The Endgame: Series premiere postmortem with showrunner Nicholas Wootton

WARNING: Spoilers below for the premiere episode of The Endgame.

Elena Federova (Morena Baccarin) has arrived!

The Endgame series premiere moved at the speed of light as the criminal mastermind's complex plan was set in motion. From the reveal about her aims to take down corrupt government officials, her takeover of seven New York City banks, and the shocker that she was the one who framed Agent Val Turner's (Ryan Michelle Bathe) husband, landing him in jail, Elena's planning is clearly meticulous. What remains unclear is exactly why she's doing all of this, and where Val fits in.

To get an idea of what's ahead, we spoke to showrunner Nicholas Wootton about the pilot and Elena's twisty master plan.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Elena spends the entire pilot in one room. Can you talk about Morena Baccarin's captivating performance as the criminal mastermind?

NICHOLAS WOOTTON: It's an interesting trick and it really relies enormously on Morena. The episode is about Elena and Val, but it's orchestrated by Elena. Morena has this magnetism where you want to know more, and that was the plan. It relied on her, her outfit, her look and all of this stuff to build curiosity. You want to know who this person is. We were very cognizant of the fact that she's going to be sitting in that room the whole time and viewers are asking themselves how is she going to get out of it because we want to establish that it's a big part of the series. We'll do flashbacks going forward and we do see her in the world in flashbacks significantly going. Then at a certain point she will be out in the world.

Val is determined to take Elena down, but also has a complex standing within the FBI. How does that pose a problem for her at work?

Very significantly. Her position at work, with her husband, her moral position is the journey Val goes on in the series. She's going to be shown a lot of flaws to the system she's loyal to. What the show is to her is coming to a different understanding about her position at work and the people around her. She'll be exploring the gray areas as the series goes on.

[Val] will also have the head of the FBI, Rogelio Réal [Mark D. Espinoza], as an ally going forward along with Anthony [Jordan Johnson-Hinds]. Réal is going to be someone who will understand that Val may not have the rank she once did, but at the end of the day, she has more information and is the one who was brought into the situation by [Elena]. He gives her certain latitude and that is going to cause friction with the assistant director going forward.

Anthony and Val have a conversation about her growing up around cops and criminals. What can you share about how much The Endgame will dive into Val's background?

That is absolutely a big part of the show. Showing you who Val is and why she has the belief system she does. We will come to understand the background of that and how her mother's murder becomes a big part of the story going forward. It's all tied in. We will definitely see lots of Val's background and life to balance out Elena's side of it because it's about why Val is so righteous and determined and driven. That's going to be revealed.

Are the heists at the bank a main fixture of the series, or we will see different parts of Elena's organization throughout the season? What is the format of The Endgame?

It's a mix. For the first couple episodes there will be a takedown-of-the-week because it gives us structure. Each one of these episodes will have Elena talk someone down and give us another piece of Elena's plan. It all goes towards the larger scheme and each of these people started off in one degree of status and importance of the world, but by the end they're in a very different place.

In the pilot we see the Attorney General, Homeland Secretary and the head of the FBI. Elena says at the end of the pilot that the Homeland Secretary is next, and that's very true in the second episode as the next "case of the week." Then what you'll see in episode 4 is there is a unifying principle among all of these people who are being targeted and that this is not random. It's not just baddies, they all did something very specific and it's part of the revelation of the series going forward.

Elena says she framed Val's husband Owen, then we discover her husband Sergey (Costa Ronin) is actually alive and with Owen in prison. What's next for them?

Owen is a very significant part of this story. You'll see a lot of him going forward.

Elena knows [Sergey] is alive. He's in prison with Owen and they have a part to play in Elena's plan, which is ultimately to find a sort of serenity with herself, her husband and their daughter. It's going to take this larger plan before that's possible, given the backstory, the world they live in. So yeah, both of them are definitely a big part of it.

Elena mentions Val will join a partnership. What can you tease about what she wants from Agent Turner?

The overall plan requires Val become an ally, and what she's doing is bringing her to Elena's understanding of the world. When we come to the end, you'll see how she tries to bring Val over to her understanding so she can pull off her final move. So it's recruitment, but also sort of an attempt at a philosophical shift in her viewpoint of the world.

What inspired the twist in Elena's origin story and how does it impact what comes next?

The twist was inspired by what we're going for thematically in terms of how the show is going to lay out going forward. If you think you're looking at one thing then there's some sleight of hand. It's so much more fun to play with expectations in terms of revealing the pieces, is something [executive producer] Justin [Lin] and I were thinking. You think this show is about a bad guy, but you don't know that this is actually a sympathetic character. That twist is sort of the show in microcosm.

What's next for her bank heists?

Each bank has a significance that will be revealed. We won't see every bank every episode, but we will [narrow in on] one specific thing for a number of these episodes and show how they relate to the overall bigger picture.

In another episode, one of the hostages is put in an airtight bank vault which is slowly losing air and we get to know her better. There's a whole storyline about who this person is and as the episode goes on hopefully we'll get to her in time. I hope we do, I'm not quite sure yet. So you do get to know some of the people inside not necessarily our focal point, but we do have some instances where that is.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

The Endgame airs Mondays at 10pm ET on NBC.

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