Writer/actor Felicia Day made the trek to the 2023 San Diego Comic-Con in support of her fantasy adventure audio series Third Eye, debuting on Audible on October 5, 2023. The seven-hour audio series stars Day as Laurel Pettigrew, a not-so-ordinary San Francisco resident who was supposed to rid the world of the evil Tybus. Unfortunately, Laurel couldn’t fulfill her destiny.
Audible offers this description: “Now, instead of being a legendary hero, Laurel’s the resident pariah of the magic realm. And what’s worse, the dark wizard Tybus swooped in, took over the realm, and forced all supernatural creatures to live under his tyrannical rule. He’s even stripped away the magical powers of those who refused to join his wicked cause. Yeah, everyone hates her. Well, everyone except her two roomies—Sybil, the sassiest diva of a fairy, who could throw shade with the flick of a wing. And Frank, the vampire who rocks a bald spot and a serious paunch. They are the real MVPs, the ride-or-die buddies who have her back, no matter how many colossal fails she racks up.”
During our Comic-Con interview, Day explained that Third Eye was originally conceived as a TV show she wanted to star in, but that never came to fruition. “But when I got the opportunity to approach Audible, and they wanted to do this as an Audible Original, I was so thrilled,” said Day. “I think it turned out exactly the way I wanted. Probably better and more realized from my mind than it would have ever done as a TV show because they were just supportive of everything that I wanted to do from the get-go.”
Asked where the idea for Third Eye came from, Day said, “I was driving around Los Angeles one day and I saw these Cash for Gold shops, and I was like, ‘Just how much gold is there out there that will pay these guys’ rent?’ So, I was just like, ‘What if there are dwarves back there melting it down for their purposes?’ And then I just started seeing places that could be fronts for supernatural worlds or supernatural people who live amongst us. That was kind of one of the impetuses for it.”
Day continued: “And then the other was I wanted to talk about a failed prodigy. I like taking things that people are familiar with and turn them on their head a little bit. And a chosen one who failed – I haven’t seen that. How do you live with yourself when you fail everyone, and life is crap because of you? I kind of wanted to just explore that.”
Transforming the original idea from a television series to an Audible series allowed more opportunities to open up this epic fantasy world and bring it to life. It also gave her the ability to cast everybody she wanted. Day gathered an incredibly talented cast to bring her seven-hour audio series to life, including London Hughes, Wil Wheaton, Sean Astin, Neil Gaiman, LilyPichu, Christopher Judge, Carolyn Seymour, Laraine Newman, Danny Pudi, and Alan Tudyk.
“Getting them all at once to be in something, at this high-profile level of talent, would have been really impossible,” explained Day.
Day writes with actors in mind when she’s creating characters, and Wil Wheaton’s part was written specifically for him. “He was my ideal, and thank goodness he could do it,” said Day.
However, Day wasn’t sure who should provide the voice of her character’s best friend, Sybil, and it was director Jonah Ray who suggested London Hughes. 15 seconds of watching Hughes’ stand-up confirmed Ray was right.
“It was like light from the heaven,” said Day. “She is so perfect for this role, and she brought so much to it.”
London Hughes joined Felicia Day and director Jonah Ray at the 2023 San Diego Comic-Con and spoke about getting into her character, Sybil the Fairy, in Third Eye. Asked what she fell in love with about Sybil, Hughes laughed and replied, “I saw a lot of myself in her, and that was easy to fall in love with!”
“She’s so funny, so feisty, but she’s also very loyal. We have the same traits. It was very easy to bring her to life. I did not worry…I wasn’t thinking, ‘Would she say this? Yes.’ If I would say it, Sybil would say it. So, yeah, it was a great experience,” explained Hughes.
Third Eye deals with supernatural creatures residing on Earth, and Hughes offered a surprise suggestion of what sort of supernatural being she’d like to know exists. “Oh god, an emotionally intelligent man. That would be great! I would love that – emotionally intelligent, emotionally available. You know, just a nice, good-looking man – a nice husband for me. That would be the supernatural creature I want on Earth. It doesn’t exist right now, so, yeah, that’s what I’m looking for,” laughed Hughes.
Hughes enjoyed the entire experience, describing Third Eye as a dream project. Hughes thinks fans will become obsessed with the characters and get addicted to the audio series.
“The characters are so deep. There’s so much backstory. Felicia’s put so much work into the world. I want them to fall in love with us, fall in love with the world. And then it would be very cool if just while they were driving, they were like, ‘Oh, could dwarves own a Cash for Gold shop? Could that be real?’
Look, the world is hard enough right now as it is. We all need a bit of escapism, a bit of imagination and fun. This does that. It transports you to another world in a way that watching a movie couldn’t because it’s so…it envelops all your senses, especially with all the sound effects,” said Hughes.
Hughes added: “I really hope they become as addicted to the show as I am and that it turns into a world-wide global franchise, and there are theme parks all over the world. That’s what I hope happens!”
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