On Thursday afternoon, we got the chance to sit down for roundtable interviews with the cast and producers of some of CBS’s primetime dramas. The lineup consisted of returning shows like Extant, Under the Dome, and Scorpion, as well as the new summer hit Zoo and Limitless, which will be premiering this fall on the network.

During our conversation, we learned more about the new direction Extant is taking this season, touched on torn relationships in Under the Dome, got hints of what’s coming up in Season 2 of Scorpion, became a little more familiar with CBS’s newest hit, Zoo, and were introduced to newcomer Limitless. With so much talent and information, we went ahead and compiled a list of things any fan of these shows will enjoy knowing.

Limitless

• The new show, based on the 2011 film of the same name, will consist of both a serialized and episodic format. Executive producer Craig Sweeny described it as a hybrid and compared its model to shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Shield. Limitless will present an origin story that will serve as an umbrella for the various standalone stories throughout the season.

• The process of adapting the movie into series was definitely challenging. Executive producer Alex Kurtzman knew the film had a very defined style and identity. The challenge was to take the visual tricks from the film and make them different in order to incorporate them into the show.

• Will other characters from the film also appear on the show? The producers joked about wanting Robert DeNiro to reprise his role. “I wrote a scene for that character but it was the first thing we cut,” said Sweeny. As for Bradley Cooper’s presence in the show, Kurtzman said that we’d only see “as much as Bradley Cooper will allow us to let him be seen.”

• The backstory for Cooper’s character was created along with him, once producers knew he’d been part of the series. “He’s been such an integral part of coming up with the role that character is going to play. He’s really jazzed to do more, it’s really time-permitting,” added executive producer Heather Kadin.

• We can expect to see an interesting dynamic between the two main characters of Brian (Jake McDorman) and Agent Boyle (Hill Harper). “There’s a rebellious nature to Brian. He doesn’t like the establishment and now he has to work for that,” said McDorman. He describes his character as fun and a character made up of different shades.

• McDorman noted that Cooper was a big help when it came to understanding his character. The body language had to be keyed in to the way Cooper played his character on the film. “He was a vital resource for me and was so willing to share anything I wanted to pick his brain about,” he said.

Extant Season 2

• Molly (Halle Berry) will be in warrior mode this season. She’s in a position where she has nothing to left to lose. “We wanted to shake things up in the first episode,” said creator and executive producer Mickey Fisher. In terms of where her character is going, expect a lot of revelations and answers to burning questions this season.

• Executive producer Craig Shapiro promised a lot of twists and assured that the mystery behind John’s death will be explained.

• Fisher compared the relationship between Molly and new character JD (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway’s characters in Three Days of the Condor. They will be allies who have a mutual need and will rely heavily on each other. Molly will turn JD’s world upside down and make him realize the universe is not what he thought.

• The storylines of Ethan (Pierce Gagnon) and the alien child came from the idea of family and asks the question of whether humanity can be shown without being necessarily human. “It’s safe to say those two storylines continue to collide and influence each other as we go along,” stated Fisher.

• Shapiro said the storyline of the alien son and the direction that character is taking will surprise viewers. “It’s not where we start in the first few episodes. It turns into something you probably can’t predict right now,” he concluded. He teased that his interaction with other hybrids will change the dynamic and cause things to shift rapidly.

Under the Dome Season 3

• The characters who were cocooned have experienced so much in such a short time that it’s almost like the actors are playing a completely different character. Mike Vogel compares it to someone who has come out of a coma or is suffering from dementia. They will have to reconcile with new resurfacing memories.

• As for Barbie’s relationship with Julia, Vogel said things will be difficult between them. The relationship he had with Eva (Kylie Bunbury) while in the matrix will tear them up. “That’s not to say it stays that way,” he added, giving some hope to Jarbie shippers everywhere. Vogel also teased the possibility of Barbie welcoming a little life into his world this year. Needless to say, it sounds like things will get vastly complicated in the relationship department.

