David Giuntoli talked to TV Insider about the season 5 finale that was full of action and shocking moments, and delivered a preview of what’s to come on Grimm and his new role on the show. Source: TV Insider
Take a sneak peek at the TVLine article. (Beware for Spoilers from season finale. Do not read if you have not watched the two-hour season finale episodes 5×21 and 5×22 “The Beginning of the End, Parts 1 and 2”)
Hey, it ain’t every day that your mortal enemy saves your life. NBC’s Grimm ended its fifth season with a shock-a-minute finale that found Black Claw leader Conrad Bonaparte (Shaun Toub) performing a horrifying mind meld on detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli), only to be stabbed to death with a sword by his cohort in crime, Sean Renard (Sasha Ruiz). Giuntoli broke it all down for us, and delivered a tantalizing and (grab your hankies, Grimmsters) pretty sad preview of things to come.
That was a killer season finale!
[Laughs] Literally. That was some crazy s—t!Bonaparte has met his demise, but is this like an ISIS sort of thing? Cut off the head of the snake and another one will grow in its place?
This whole season has been an ISIS story, but I think the show is going to be moving away from Black Claw and on to a new direction where it will be much more about the core characters. Renard is going to be the big bad in Season 6. We’ll focus more on him and his rise to power and what that means. I don’t know this for absolute sure, but that’s the word on the street.What’s Nick thinking when he realizes Renard has saved his life? He has no idea Adalind’s daughter made it happen with her voodoo doll.
Oh, not at all. There’s a pattern of behavior with Renard that’s well established by now. Renard is in love with himself and with power, so when he slays Bonaparte Nick isn’t going to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’s probably thinking “Am I next?” Or maybe, “Is Renard trying to use me for something here?” But in a way what happened isn’t so surprising. If Renard is so incredibly power hungry, why wouldn’t he stab the head of Black Claw in the back?You seem to be pretty confident about the direction of next season, much more so than in the past. What’s up with that?
Well, for one thing, I’m going to direct for the first time next season, so I’m a little more in the loop. It’ll be the first episode after we return from hiatus, though we’re shooting out of order so it will air as our third episode. [Laughs] Weirdly enough, they don’t trust me to do the season premiere!What took you so long to make the move into directing?
I’ve been working my way toward it. I wrote and produced a film called Buddy Moon that opens in theaters July 1. I did it with a guy Flula Borg, who’s this German D.J. who is just crazy and hilarious. You will love this guy! A very cool actor. So that kept me very busy and, the truth is, it’s really hard to direct a series when you are also the lead. Directing takes two full weeks of prep time and I rarely ever have a day off. So it’s just impossible, really, unless you direct the first episode of the season. Also, it took me five seasons of observation to even feel capable enough to say, “OK, I got this!” But the opportunity is just irresistible.What about that 13-episode renewal? What should the fans be reading into that?
First off, we don’t know the exact episode count for Season 6. We know we have 13 for sure but it could end up being between 15 and 18. What should you read into that? I would imagine this will be our last season. In network TV, six seasons seems to be what hit shows generally run. We’ve also heard we might do two more shortened seasons. But either way, we’re getting to the end. Nothing lasts forever. But here’s the exciting thing about that: Our writers will be able to give us a really cool ending. We have time to wrap it up in a wonderful, perfect way, for all of our characters. We will go out big and we will go out strong.