Now we get to the best part of Comic-Con 2010 (for me, anyway): my favorite series, FOX’s action-packed Human Target. With its perfect ensemble cast, cracking wit and Emmy-nominated stunt sequences, the show survived to fight into a second season – but not without some changes. Still, at least we’re getting our Chance back. I sat down with series star (and my hero) Mark Valley (Christopher Chance) and co-star Chi McBride (Laverne Winston), and also had the opportunity to talk candidly with new executive producer Matthew Miller about what’s going on behind the scenes and what it means for Chance and Co.

Watch this space for an analysis of the Season 2 moves and my opinion on where the show is headed…but on to interviews with my favorite creative team. (SPOILER ALERT: These interviews contain plot spoilers for episodes in season two.)

Matthew Miller (Executive Producer)

First things first: the show is seeing a lot of changes, and there are more than a few fans that are nervous about that. What would you say to fans who are worried about the future of the show? They’re going “Hold on a second, I loved the show before, what’s this guy think he’s doing here?” And there’s a couple of questions in there. The first thing is the [Friday] time slot, over which I have no control, but I actually think it’s great. A Friday night at eight o’clock time slot – people work hard all week, you want to come home, you want to kick back, and you want some fun. You want a show that’s a great big adventure, which season one was.

In no way am I coming into the show and looking to alienate the people that stuck by the show and loved the show first season. The first season of the show was phenomenal. What we’re trying to do is use that as a template and build off of it and make it better. We don’t want a stagnant show, so what we’re gonna do is take the things that happened and worked very, very well in season one – the characters were incredible, the cast is incredible, the interaction between them was great. The action was, for me, probably some of the best action I’ve ever seen on television. I worked on Chuck, which won the Emmy the last couple years for stunts, [and] I’ve never seen anything like what they were able to accomplish on Human Target. It literally looks like a movie. So we’re going to take all of those elements and maybe enhance them a little. Maybe flesh out the characters. Taking the same fabulous characters that are already there and the relationships that we love and just digging a little bit deeper.

Now I’ve heard conflicting reports: did you replace Jon Steinberg on the series or are you working with him? I’m working with Jon Steinberg. Jon Steinberg is a brilliantly talented guy and we are lucky that he is working on the show. He created wonderful characters and did a wonderful season one. He’s writing a variety of episodes this season and he’s contributing to every single aspect of the show in an incredibly positive way. He’s a super, gracious, wonderful guy.

So who or what can we see coming back from season one? The fourth episode of this season, which Jon wrote, is going to be an episode [where] we bring back the Baptiste character. He’s going to come back in like a 48 Hours kind of a situation, where he’s in a Siberian prison. Basically, in order to rescue someone, Chance has to trust the person that he trusts least in the world and that’s Baptiste. So he needs to go to the Siberian prison, get him released, and has to trust him on this mission. He feels very, very uncomfortable. Baptiste is saying from the beginning of the episode, “I’m not going back to jail,” and Chance is saying, “We’re gonna do this thing, and then you’re going back to jail.” That’s the tension of the episode. It’s a great episode.

And then you have two new series regulars coming on board. They’re two women we’re going to bring into the show. The first character is going to come in the first episode, named Ilsa Pucci. She was married to a billionaire, who was not only rich but philanthropic, and he was killed under mysterious circumstances, [so] now she feels her life is in danger. She comes into the show and hires Chance to protect her in sort of the standard setup that we have in the series. What happens by the end of the first episode is she decides this company could be of value to the world, so she ends up becoming the owner of the company. What that does is it helps us in a lot of ways. It gives a boss to these guys, and how is Chance going to respond to a woman that’s now his boss, and watching that romantic tension play out throughout the course of a season. It gives us access to her affluence and her wealth, so every week if we want, we can be in like Morocco or Nepal or any of the places where our cases can take us.

Then there’s another character called Ames [played by Janet Montgomery] whom I’ve been instructed to say very little about. [Note: The details came out on the panel anyway. For more on Ames, check out my corresponding Human Target Season 2 breakdown.]

Chi McBride (Laverne Winston)

So let’s talk about these guys you’ve gotten yourself in with. I think the relationship of these three guys is one of a dysfunctional family. We put the fun in dysfunctional. Like any family, there’s tension and we don’t always get along, but at the end of the day we defend each other against everything outside of that family.

We see that in early episodes Winston has an active dislike of Guerrero, but do you think he’s come around? It’s like any relationship. Sometimes, when you work together with a person, even if you don’t like them, sooner or later you’re going to need their help. It’s at that time that you discover a person’s loyalty or discover a particular skill set that you actually need. Like it or not, you have to grit your teeth and deal with that person. This is that relationship. There’s a lot of comedy – physically and because we both like to match wits – so I think that’s what makes the relationship exciting.

You finally got some backstory in the season finale. Is that something that’s going to continue? We’ll see a lot more of what happens to these guys when they’re off the clock. Winston has got an ex-wife, and I think that nothing makes a guy happier than when he has to deal with his ex-wife. That’s got to be the high point. But we’re gonna have that happen, and we’ll see Winston’s brother, who is on the wrong side of the law. We’ll see more of what these guys are like – the team will become more cohesive.

What are your thoughts on the changes behind the scenes? I think Jon did a great job as the producer of the series and Matt is already doing a great job taking it to the next level. You always have to try to do it better, stronger, funnier and faster, and Matt has really fit the bill in a short amount of time. He’s doing great, and Jon is still writing on the show.

Mark Valley (Christopher Chance)

So, the burning question: what do you think about the new direction of the series? I think it’s interesting. I think we’re going to have more inherent conflict. We have all these elements being thrown in this dynamic that’s pretty much established as a boys’ club. It’s going to put a little less pressure on our antagonist of the week to provide all the charm and conflict. Jackie [Earle Haley], Chi and I all like each other, so it’s kind of hard to generate conflict.

How does Chance see his relationships with Winston and Guerrero? Chi came up wth a good analogy one time. He said “If Chance was a recovering drug addict or alcoholic, Winston is more like his sponsor, [Guerrero] is more like his old drug dealer.” I’m not saying that Jackie is or ever was a drug dealer.

Chi: Or that I was ever a sponsor.

Mark: Or that I was ever [an addict].

We’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss you and those amazing Emmy-nominated fight sequences. We’ve got some great stunt fighters and stunt coordinators. Usually, I go through the fights myself and I have a stunt double that goes through them as well. It’s pretty exhausting, so we kind of switch back and forth.

Chi: Don’t let him fool you, man. Mark can kill you with this. (as he holds up a bottlecap)

I actually said that in a column, that I believe he can and will kick my ass.

Chi: Yeah. You say the right ten words, he can use this and kill you.

Inevitably the military training helps with that. When I pick up a script and look at it, I’m kind of excited about it. Chance’s experiences dwarf whatever experiences I have, military or otherwise. That having been said, working in the Army was fun. There were some real great experiences working on teams and making friends, and I get that same feeling working with Chi and Jackie, that these guys have my back and I have theirs.

You’ve read the comic book before taking on the project. When I first got the role, I read the graphic novel, then I ordered the original comics off eBay. Later on Chi informed me I could have just asked DC Comics for them. Four unsuccessful bids later.

Human Target premieres its second season on Friday, September 24 at 8 PM on FOX.