WonderCon 2014: ‘Salem’ Panel

The subject of witches can be a tricky one. The word “witch” can bring up all kinds of pop culture images such as: the Wicked Witch of the West (Wizard of Oz), broomsticks, scary/ugly women over a caldron (Macbeth), cute girls (Sabrina the Teenage Witch), and so on. There have been many films with witches as the subject but not too many television shows. Well, now there is Salem on WGN America. The show has gained so much attention and is doing so well that it has already been renewed for a second season after being on the air less than a month (3 episodes)!

“Set in the volatile world of 17th century Massachusetts, Salem explores what really fueled the town’s infamous witch trials and dares to uncover the dark, supernatural truth hiding behind the veil of this infamous period in American history. In Salem, witches are real, but they are not who or what they seem.”

While at WonderCon, I attended the Salem panel where we saw the first twenty-five minutes of the pilot episode a couple of days before it aired. However, a few scenes were cut out of our screening because it was just too graphic (violence and sex) for an all ages panel. The audience laughed when the blank screen came up during the episode and laughed even more when the blank screen was up for an apparently long scene. They did warn us about the graphic nature of the show and, during one scene, a few parents with kids made their way out of the panel room. Everyone else liked what they saw of the pilot! The screening was followed by executive producers Adam Simon and Brannon Braga, along with series star, Shane West, talking about the show.

Simon started talking about the inspiration behind the show by asking, “Who doesn’t love Salem? Who doesn’t love witches?” He went on to mention how we all know some of the history of Salem but there is still much that has not been explored. Braga mentioned, “What uncharted territory this was…” explaining that they delved into the transcripts from the time and those reveal way more weird stuff than has been shown before. Now, you could make a show where the witch hunters were just a crazy mob or you could approach it as if witchcraft was real. Simon explained that at the time, “…everybody believed in witches” and the producers and series creators wanted to “…show the world as they [the people of Salem] perceived it”. West plays a character who is not a believer. He told the audience that his characters would “…react like most of you would react” and that his character is basically the “audience POV”.

You can check out a series trailer below!