Several weeks in advance of Comic-Con 2009, the annual mega-event where (among other things) Lost masterminds Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse end their self-imposed radio silence post-season finale, the powerhouse duo participated in a Q&A for fans in London over the weekend at the Curzon Cinema. A blogger named McLeron attended the event and has provided a complete transcript of all that was revealed.

There’s a lot to digest in the transcript, but here are the comments this blogger believes to be the most telling, along with my thoughts:

• Damon Lindelof: “You are married to your destiny, you can try to avoid it, but it will catch up to you.” I’m thinking this is going to be hugely important in Season 6. Perhaps the hydrogen bomb’s detonation caused some changes to the timeline, but ultimately will not be able to alter the destinies of the main characters.
• Lindelof shut down any possibilities for spin-offs, comic books, or any other continuations of the show once Season 6 ends, saying, “We feel that if we hold anything back for the final season of the show, it will be bad. People have come along this far, and they need a conclusion.” Bravo, Mr. L. A very wise man, you are.
• Lindelof reveals that celebrated comic book writer Brian K. Vaughan, who’s been on the Lost writing staff since Season 3, has “left for greener pastures.” Say what?! I hadn’t heard that. Did we know this already? Somebody help me out here, I’m seriously bummed over this.
• Filming on Season 6 begins Monday, August 24th.
• Regarding where the show’s major characters find themselves, at the beginning of Season 6, Lindelof would only cryptically say, “…everybody gets back together in one form or another, and we feel that Season 6 is a lot like Season 1 with its [feeling of] community.” Sounds like the whole gang is getting back together!

There are some crazy rumors flying around the Net this week that several (or possibly all!) of the deceased former passengers of Oceanic 815 could be returning to the show for its sixth and final season. Amid swirling bits about Charlie (aka actor Dominic Monaghan) and Shannon (Maggie Grace) possibly making respective comebacks, TV Guide throws fuel on the fire with word straight from actor Ian Somerhalder, who played Boone in the show’s first season, that his return is a very strong possibility.

Is this just actors’ wishful thinking? Or is there a time-has-been-rewritten-so-they’re-not-dead-anymore reunion in the works for all of the show’s stars of yesteryear? Hmm.

Matthew Fox is currently in Monte Carlo for a television festival happening there, and during an interview, he’s provided some spoilery/teasery clues about what’s to come in Season 6. He doesn’t actually reveal any answers, but he drops some juicy hints about what he knows. The ODI provides the goods:

• Fox always knew that Jack and Locke would go head-to-head in Season 6, though he doesn’t know now if that means the real Locke or Jacob’s enemy in Locke’s form.
• The first scene of Season 6 will explain what happened when the Jughead hydrogen bomb exploded in 1977. Fox says that at first, it will be “both confusing and surprising” to the audience.
• About one third through Season 6, there will become one solidified timeline on the island, with no more flashbacks. (It’s uncertain here if he’s referring to some kind of joining of the 1977 and 2007 time periods, or an amalgamation of current history and the altered history that may have happened when Jughead blew.)
• He says that he is continually surprised at how “moving” the end of the show is going to be.

Even though it’s been said many times before, it’s once again been affirmed by Lost executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse: actress Emilie de Ravin, who stars as Claire Littleton, is returning to Lost for its sixth and final season as a full-time cast member.

Speaking to EW’s Michael Ausiello, Cuse commented, “Damon and I are very excited to bring Claire back to the show, and even more excited for people to experience just how she will return.”

So what do you think? How will Claire return? Will the rest of the cast bump into her while she’s still a ghost hanging out in the jungle with Daddy dearest? Did Juliet change history in the Season 5 finale and prevent Claire from ever ending up on the island? Will she wake up next to Bob Newhart?

Theories: bring it!

The official recap for the Season 5 finale of Lost states unequivocally that the four-toed statue depicts the ancient Egyptian fertility goddess known as Taweret.

Taweret frequently carried an Ankh, just as the statue does on the show, which is the symbol of life. Though originally she was rooted in darkness, Taweret became more prominently known throughout history as a goddess of protection, particularly towards pregnant women (ironic, since modern day women on the island can’t give birth).

