Here’s the latest from the world of Dollhouse - including the official promo photos and press release for episode 2.02, news of a new cast member joining the show, and more, below the jump (spoiler alert):

Here are the official promotional images for Dollhouse Season 2 episode “Instinct”:

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[FOX]

Thanks to wiesengrund in the comments for letting me know that “Instinct” will air as the second episode of the new season.  (corrected above).

And here is the “Instinct” press release:

ECHO’S MATERNAL INSTINCTS KICK INTO OVERDRIVE ON “DOLLHOUSE” FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, ON FOX

When Echo is imprinted as a mother with a newborn baby, she takes too strongly to motherhood as a result of Topher’s modifications. Meanwhile, Adelle pays November a visit, and Perrin ramps up his investigation into the Rossum Corporation in the “Instinct” episode of DOLLHOUSE airing Friday, Oct. 2 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. (TV-14 L, V)

Cast: Eliza Dushku as Echo; Tahmoh Penikett as Paul Ballard; Olivia Williams as Adelle DeWitt; Harry Lennix as Boyd Langton; Fran Kranz as Topher Brink; Enver Gjokaj as Victor; Dichen Lachman as Sierra

Guest Cast: Miracle Laurie as November/Madeline; Alexis Denisof as Senator Daniel Perrin; Kristoffer Polaha as Nate Jordan; Stacey Scowley as Cindy Perrin.

Dollhouse features in the new SOFOX fall promo:

There’s news of another new addition to the Dollhouse cast -- Repear‘s Ray Wise joins the show, as reported by Digital Spy:

Former Reaper star Ray Wise has landed a role on the second season of Dollhouse, says Entertainment Weekly.
The 62-year-old actor, who played Lucifer for two years on The CW series, has reportedly been lined up for a recurring role on the Joss Whedon drama.
Wise’s previously television credits include Twin Peaks,24and Psych.

Jamie Bamber and Keith Carradine have also signed on to appear in the second season of Dollhouse, which premieres Friday, September 25 on Fox.

Dollhouse scoop from EW:

Question: What can you tell us about Summer Glau’s character Bennett on Dollhouse? —Derrick
Ausiello: She’s not some lowly Dollhouse employee — she’s a chief programmer like Topher! Speaking of D’house, the new Entertainment Weekly contains a major spoiler about Ray Wise’s character. You might want to pick one of those up.

Question: How about some new Dollhouse scoop, please? —Peter
Ausiello: I’m going to let Tahmoh Penikett take this one. “At the end [of the premiere], there is a very important conversation between Echo and Paul where she lets me know that she’s functioning with all these personalities in her mind at once and that she knows what is going on. It changes the playing field if the main doll has awareness of her situation. I like that it isn’t all damsel in distress, and Paul is starting to realize that.”

Wired take us inside the Dollhouse:

Joss Whedon’s new sci-fi series Dollhouse is based on an intriguing idea: a secret organisation which hires out programmed people who fulfil the fantasies and peccadilloes of the very, very rich.

The ‘dolls’ of the title live in Conran-style underground lair, all mood lighting, dark wood, and yoga classes, and are programmed and dressed up for different missions with clients, their brains and identities wiped clean after each engagement.

There’s something extremely creepy about the idea of meat puppets used, among other things, as very expensive sex toys. There’s many a coy pan around the smoked glass communal showers, and the credits include images of Eliza Dushku’s beautiful heroine Echo dressed as geisha, and rolling up her stockings.

However, after some throat-clearing exposition in the initial episodes the writing and the cast settle down, and the Whedon starts to do what he does best: grind through the logic of the situation, keep the audience guessing, and work both hi story and his characters about twice as hard as most ordinary genre television.

Continue reading here..

Here’s the latest batch of Dollhouse season 2 promotional posters (click to enlarge).

Continue after the jump to read a spoilery look at the season 2 premiere – “Vows”:

A spoilery look at the season 2 premiere episode – “Vows”:

This might not sound like good news, but it is – the first episode of the second season of “Dollhouse,” is very relaxed. Not a whole lot happens, but this actually could be a good sign. The season premiere, “Vows,” (it airs Sept. 25 9/8 C) feels like it was made to set up the entire season, and not just to grab attention. Joss Whedon isn’t really known for his bang-up pilots (he’s not J.J. Abrams in that regard), he’s more known for setting up a show’s characters, dynamics, humor and some philosophical fat to chew on.

