Legend of the Seeker, which kicked off this weekend, stars Bridget Regan, Craig Horner and Bruce Spence. Horner plays Richard, a young guide whose ordinary existence takes a turn for the bizarre when he discovers that he's a Seeker, a figure destined to protect his world, the Midlands, from the encroaching evil of Darken Rahl (Craig Parker). By the prophesied one's side are Kahlan (Regan), a beautiful Confessor with unique magical powers, and Zedd (Spence). Viewers can expect romance, or unconsummated romance, since Kahlan and Richard have the hots for each other but can't act on it, as well as plenty of action, fights and visual effects.

SCI FI Weekly recently spoke with Raimi, Tapert, Regan and Horner. Raimi and Tapert were together on a conference call with reporters, while Regan and Horner took the phone separately for exclusive conversations.Seeker seems much more straightforward than Hercules or Xena. It has less of a camp factor. Will that change as the show goes along?

Tapert: Herc and Xena were never campy, were they?

Raimi: Well, maybe a little.

Tapert: You know, we've gone out of our way working with the directors and the writer, Ken Biller, to take that '90s postmodern aspect out of the show. And it's been a very deliberate attempt to play this as real and urgent. And that's not to take anything away from what happened once with Herc and Xena, but we weren't afraid at that time to embrace what I'm going to call kind of the postmodern aspects of it. And this is trying to be as honest as it can to the book that Terry Goodkind wrote.

Raimi: That's really what we love, is Goodkind's characters and his tone, and so that's what we're going for, which is not at all a tongue-in-cheek tone. And I don't think it'll ever get into that tone. It's really just about telling the stories of these characters and the sacrifices they make for each other. And sometimes it's about the meaning of real friendships. All these [are] stories of the hero's journey.It's been several years since Herc and Xena and Cleopatra 2525. So, why are you coming back to television now?

Raimi: Well, Rob probably has his own answer, but I'll say I just so loved Terry Goodkind's books, and Wizard's First Rule is really just the first in a series. I think he's got 11 books in the series. And they're so gripping and you can't put them down. I just wanted to bring this to the screen, this material to the screen. And I was thinking with Rob and Josh Donen, "Guys, do we make it a movie? Because if we did, even if we just made the first book, we'd have to cut out so much, and that would be terrible." And then we said, "Do we make it as a five-part miniseries? Because then that couldn't touch all the great stories and materials. What will we do?" And it was really Terry Goodkind that decided that he wanted to do it as a television program, a weekly television program, because he felt that we could best relate most of the most important aspects of the series of books to that format. There was enough time to touch on enough of the ideas that it could be more satisfying than the other alternatives. I think in any translation to a film medium or a television medium there's going to be some things lost and some things gained. And I think he knew that. And I don't want to speak for Terry, but I think that he felt that this would be the best chance at retaining the most of the most important aspects of the books. Rob, what do you think? I know I only answered part of that.

Tapert: Oh, I think that's exactly right. Sam came and said, "This is the material that we should be returning to the television business with." And then, as good fortune guides one in these cases, an old executive of ours when we were at Universal doing Hercules and Xena came to us—Ned Nalle—and said Tribune might be able to be convinced to go back into the first-run syndicated action business. And things kind of all fell in place, as they do when they're meant to happen. So it was fortuitous on many fronts.Are you using the book as a starting-off point and heading in different directions from there?

Tapert: No, we're really ... all the stories take place within the universe that Terry Goodkind created, meaning they're moving through the Midlands and they're on their way to get Darken Rahl to prevent him from putting the boxes in place, so to speak. So it really is against the backdrop of the universe that Terry created. And they encounter many of the things that were in the book, but we can ... we have stories at times that our characters stop to fix a wrong that has been created in the Midlands due to Darken Rahl and his minions. So it's always against the original backdrop of the source material.Who's your audience for Legend of the Seeker?

Tapert: Who is our audience? Our audience is people who enjoy fantasy, and if you look at motion pictures, who went to see Lord of the Rings? Who went to see Spider-Man? Who went to see Iron Man? We're entertainment in a broad fashion. It has a heart and soul for people who want to be made to feel through what they watch on television. And it also provides a visceral thrill. It's got big action set pieces. So we're hoping that the audiences who once enjoyed Hercules and Xena, which, although not that same group of people, but that same demographic, would hopefully show up for this, along with people who have clearly demonstrated over the years that there's a huge marketplace in the theatrical world for hero-driven fantasy entertainment.Bridget Regan, Kahlan's relationships, at least early on, will be primarily with Richard and Zedd. Give us a feeling for how she feels toward them ...