I can’t help thinking back to the hieroglyph we saw in “Dead is Dead,” when Ben entered the smoke monster’s lair under the Temple, which depicted Taweret facing off against her opposite number — which looked an awful lot like the smoke monster. In this scenario, the obvious parallel is that Taweret is a symbol or representation of Jacob, while the smoke monster stands for (or as some fans theorize, actually is) Jacob’s nemesis.

I wonder if there’s an ancient Egyptian identity for the smoke monster, now that we know its arch enemy’s identity to be Taweret?

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

According to Michael Ausiello at Entertainment Weekly, actress Elizabeth Mitchell will not be back in Season 6 as a full-time castmember. However, Ausiello also says, “Multiple sources confirm that the actress is expected to appear in an unspecified number of episodes next season.” I have no idea what that means for the fate of Juliet Burke, but I’m glad she’s not gone forever.

In related news, ABC announced in its “upfront” presentation of new shows for Fall 2009 that its remake of the alien invasion saga V has been picked up as a series and will debut sometime midseason. Which, by the way, puts it right smack-dab around the same time that Lost returns for Season 6. (Would you watch a two-hour block of Lost and V back-to-back?) Also included in the presentation was news that Elizabeth Mitchell is not a mere guest star, as previously reported, but is in fact the ensemble’s lead character, Erica Evans. Evans is rumored to be the leader of the human resistance against the alien invasion. The full cast is shown in an ABC promotional image, at right. Some early peeks at the pilot episode for V are below.

Not included in ABC’s renewals for Fall is Harold Perrineau’s new cop drama, The Unusuals. Perrineau is remembered by Lost fans as Michael Dawson.

According to an article in USA Today, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have dropped the first hint at what’s to come in Season 6. (This comes despite their traditional “communication blackout” that begins at the season finale and ends at San Diego Comic-Con.)

The article talks about the University of Michigan’s name-drop in Lost and other TV shows, and ends with discussion of how and why Lost’s producers chose the famous college in Ann Arbor as the home base for the Dharma Initiative, which includes a tiny little tease about Season 6:

“There was an incredibly vital university academic community [at Ann Arbor], and we just felt like acknowledging that by making the [Dharma Initiative] from there was just kind of cool and very sort of appropriate for the time,” [Cuse] said.

Cuse and Lindelof say to expect the Dharma-Michigan connection to play a significant role as the show heads into next season, its sixth and final one.

So it sounds like whatever the outcome of Jughead’s detonation at the Swan site… we’re not done with the Dharma Initiative just yet.

Image: Robin Parrish.

What if Jack’s plan worked? What if history has been altered thanks to the H-bomb detonating at the Swan construction site? Then Season 6 could conceivably be a restart of the series, with our heroes having not yet met.

What do you think of this possibility?

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Still wondering if we’ve seen the last of Juliet? Take a deep breath and get used to it — you’re supposed to be pondering that question until 2010.

The good news, according to E! Online, is that actress Elizabeth Mitchell will appear as Juliet on Lost next year. But what capacity she appears in… That’s the question. Full time cast member? Recurring or guest star? And how will her appearance be explained?

Did Juliet change history and allow herself to live? Will she appear as someone dead, like Christian Shephard? Will she somehow survive what happened at the bottom of that hole?

Settle in, the wait for answers is going to be a long one.

Image: Newscom.

Still wondering what was written on that tapestry that Jacob wove together? The good folks over at the always-reliable Lostpedia managed to translate it from ancient Greek. It translates as:

May the gods grant thee all that thy heart desires.

However… There’s a bloke over at AudiblyLost.com who translated it a little differently:

May heaven grant you in all things your heart’s desire.

“Heaven” implies a single God, while “the gods” denotes multiples. So the distinction is a significant one. Which do you think is correct?

And am I the only one that finds it odd that the words were in ancient Greek, when everything else about the tapestry’s surroundings alluded to ancient Egypt?