Why relaxed is better is that instead of feeling like everything has to be very self-contained and bursting with craziness, Whedon and company seem to be taking the approach that they have time to tell their stories and to tell them right. Sure, there’s no guarantee of a third season for “Dollhouse” (and a cancellation after this season would be a lot more painful), but they’re acting like it is and that’s good. Season 1 was pretty good, and got progressively better, but I have a feeling Season 2 is going to be great now that the jitters are gone.

What was kind of missing last year, especially from the first half of Season 1, was an ensemble cast we could care about. One of Whedon’s biggest strengths — and something that’s happened in all his previous shows — is developing this entourage of well-drawn characters, who interact in interesting ways, and are outsiders because of what they’re dealing with. Buffy and company couldn’t reveal to most that they were quietly going about saving Sunnydale from eternal damnation; the Firefly crew were scavengers with two fugitives on board and Angel and his compadres were working to bring down the evil Wolfram & Hart. “Dollhouse” lacked that cohesive group of people we really cared about, partly because the dolls don’t have personalities at all. But in the first episode, it looks like they’re fixing that absence of a Scooby gang contingent.

[More here]

Above? That’s the season 2 Dollhouse promo photo -- clearly Echo centric. I guess they have a thing for guns? Which is strange because Dollhouse doesn’t strike me as that kind of show -- they might as well have left THAT kind of show on the air. It’s a stylish enough effort, but as usual with Dollhouse it lacks a strong thematic purpose. Clever tagline though. (and nice heels).

With the release of the season 1 DVD, and the season 2 premiere fast approaching, there have been some other post-worthy tidbits knocking around, including clips from said DVD, sneak peaks and gleeful promo -- all after the jump:

Dollhouse Season 2 Promo:

[babisnakis]

It seems they still haven’t learned -- promoting the show around 1 actress when the ensemble is way way better. And they actually included the ridiculous midwife scene -- what? Have we gone back in time learning nothing? But that Glee thing looks pretty funny, I’m SO watching that..

Dollhouse Season 2 Sneak Peek:

[poculturez]

Special features from the Dollhouse season 1 DVD:

“Designing The Perfect Dollhouse”

“Coming Home”:

“Finding Echo”:

“A Private Engagement”:

[chloesullivanqueen]

Here are the all-new Dollhouse Season 2 Cast photos. featuring (L-R) Dichen Lachman, Fran Kranz, Enver Gjokaj, Olivia Williams, Eliza Dushku, Tahmoh Penikett and Harry Lennix. Click the link below to view all of the photos:

A mixture of in-character and out of character photos there. Not quite as good as the Fringe promotional photos, in my opinion, but thankfully less ‘Echo’ focused than last season’s lot.

[copyright: FOX]

I found this in my inbox this morning. The sender didn’t say whether it was official or fan-made. If it’s official (and I have my doubts) I assume it’s promotional material for Dollhouse season 2 or a related project.

Maybe someone out there can confirm?

Here are some photos from the So Fresh So Fox DOLLHOUSE 2009/10 photoshoot. Click the jump to view the gallery:

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[copyright: FOX]

Can’t wait for the season 1 Dollhouse set to come out? Well, here are a couple of the menu screens you can expect to see on the DVD and Blu-ray.

The Man on the Street commentary by Joss Whedon might be worth a gander. Oh, and there’s also Epitaph One. Other than that (and the lenticular case) I struggle to get excited over the prospect of this set. That said, credit FOX (and company) for some clever marketing – that’s season 2 paid for, and then some. Although I’m half-joking, you can kinda see why they renewed the show.

For 6 episodes (I discount the first 7 ) it would have been nice had they shaved another $10 off the sets – recession, and all.

[Pictures: DVDTalk]

Blast Magazine recently got the chance to talk with Alan Tudyk about “Dollhouse”, “Firefly”, his upcoming role on “V” and a bunch of other random stuff. There may be a minor DH spoiler towards the end:

BLAST: Tell me what it was like working with Joss again on “Dollhouse.”

ALAN TUDYK: It was really great, you know, I didn’t work with him in a directing capacity. He was around doing the extras for the DVD so I definitely ran into him. It was really great.

BLAST: What is it about Joss Whedon that makes these group of actors follow him around?

AT: Um, he has dirt on all of us. Really embarrassing stuff. It’s blackmail, really, I mean I’ll call it what is. That, I guess, and you know in his shows — the two I’ve been on — there’s a way that you can have really high-stakes, dramatic situations taking place right next to very funny, and wry, sarcastic commentary. Which is hard to pull off and nobody does it better than him. So you get the opportunity to do something that’s rare.

