WONDERCON 2023 – Friday, March 24, 2023

Find episodes of True Lies on CBS on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. Streaming on Paramount+.

CBS brought its new spring series True Lies to WonderCon. Leads Steve Howey and Omar Benson Miller with Creator Matt Nix brought energy and enthusiasm to WonderCon as they do in their high action spy series.

Matt Nix is no stranger to the spy genre as he is the creator of Burn Notice that spanned seven seasons. Nix shared that he became involved in True Lies while working with Director, McG and McG’s friendship with Director, James Cameron. Cameron wanted to make True Lies into a series and Matt Nix has accomplished it.

Matt Nix began his love of heroes and action stories while a child. The Road Warrior and army men were his faves. The spy world is full of action, secrets, and deception yet he feels in both Burn Notice and True Lies, the teams want to make the world a better place. He’s happy to be “playing army men for a living.”

Nix feels that the series is not too much of a departure from the original nineties blockbuster movie but also plays with its origin of the French farce. The series has the elements of the movie that includes two people having a relatable problem with communication and connection and they resolve it in a spy adventure. The series grows the world with the introduction of the Omega Sector Team as well as guest stars.

 Nix shared a few hints on what is upcoming in the next eight episodes to complete season one.

In episode five (airs on March 29, 2023), Nix shares that Harry and Helen Tasker’s family and spy life hit closer to home and Luther and Maria’s characters get more story time.

As the season progresses, the Tasker’s children, Dana and Jake, recognize that their parents are gone all of the time. Nix shared that the situation gets resolved by the end of the season.

Nix teases that Omar Benson Miller’s character, Gib, gets more of his mysterious personal life revealed. Luther and Marie’s story builds out. Mrs. Meyers will return.

If they get picked up for Season 2, Nix has many ideas for the future which could include The Wolf, Matthew Lillard’s character as well as more of Mrs. Meyers.

Nix was asked about the series being compared to The Americans. Nix characterized True Lies as a funhouse mirror version of The Americans. He admits that there were episodes where he asked what would The Americans do and then would do the opposite. 

Omar Benson Miller plays the character “Gib.” Miller makes the character his own, differing from Tom Arnold’s True Lies movie version. Miller shared that it took nearly a year from the pilot to starting to film the series. The first half of the season was mostly focused on establishing the characters and their relationships and the second half opens up and highlights the strengths of the cast. Miller describes Gib as the eyes and the ears of the mission. Gib is typically in the van while on their missions. When Gib is okay, then it’s okay but when he is concerned the audience should be concerned.  

Miller is excited for his character to be seen in different ways in the second half of the season. The majority of the first half of the season there are small snippets of who Gib is when he isn’t on the job. Gib will also have at least three to four appearances where he is on the scene including a shootout with massive explosions. Miller shares that by the end of the season he feels they take the formula and throw it on its head. Gib’s journey moves from being a team member to a team leader. 

Miller spoils that in a future episode, Keith David will be playing his dad and they will thoroughly dive deep in his background story as to why Gib is the way that he is, i.e. lone wolf. We will even see Gib feeling smitten. Cue googly eyes.

Steve Howey felt excited and terrified taking on the role of Harry Tasker from the iconic movie.

Howey felt portraying the character that one of the most famous action stars on the silver screen was a Herculean effort. His version was not to be the iconic Austrian bodybuilder but to be tall, slender, and have the athletic ability of an international superspy. 

Howey’s background as a competition rifle pistol shooter, trained in Muay Thai, and boxing helped him with the physicality. It was a lot of hard work but he always wanted to do action comedies. Telling the story as an actor is a lot but adding the physicalities of the stunts was a new experience for him. Howey came with a new respect for learning on camera fighting (dance choreography). Howey praised the stunt workers and icons from how much discipline they have. 

Howey characterized each episode as a sprint within a marathon and then a sprint to the next episode.

As the second half of the series airs, Howey teases that the last episode is special. 

Howey gushes about his co-star Ginger Gonzaga’s (Helen Tasker) comedic side and hopes for a second season to explore that further as well as getting Gib (Omar Benson Miller) out of the van. He’d also like to see Harry doing normal everyday tasks which are probably somewhat foreign for him.

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