Regan: The relationship between Kahlan and Zedd is so cool, because Zedd is a wizard and Kahlan is a Confessor, and in Terry Goodkind's world a wizard always travels with a Confessor to protect her and to use his powers when needed. Because this is at a time when things are really falling apart at the seams and wizards have been killed and Confessors are being sought out and murdered by this evil force, Darken Rahl, Zedd and Kahlan are brought together in a search to find the Seeker, who is Richard. So I think that Kahlan and Zedd have this mutual respect and knowledge of each other's powers, while Richard is learning as he goes what a wizard is, what a Confessor is, and what they can do. So, Bruce and I have really found this cool relationship of just checking each other out all the time and clocking one another and having this sense of knowing. Bruce is just so lovely to work with, and we have this unique, special, almost father-daughter relationship, but at the same time Kahlan and Zedd are equals. We're on equal ground. So it's really quite bizarre, because you have this wonderful 6-foot-7 old man that has all this knowledge, and I'm in this white dress and walking about, and we're in it together.And how about Richard?

Regan: Now, Richard and Kahlan, their relationship is just epic. They have that kind of connection you dream of having with someone, where you'd just do anything for them without blinking an eye. You'd just lay down your life in a heartbeat for them. I want to say it's love, but I think it's deeper than that. It's a connection where they have the same purpose in life, so they're connecting in that sense on their journey to defeat Darken Rahl, but at the same time there's no one she'd rather be doing this with more than Richard. I find that so lovely. Yesterday I was in a dungeon looking through this tiny little window, grasping at his hands. It's like the end of the world, but she's just so happy to see him because she does love him ... even though she can't have him.Take us through that part of the equation. She can't have him, yet in every scene they look as if they're going to jump each other ...

Regan: There's that, too. It's quite tense, and they're walking this very thin line of very strong attraction for each other and having to resist at all times. It is quite taut, this tension, this electricity between the two of them. They get put in situations that add to it. We're sleeping next to each other every night. We're traveling together. They're very physically close together, fighting bad guys together, back to back. You're sweating and you're hot and when you're done you look up at each other, and all you want to do is rip each other's clothes off, but you can't.How are you enjoying working with Craig Horner?

Regan: Craig is great, awesome. The coolest thing about Craig and I is that we both got the jobs, packed our bags, moved to New Zealand and dove into it. And that kind of mirrors Richard and Kahlan, who both have to just go off with each other, say goodbye to their former lives, turn a new page and start this new life with each other. I love that, and Craig and I really have connected in a great way that makes it quite easy to stare at each other all day. And he's easy on the eyes. It's not bad to go to work.We've heard that you haven't met Terry Goodkind, but your family has? Is that true?

Regan: Yes. I haven't talked to Terry. I'm from San Diego, and my parents and sister still live there. They went to Comic-Con this year, and they met Terry Goodkind and Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi and everybody. So I haven't met Terry, but my mom has.Craig Horner, if someone's never heard of Wizard's First Rule, how would you set up the premise of the show for them?

Horner: The fans, they'll have kind of a head start, I guess, because we do remain true to the book in many ways. But for anyone else it's that typical fantasy story. You have a young man who is a normal guy destined for a bigger future. You have the damsel-in-distress princess from a faraway land. You have the funny old wizard who's kind of a father figure. You have the main baddie and the other baddies and goodies. So it's your typical kind of fantasy show.Richard and Kahlan are unmistakably attracted to each other, but they're not allowed to get romantic. Is that a permanent situation, or will they give in to that attraction at some point?

Horner: You know what? Me and Bridget don't know, because we don't get our next episodes until a week or two before. So there's a lot of surprises for us. And that's kind of what's going to be cool about the show; while we're remaining true to the book and keeping the relationships, the characters, settings and the mythology, we're going to take people on new adventures. So, yeah, I really can't tell you. I think there's always going to be a little bit of that [sexual tension]. If and when they do it, we'll just wait and see. I'll find out when you do.Richard will be engaged in fight after fight after fight on the show. How much of that is you, and how much of it is a stuntman?

Horner: Ah, well, OK. I do a lot of my own stunts, because the stunt coordinators plan it out really safely. The way we'll shoot it is if I'm having to fight with another actor we'll shoot my side of it, shoot me with a stunt double and get all of that done, and then, later in the day, because we're on such a tight schedule and we have two major units going, we can have my stunt double, who is a martial-arts double, go and shoot the reverse, over the shoulder. He's amazing. He makes me look so good. He's working almost just as hard as me, because it's a very, very active show. So I've got to go and say all the lines while he's picking up the scenes of traveling on horses and all that stuff. This guy is amazing.