As fans of FOX’s drama Drive know all too well, the series was cancelled after four episodes. A total of six episodes were completed and the network had planned to air them this Summer. Those broadcasts have now been cancelled but the network says they will be posted online on Monday, July 16th. It’s expected that they will also be made available for download via Amazon.com and iTunes.
Unfortunately, those two final episodes will not resolve the race and will leave viewers with many questions. DriveFans.com recently interviewed executive producers Tim Minear and Craig Silverstein and the two gave a few clues as to what might have been. Keep in mind that, because only six scripts were completed, many ongoing storyline details hadn’t been decided and now never will. Says Minear, “I was so busy trying to address network notes and production concerns that it was hard to get too far ahead.”
One of the major plot points that that was being revealed was that each race participant or team had to have a sponsor to be part of the race. In some cases, the team was aware of the sponsorship and in some cases they were not. Minear offered, “Some of the sponsors would have nefarious/revenge motives for some of the players, others would have more Great Expectations-esque benevolent motives.” Ivy, Leigh, Susan and many of the background teams were included by the race company to simply make the race more interesting. Silverstein says, “Sort of like non-player ‘bots’ in a multiplayer videogame. Imagine the fury when Leigh finds that out.”
Alex Tully and Corinna Wiles (Nathan Fillion and Kristin Lehman) – Alex was a former robbery get-away driver. It would have likely been revealed that his kidnapped wife was part of the plan to force Alex into the race — through all of their courtship and marriage.
New mother Wendy Patrakas and new partner Ivy Chitty (Melanie Lynskey and Taryn Manning) – Wendy’s sponsors would have been revealed to be an older couple who had discovered that the infant child they had adopted years earlier was actually Wendy’s first child (whom she was told had died).
Wendy would have successfully escaped from Ivy (who does not know how to drive) and returned to Ohio to rescue her baby Sam from her abusive husband Richard. Because of something Ivy inadvertently does, Wendy is grabbed by Richard and forced to return home. Ivy has always been very self-centered but goes to Ohio and successfully rescues Wendy and Sam. The two women and the baby would continue in the race together. Ivy would have bonded with Sam and would have ended up sacrificing her life to save him. By the finish, Wendy would have been reunited with her first child.
Step-brothers Winston and Sean Salazar (Kevin Alejandro and J.D. Pardo) – In episode six, it’s revealed that their mutual father Fernando is Winston’s sponsor. We would have learned later that Fernando’s trusted advisor Esteban Masferrer was the real sponsor. It was his plan to use the race to take out Fernando and his sons and then take over the family business.
John Trimble and his daughter Violet (Dylan Baker and Emma Stone) – It would have been revealed that John was his own sponsor in the race. Minear adds, “We would have learned that John Trimble was not really sick — the meds were making him sick. Part of the game of the race. His believing he was a doomed man changed him and made him capable of things he normally would not be capable of. Once he realized that he was not going to die, he’d be instantly hit by a bus, ’cause, funny.”
Friends Susan Chamblee and Leigh Barnthouse (Michael Hyatt and Rochelle Aytes) – In one of the script drafts, Susan’s truck-driving killer was set up to be a faceless serial killer (not unlike the truck driver in the film Duel). In another version, the sociopathic killer would have been played by sexy actress Eliza Dushku (a veteran of Angel, which was executive produced by Minear for a time). Most likely though, the killer in the truck would have been revealed to be a former contestant who had become partially paralyzed in the race and was seeking revenge. Survivor Leigh would have gotten together with Rob at some point in the story.
Army soldier Rob Laird and his wife Ellie (Riley Smith and Mircea Monroe) – It would continue to be revealed that Ellie was not very innocent and was actually quite conniving. She was having an affair with the race’s blue-eyed ground monitor Bill (the real name of Allan James played by Brian Bloom?). AWOL Rob would have turned himself in for a court-martial but Bill would have forced Ellie to break him out of the brig because Rob has a special skill that would have helped them win the race. Minear also wanted to do a storyline in which Rob would be sent to Iraq with his troops and would end up uncovering a race clue in the middle of the desert. He would then be sent back into the race by a high-ranking military official. Rob would return to the states and end up partnered with Leigh — both in the race and romantically.
Other episode ideas that weren’t explored include the racers driving through a vicious storm and the aftermath of a 30 car pile-up. Had Drive continued to a second season, the duo say that there would have been a new race with new players and some of the first season characters would take on new roles in the competition.
Of course, the big question that fans have is “Who would have won the race?” Because the story hadn’t been fully developed (or because he just doesn’t want to tell), Minear would only say “Somebody.” We’ll let you know if we find out more. Stay tuned!
[…] shared some of what the creators said would happen had the show continued (read the article here, it’s pretty interesting). According to Minear and co-creator Craig Silverstein, the show […]
Perhaps a feature film to wrap it up? Like Serenity did for Firefly.
Nathan Fillion is a great character actor who has landed some fantastic roles, just on a bad network.
Wow…
I just finished the six episode ” “Series” “… I must say it is actually a really compelling show – oh well!
I highly doubt they would continue producing it at some stage again?
They just gave away the most interesting parts of each character and most of the plot.
Anyway, was a great show – while it lasted.
I feel like driving really fast now 🙂
I guess now that a lot of truly bad shows are coming on TV, people are looking back to other shows. “Drive” is one that FOX should have given a better time slot to, more advertising, and at least ten episodes in that spot. I guess there’s still hope that it gets picked back up, but not soon. Nathan Fillion is tied up with “Castle.” I think Minear would sacrifice his occasional “Dollhouse” writing to rev the “Drive” engine back up. It would beat the heck out of “Glee”…who comes up with these shows?
I just watched the whole series in 4.5 hours this morning and im really disappointed that Fox chose to cancel this show. How can something succeed when you set it up to fail? I hate you Fox!
This is why I don’t like TV, they finally put a show that isn’t the same out boring reality TV show and then they cancel it for a reality TV show or bring back Deal or No Deal? Seriously, I hate FOX and the only way they can get me to watching FOX is it they would get rid of some of the stupid reality TV shows and and BRING BACK DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hello? anyone on here?
hmm…i guess not.
I LOVED DRIVE!
i wish they could bring it back but it’s most likely a pipe dream. bleh.
hey tim minear: i still wanna know who ‘somebody’ is that wins the race
Drive was wicked
FOX lost my viewing after it was cancelled
terrible decision
such a good plot
so exciting
so dissapointing 🙁
seriously give it another shot! on another network!!!!!!!!!!!!
I loved Drive, it should come back on. I’ll be watching for it.
Why does Fox always need to cancel stuff like this. This show was awesome in so many ways! A great shame!
Another short sighted decision by a network. T
The acting is believable, the script tight, the production is quality, how can it be left to die?
Did its’ cancellation pave the way for more wrestling or some derivative reality show perhance?
Can’t any other network pick this up? I enjoyed it.
WHAT A PURE SHAME!!!
THE IDEA WAS GREAT….IT WAS A LITTLE LIKE “LOST” BUT WITH CARS….LOVED THE PLOT…BAD CHOICE IN DROPPING IT FOX
FOX please finish what you start,while Vanished and Drive had their probelms…trust me airing their final episodes would garner higher ratings than an Adam Sandler flick
I never watch Fox shows because they are always cancelled – its a Catch-22.
Thank you! Thank You! Thank You! It bugs me when networks yank shows without any explanations about what would have happened. Why can’t FOX just wrap things up with a couple more episodes, maybe having enough for a dvd set? People would be interested.