Hawaii Five-0 interview: EP on Magnum PI crossover, possible future installments
CarterMatt recently spoke to executive producer Peter M. Lenkov and he took us through the process of planning out both episodes, plus finding the right tone for the event, a big moment for Tani and Higgins, and also whether we could see more coming up.
CarterMatt – What was the process like for planning this out? I know you’ve been getting the story together for a while.
Peter M. Lenkov – Honestly, the hardest part of the whole thing was trying to figure out how to keep the majority of the actors in their respective shows while still doing the crossover at the same time. Even though it’s a short trip from one set to another, it was still hard. We were shooting an episode of Magnum at the same time we were shooting Five-0. We needed the actors in two places at the same time and it was difficult.
It was difficult on them, but I have to hand it to all of them for being great troopers and doing the job without any complaints. They knew that it was important for the universe to do this.
I know that in my head, I’ve pictured scenes with McGarrett and Magnum together. Were there moments where you thought ‘okay, I need a scene with this character and this other character together’ while planning this out?
Yeah. There were scenes that I knew needed to be written. I think anyone who watches the show, or even writes fanfiction, would probably have similar ideas as to what scenes they’d want to see these characters in. There may be some surprises, but some won’t be surprises. It’s almost wish fulfillment for certain scenes.
What was the approach to planning the story? Were you making it just about fun moments with different characters, or making it action-heavy? You tend to cross genres often, especially with Five-0.
I wanted to make sure that each show kept to its respective tone. Five-0 is more of an action and Magnum is more of a detective show. I wanted to make sure that those tones were still respected, but that we brought a little bit of that flavor to each different show.
Also, I wanted to ensure that Magnum on Five-0 would experience some of that action, whereas our Five-0 characters in Magnum would experience some of that detective work.
I gotta ask about one little line in the synopsis for the crossover, since it seems like Tani and Higgins are going to be having an interesting conversation, and Higgins will be giving her some advice. Can you speak to anything with that?
Before Higgins came to the island, she was in a workplace relationship with somebody that we explored last year. Tani could be on the verge of a workplace relationship, so that’s where I’d say the advice comes from.
Finally, after going through all of the planning process for this, is it something that you’d like to do every year?
I’d love to do it more often, for sure. It was a lot of fun — the characters blended really well and are very believable in each other’s worlds. The universes coexist and I think we did that, day one, by including people like Noelani and Kamekona. It’s very believable that these two entities are working together at the same time on the island. It wouldn’t be surprising to anyone if they ran into each other more often.
Related News – Watch a sneak peek from the crossover featuring Higgins and Tani
What do you want to see the most on the Hawaii Five-0 – Magnum PI crossover?
Be sure to let us know in the comments! Meanwhile, remember to stick around in the event you do want some other insight on the series. (Photo: CBS.)