'Chuck': Josh Schwartz on beloved series returning

Cult action comedy Chuck ended its five-season NBC run on Jan. 27, 2012. In the final moments, electronics store clerk-turned-superspy Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) attempted to reignite the memory of amnesia-plagued Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) with a kiss, but viewers never saw the resolution. With similarly beloved series Veronica Mars being revived as a movie through a Kickstarter campaign, EW called up series co-creator Josh Schwartz to see if there would be any chance for Chuck fans to see a return to Buy More.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Do you guys ever toss around the idea of bringing Chuck back?

JOSH SCHWARTZ: It certainly came up after the Veronica Mars news surfaced and all of a sudden that being a viable thing. What it really comes down to is what is the story you want to tell. I know in the case of Veronica Mars, they had a whole plan for that fourth season that they didn’t get. So the story was not complete. Whatever it is, you want the chance to tell that story.

We were very fortunate with Chuck. As much as we always felt the end was coming, we did get five seasons of the show and an opportunity to tell a lot of story. So I think for myself and Chris Fedak, I think we’d really wanna make sure we had the right story to tell and felt like we were doing it because “Oh my God this Chuck movie is going to be amazing!” That’s the test. Does it feel like you must do this because the audience is going to love this new take?

The thing that was so great was that you left off on a cliffhanger. So it would be easy to pick up where you ended.

You’re starting off with a question to answer certainly, and it’s a spy story so there’s always a new a mission, there’s always a new bad guy, there’s always a new need for Chuck to save the day.

If there was a new iteration of Chuck, have you thought about what the next story would be?

We haven’t really. We ended the show. We felt really good about where we ended it. Some of the audience wanted a little more closure, but you always wanna leave something left to the imagination of the viewer. We haven’t yet sat down to say, “OK, if we were going to really do this, what would it be?” I think Zach Levi has some ideas and he’s an imaginative guy and a real storyteller.

What is the possibility of this happening?

I mean, you’re talking me into it right now.

Would you be interested in doing it?

Never say never. I’m very proud of the show. Obviously our fans were an incredible part of the show. We wouldn’t have been able to tell as much story as we did if it wasn’t for those fans eating all those sandwiches!

Do you still get Chuck fans coming up to you?

I do. What’s funny for me is Chuck fans are the hardest to peg down. I can spot a Gossip Girl fan a mile away. But Chuck fans are very unpredictable bunch. It’s as much female as it is male and families and kids who watched it with their parents and parents who got to share that time with their kids. So it has a surprisingly diverse fanbase.

If you could bring it back, what would be the ideal format? A web series? A movie?

I guess you gotta go movie, right? Although the Marvel/Netflix model is really interesting. Maybe we’d do it Avengers style where you follow Sarah and Chuck on a mission, you’ve got Casey on a mission, you’ve got Jeffster on tour, and then the final season is everyone gets together.

And Ellie could be in Chicago?

Sure, you’ve got your medical story with Captain Awesome.

You’d have to find a way to fit in Chuck’s mom, Linda Hamilton.

She’ll come swooping into the Chuck/Sarah storyline. And she can also then cross into the Ellie/Captain Awesome storyline to take care of the kids. The Jeffster would obviously be too racy for networks, so it would have to be Netflix or cable.

So much sex, drugs, and rock and roll — or none at all.

Exactly. Sex, drugs, and keytar.

To find out whether more of your favorite cult TV shows — including Firefly, Party Down, and The Comeback — will be revived, pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on stands Friday, Feb. 14.