‘Revenge’ Boss on Jack’s and Amanda’s Future, Season 5’s Scrapped Storyline and a Nolan Spinoff

[Warning: Spoilers ahead if you haven’t seen Sunday’s series finale of Revenge, titled “Two Graves.”]

Amanda Clarke’s quest for revenge is over.

Amanda (Emily VanCamp) sailed off into the sunset — literally — with new husband Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler), having finally defeated her nemesis, Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe), after the latter was shot and killed by Amanda’s father, David Clarke (James Tupper). (Read the full recap here.)

But despite Amanda’s seemingly happily ever after, there are still burning questions following Sunday night’s series finale. Who was Victoria’s father? Could there ever be a Nolan spinoff? Did Amanda really get Victoria’s heart?! The Hollywood Reporter spoke to showrunner Sunil Nayar on Monday to get some answers.

Does Amanda really have Victoria’s heart? Was that truly a dream?

I love that people are asking the question. It’s quite clear that Emily is having nightmares about it. One of the things the show has always done is shown so many nightmares and memories grounded in reality. I’m embracing the debates, and I’ll never say.

So that leads to my next question: Are she and Charlotte truly good with each other now?

They are; they really did make peace with each other. That’s why we put Charlotte there at David’s grave with [Amanda]. It’s part of the amends that needed to be made. That was one of the benefits of the time-jump we did at the end of the season.

Let’s talk about that ending, specifically with respect to Nolan and his newfound purpose. You previously told THR that the next season would have “set up a new Revenge.” What was the plan going forward had the show been picked up for a fifth season?

One of the things we liked about this was it promised a new story that ideally wasn’t going to be Hamptons-based. Nolan [Gabriel Mann] has very much become his own man. He was having normal, healthy, good relationships and wasn’t tainted by the revenge-y stuff. In the finale, he stood on his own two feet [with White Gold] without Amanda’s help. In a Better Call Saul way, we had the luxury of a character like Nolan and an actor like Gabriel who could carry the story forward. Some things had to be cut out of the series finale because we ran out of time, but the audience would have come to learn that Louise was planning to build an estate where Grayson Manor was and put roots in the Hamptons, Charlotte was attending NYU and getting her life together — we were putting people in their places where it was almost like getting the gang back together, but the gang feels so different now.

Many viewers are calling for a Nolan spinoff. Had you talked to ABC about that at any point? And is there any chance of that happening now?

Honestly, there was no talk pre- the finale of the show; we only found out a week and a half ago that it was going off the air and ABC [executives] were watching the pilots [in contention for a 2015-16 season pickup]. But fans love the idea, and I’ve heard that Gabriel is embracing the idea.

What about Amanda and Jack? Would they have been part of the revamped Revenge alongside Nolan?

Yeah they would have existed in this world, and all three of them would have been part of the storytelling going forward.

Were Jack and Amanda going to have their happily ever after? Do they? I don’t see Amanda content with normal, everyday domestic life.

It’s interesting, isn’t it? Trying to think about what that looks like. They are so connected, but neither of them has ever had anything approaching a normal life. And the fact that the two of them are one of the most famous couples in the world right now changes the nature of that. It would have been a fun question to answer: What does daily life for Amanda and Jack look like? I don’t think either of them would have been happy chilling out for too long.

Looking back, do you wish you’d gotten Jack and Amanda together sooner?

I don’t. I think it was fun to play off the nature of their star-crossedness. After we knew they both wanted each other, it was fun to live with a couple of episodes before they got together. We didn’t want to rush putting them together.

We never learned Margaux’s ultimate fate. What happened to her?

The implication and the reality is that she waited there with White Gold and got caught and confessed to the heinous things she’d done. For Margaux, it was the only way to atone for what she’d done and to become the honest woman she knew herself to be. It was a dramatic moment, and Karine Vanasse‘s performance was so moving. She’d been a villain for the second half of the season, so in an intense way we see the repercussions of that.

So she’s sitting in prison somewhere?

Yeah she’s in her orange jumpsuit and maybe using some of the things she’d picked up from Amanda but probably not having the best time.

Amanda got revenge against a lot of people who are still living and probably very angry. Would we have seen any of them resurface in a fifth season to get their own revenge? Someone like Mason Treadwell?

I wouldn’t be surprised, had the show gone forward, that would have been the kind of things we would have discussed — especially Mason, who was such a delicious villain to go up against. But as we got [to the end] of telling our stories, we didn’t want to continue the conversation because it would have been too sad.

There is some confusion over who was Victoria’s father. Madeleine Stowe told THR earlier today that it was indeed Maxwell, her mother’s boyfriend, and not Jimmy Brennan, the man who raped her and the father of Patrick. Can you confirm that?

Yes it was Maxwell.

How long ago did you decide that?

It was something that came up in a discussion about where to take Victoria’s story. Madeleine brought it up — “Are you ever going to answer that question?” — and it was a moment of inspiration that we ended up there. This was really the final answer we were looking for in Victoria’s story. Her mother’s deathbed confession took it to a dark, salacious level.

Last week, you said you wouldn’t have done anything differently had you know this was going to be a series finale instead of a season finale. Are you still of that mind-set?

Totally. It’s also just weird knowing that it has aired and there exists a kind of peace that comes with it. Sure, people are divided about some things we did, and some loved it and some hated it. But from where the show wanted to end up and needed to end up, we really produced a [satisfying] series finale. To all the fans of the show and the people like you who continue writing about it, I am hugely grateful; you kept us excited to tell stories every week and kept us on the air for 89 episodes. I’m very grateful.