In Christopher Chance’s second chance at TV stardom (the first one was a 1992 adaptation with Rick Springfield), Mark Valley (“Fringe”) stars as the reckless DC Comics character. Here, we take aim at exec producer Jon Steinberg.

GCD: What was your goal in adapting this character again for TV?

Steinberg: We wanted to create an action hero that we would wanna watch every week and then be able to put him in any number of action movies every week. It was a little bit of Riggs from “Lethal Weapon,” Indiana Jones and John McClane [from “Die Hard”] and a mixed a cocktail of all of those guys that we grew up loving.

GCD: Is the Danny Glover cameo in the pilot a conscious nod to that genre?

Steinberg: It was an extremely conscious nod. We bent over backwards to figure out a way to get him in it.

 
GCD: Would Rick Springfield, the Human Target from the ‘90s adaptation, ever guest star?

Steinberg: You never know. Anything is possible. That was the other thing we wanted to make sure that we accomplished with Danny [Glover] in the pilot, was that you never know who’s going to show up in this show. We’re all about fun guest casting here.

 

GCD: You’ll be answering this question 50.000 times, but why did you leave out Chances’ elaborate usage of disguises which is indicative of the character?

Steinberg: Well, the obvious answer is we wanted to create a character that was going to be the reason you came back every week. It’s very difficult to do that when it’s a sort of chorus of persons. The other thing was—a sort of personal confession—I never quite bought it. In a graphic novel, I totally buy it. The art form helps to sell the conceit but as soon as it becomes [live action], I feel like there’s a trigger somewhere in the back of your head that tells you that’s not real.

 

GCD: Did you consult with the co-creators of the original character, Len Wein and Carmine Infantino?

Steinberg: Early on we didn’t. I mean, the pilot process is a bit of a gauntlet so it was really just about “Let’s figure out a way to do the show and do it the best way we can.” But recently we’ve been talking to Len Wein and it’s been nice to be able to take a bit of a leap with something and then to finally land and have everybody who was involved with the original say, “Yeah, that kind of makes sense. It works.”

 

GCD: Are there any other clear factual parallels between the comic and the show?

Steinberg: [The train setting in the pilot] was a bit of an homage. His introduction in Action Comics [#419 in 1972] was with the assassin on the train and so we kind of wanted to make sure we started in the same place.