• Colin Ford described his character’s life in the matrix as frustrating. “Coming back into the dome for him is almost like Joe being able to resolve all the things that happened. He mentioned that he will need to figure out what’s going on for him and Norrie next.

Scorpion Season 2

• Season 2 will have a lot of action and adventure, relationships and humor. Robert Patrick mentioned a new dynamic between Gallo and Walter. “I think he knows genuinely that I deep down inside love him very much and would take a bullet for him,” he said, describing their reestablished trust. Patrick describes his character as the kind of father he’d want to be in real life.

• Eddie Kaye Thomas said he’s surprised of how many fans are interested in the relationship aspect of the show. That’s not to say he’s not rooting for Quinntis. “I want more kissing scenes,” he added, referring to the romance between his character Toby and Jadyn Wong’s character of Happy. Thomas is optimistic about the direction of the romantic relationship between them, even though geniuses have a hard time expressing emotions.

• Wong said her character’s hesitation to being in a relationship with Toby is the absence of role models in her life and not knowing what makes up a healthy relationship.

• As for Walter (Elyes Gabel) and Paige (Katharine McPhee), Thomas said the feelings those two characters have for each other will be a prominent theme in the first episode of the second season. “They’re having these feelings but they’re smart enough to know that it’s not a good idea.” Thomas also noted that the internal conflict that arises makes for great TV.

• The group will be coming together fairly quickly but every relationship will be in a different place. Each relationship will also be explored in a much deeper level than it was last year. Viewers can expect to see characters who didn’t share much screen time in Season 1 to work together this time around.

• Executive producer Nicholas Wootton said the cases they will be focusing on in Season 2 will be very similar to the first season but with new elements. They like to play with the idea of technology being helpful but also very hurtful at times. “There’s so many ways it can be used against us. There are episodes that are purely technological and some that tug at your heart strings,” he concluded.

Zoo

• The show and the book will diverge, sooner rather than later. The massive time jump that occurs in the book will not be touched on in the first season. Executive producer Jeff Pinkner said the aftermath and post apocalyptic part of the book will take place next season.

• The scene with the cats in the tree came from the producers’ love of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. They knew they had to put the idea forward that animals live among us and we have no idea what they’re really thinking. Including domestic animals in the mix makes things even creepier. Pinkner added that the scenes with wild animals on the show are 70/30 real.

• The New Orleans film commission and the wild animals film commission have a list of animals you can and can’t use for filming. Over the course of the season, they allowed them to use animals they normally would not have allowed. “They actually changed their laws for us,” Pinkner noted.

• James Wolk, who plays Jackson Oz, said that we’ll be learning a lot more from each of the characters’ past. “You’re going to find out more about Chloe’s (Nora Arnezeder) past, Jamie’s (Kristen Connolly) past with her mother, and Mitch’s (Billy Burke) family.” Wolk also expressed his excitement for us to meet some of the more colorful characters who will be appearing on the show later this season.

• As for a romantic angle between Jackson and Chloe, both actors remained tight-lipped. “We cannot say. We don’t want to give that away. But these two people are bonded together,” Wolk said, mentioning their shared life and death experience with the lions.

• Arnezeder’s challenges went past just having to work with animals. She stated that English is not her first language and having to learn all those lines in such a short amount of time proved to be difficult. She credited her costar, Wolk, for helping her out.

• Connolly said she relates to the stubbornness of her character and Burke said the only thing he has in common with Mitch is the fact that they’re both smart asses. They got the opportunity to shoot with a variety of wild animals and were constantly surprised by how well-behaved and trained they were. “They were more professional than we were,” joked Connolly.

• Fans of Revolution will be happy to learn that Burke has read the four issues of the comics and is pleased with the end result. “They were very well done and it was a nice gesture of the producers to give that back to the fans. I never had that much of an idea of what was going on at any given time when we were doing that show, and it actually helped me understand more.”