s been really cool.

Question: And why do you think people keep tuning in to watch Chuck?

Josh Gomez: I mean, I think it’s just because it’s such a fun show. I just at the end of the day, you know, you come home and it’s, you know, there’s plenty of good television but most of it I feel like is always kind of a bit of a downer and I think that Chuck is not. I think it’s the opposite.

I think, you know, at the end of a Chuck episode you kind of - you feel good - and it’s fun and you laugh and you go for a fun car chase and, you know, it’s just - and you hang out with people you like.

I think that’s also the big deal too is that, you know, we got a group of characters that are just, you know, these guys Chris and Josh and the rest of our writers and, you know, they created these characters that are just fun to hang out with, that you just kind of want to, you know, see again week after week so I think, you know, that’s a big part of it.

Chris Fedak: And I think - I mean just to go off that point - I think that, you know, the R cast is just one of the most fun casts on television and like Josh said, you just want to be with them each week. You want to be with Ryan McPartlin and Sarah Lancaster and Zach Levi and the gang at the Buy More. It’s just, you know, they’re such a warm, caring, you know, kind of family and I think all good, I mean, great TV shows are about families and this is - we have - just a splendid, splendid family on our show.

Question: I was wondering if Chuck is no longer officially with the CIA, can you talk a little bit about the plans for Sarah and
Casey?

Chris Fedak: Well, Sarah and Casey are still with the CIA so they’re - we opened Season 4 they’re traveling the world working on missions, still like the best spy, NSA/CIA spy team in the world.

And I’ll say that the person they’re focusing on is a man by the name of (Alexei Volkov) who’s our big bad this season.

Question: Josh, how far do you think Morgan would follow Chuck into his rogue endeavors?

Josh Gomez: As far as he wanted me to go. As far as he would want. Yeah, I think Morgan still, you know, beyond being just completely loyal to his friend and just being that kind of a guy, I think he’s just a good-natured loyal dude, to him this is as we saw in Chuck Versus the Beard it’s just the coolest thing in the world.

I mean, this is we’re living out our every video game we’ve ever played, every movie we’ve ever watched and I don’t know if, you know, I think there’s a part of Morgan that doesn’t quite - although I think he’s starting to get it - doesn’t quite know the full, you know, the ramifications of the whole thing.

I think it’s still fun time in a weird way even though there’s, you know, occasionally some bullets whizzing around or, you know, gynormous men grabbing me (unintelligible) me around.

It’s, you know, it’s fantasy time. I mean, he wants to, of course, you know, we have to go be rogue and do whatever, you know, I’m in. You got me, you know, it’s like let’s do this, you know, America’s last line of defense, you know, he’s at it, it’s like whoa, calm down, dude. You know, it’s there, you know, so I think he’s just, you know, and he’s just a leap first kind of guy so it’s he’ll go as far as Jeff wants him to I think.

Chris Fedak: And beyond

Josh Gomez: And beyond, yeah, further, right, whoa, whoa, yeah.

Question: Now Chuck has an incredibly loyal base of fans and of course they’ve been concerned for some time with the series getting renewed. If by some twist of fate the ratings don’t hold up this season or you guys prepared to end it as the end of the 13 episodes or will there be closure for the fans if that happens?

Chris Fedak: Right now, well you know, we’re right now in the midst of working on the final - not the final - but the 13th episode, the 11th, 12th and 13th episode and the way we’ve always broken the show in the past is that we try to tell the most dynamic story we possibly can.

So, you know, 13 will be an epic episode no matter what, even if there is a back nine or more episodes ordered but I don’t want to give anything away and like, you know, kind of, you know, imply the end of the show especially with us having even aired so I’m, you know, right now at 13 will be a big exciting and I’ve always been a fan of, you know, prologues, not epilogues.

So I think that my favorite version of an ending is the one that implies the great adventure ahead, you know, so I do think that if, you know, 13 will be a very exciting and very satisfactory and usually and hopefully with the back nine will be a strangely-placed epic episode right in the middle of the season.

Be sure to tune in on Monday, September 20th at 8/7c to see the premiere of Chuck on NBC.  Special thanks to Josh Gomez, Chris Fedak for taking time out of their schedule and for NBC for putting this together. 

We will have more of the interview on the next FoF show.