Utopia cast present epic deleted scene, tease season 2 possibilities at New York Comic-Con panel

Utopia arrived on Amazon Prime last month with all eight of its episodes at once, but that doesn't necessarily mean the story's over. When the cast — John Cusack, Rainn Wilson, Sasha Lane, Ashleigh LaThrop, Dan Byrd, Desmin Borges, and Cory Michael Smith — assembled for a New York Comic-Con panel alongside showrunner Gillian Flynn (Sharp Objects) and moderator Danielle Turchiano, they teased some ideas that could be played out in a potential season 2. On top of that, they also showed an epic, extended scene that was cut from the season finale.

The clip finds LaThrop's Becky meeting up with a shady billionaire known only as "Tallman" (Dustin Ingram). Becky's goal from the beginning of Utopia has been to find a cure for her mysterious disease, but she hasn't been successful. So Tallman offers her a prodigious supply of the pills she needs, if she will only give him Utopia.

You see, unlike comics collectors who prize #1 issues, Tallman wants final issues. He lists a few examples — Death of Superman, Age of Apocalypse, Crisis on Infinite Earths — that comics fans will recognize not as final issues per se (all of those characters and stories have since been revived in ongoing books) but as depictions of apocalypse. He has a spot reserved for Utopia, but at the moment of truth, Becky walks out on him — and watches him pour her pills in a fish tank as her reward. Tallman pursues her after she leaves, but promptly gets killed by Jessica Hyde (Lane).

"I was thrilled by it, and surprised by it since she seems like the last person capable of it, but it's great because it makes her more complex," LaThrop said of Becky almost betraying her friends. "She's after Utopia to save her life, she makes that very clear. She says that to Ian in the beginning, 'I'm not as nice as everyone thinks I am.'"

Flynn explains that, despite the scene's action-packed nature, it ultimately didn't fit in with the rest of the final act of the season. But she also said that "it's definitely a possibility" that Becky might flirt with betrayal again down the line.

"As Becky gets more and more jeopardized by this disease, it's an idea I'd like to keep playing with for sure," Flynn said.

Of course, the biggest question about a potential season 2 is whether we'll finally get to see Jessica's beloved father, who still remains unseen despite a tease from Dr. Kevin Christie (Cusack) that he might not be everything Jessica imagines him to be.

"In that final scene between Christie and Jessica, he throws out some pretty dark implications that ‘your dad didn’t love you’ and ‘he kept in your little yellow house,' i.e. cage. Whenever I watch that scene, it hurts me," Flynn said. "So dad’s got some explaining to do, number one. I’m hoping for a season 2, and I already know the entire backstory of what that is. I think there’s a lot of fun to be had. Whereas in season 1 her dad is a mythological creature, like all dads he is just human and has his issues."

Turchiano wrapped up the panel by asking if the cast had any stunt-casting ideas for an actor to play Daddy Hyde. LaThrop, for one, suggested Andrew Scott. Will the internet's beloved hot priest become a hot dad as well? Only time will tell.

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