CW’s highly anticipated drama, Beauty and The Beast, promises to be one of the exciting new shows to premiere this fall. This weekend at Comic-Con, we had a chance to sit down with series executive producers/co-showrunners Brian Peterson and Kelly Souders to talk about their role in bringing the series to television. Peterson and Souders have been writing and producing partners for over a decade after they first met at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Both served as showrunning executive producers on the Emmy award-winning Smallville.

At a roundtable interview, they told us what attracted them to the story, how it evolved from the 80’s cult-classic CBS show that inspired it, how the look of the show is sleek but still retains a gothic undertone, how 9/11 was chosen to be part of the Beast’s backstory to appeal to a modern audience, and why it was exciting to explore the relationship between two very strong-willed and physically capable characters. They also compared Kristin Kruek’s character, Lana, in Smallville to her new character, Catherine, in Beauty and The Beast. Finally, they discussed the challenges of adapting the BATB story for the modern information age of Google, Facebook and Twitter and finding fun ways for two people to connect while retaining the mystery of their characters.  Check out our recap of the Beauty and the Beast panel and hit the jump for the interview.