BLAST: I caught that sneak mention of “Firefly.” You know there are always rumors of “Serenity 2? flying around, and Joss does have a history of bringing back characters from the beyond. Would you do another one?

AT: Oh yeah, I’ve been telling Joss to do a whole TV series on Wash. Forget about it, that’s what I want!

BLAST: I don’t think you know what you just did. I think the fans will explode.

AT: Well, I’ve said that to fans before and they go, (unenthusiastically) “Yeah! But actually the great thing about “Firefly” was everyone working together…”, and I say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’ll start with one and go from there!” But yeah, of course I would do it.

BLAST: About Alpha…

AT: Great.

BLAST: What personality of Alpha’s — I think, what, 38 of them? — which was most fun to play?

AT: Well… I think it’s forty — well, I’ve been saying 42 but I think it’s 48. It’s tough to know. (laughs) The only one, you know… It’s interesting doing episodic television, because you can’t peer around the corner. When I was doing the episode of “Briar Rose,” I didn’t know where Alpha was going in “Omega.” I knew that I was taking her… but I didn’t even know what I was taking her to do. (laughs) I didn’t know why I was taking her until the day after we ran “Briar Rose” and I read the script for “Omega.”

BLAST: You kind of had to play it by ear then.

AT: There are a couple of things that happened with the performance. It was like, wow, this guy talks a great deal. He always speaks quickly and he doesn’t ever want to stop talking! There are a lot of lines to learn. But also, I knew that he had 48 people in him, but I didn’t realize that it was just a riot of people, of difficult, zany folks. If I had to do it over again I would have brought more personalities out in the first one. (hesitates) Eh, I don’t want to say I have regrets, but I — I don’t know who all the personalities are. And there’s Kepler, you know whoever that is, whatever personality he’s using there. But that was kind of, you know, Alpha was doing a little acting, also.

BLAST: The acting part was one of the things fans have kind of been wondering about. To what extent was Alpha in fact Kepler, or was he acting the whole time?

AT: I think with Alpha, if I, personally, was able to know intimately 48 perspectives, and backgrounds, and upbringings — perspectives, I got it right the first time — 48 different perspectives, If I had the benefit of that, myself, I would be an amazing actor. That’s what acting is, you’re putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes and really trying to get as close to them as possible. So Alpha has the capacity to be the greatest actor. I feel like his Kepler was an amalgam of who he is, he can borrow a great deal from himself. And you know, we get to see Eliza Dushku’s character put on all these different roles. So you have to think about all these different pieces of her that she could borrow from. And there are a lot of differences between them.

BLAST: You mentioned one thing I was going to ask you about. If you could have one skill or ability downloaded into your head, what would it be?

AT: Uh… Inner peace.

BLAST: Is that a skill?

AT: It’s not a skill… but you know, you get these perspectives so you could download anything, like enlightment. Some kind of thought process, not so much a religion. Like the Dalai Lama! I could download a piece of the Dalai Lama and just chill. (laughs)

BLAST: Are there other characters in the “Jossverse” besides Wash and Alpha that you would like to play?

AT: Buffy. I would love to play Buffy. I’ve always felt that Sarah Michelle Gellar did a great job, but there was stuff she missed. (laughs)

BLAST: Hey, you know they are supposedly doing a Buffy movie without any of the actual Buffy characters. So will you throw your hat in the ring?

AT: (laughs) If I can find time outside of my new TV show “Wash,” sure.

BLAST: Well you do have a new TV show, “V.” Can you tell me about it?

AT: Sure. It’s kind of an “Independence Day” scenario. You know it’s based on the original miniseries that came out in the 80s. And, it’s aliens, and it’s about this alien race…

BLAST: Are you an alien?

AT: I am not at liberty to say.

BLAST: Oooh. Really?

AT: Yeah, I can’t say one way or the other. It’s just about an alien race coming in, and the reaction to having another race of people with alien technology and all that would mean if we actually had spaceships parked over our cities and what that would mean.

BLAST: Is it the sci-fi of it that drew you to it?

AT: No, it was the script. There was one part in the script, right in the beginning when the Vs first show up and this F-16 falls out of the sky over the streets of New York City and explodes, and it’s like, oh man, what’s going on? This is great!

BLAST: I asked some Twitter people if they had any questions for you and one question was: why did you leave Juilliard before graduating?

AT: (laughs) Wow, how to do I answer that?

BLAST: From aliens to Juilliard, right?

AT: Yeah, right. Well, (laughs) I was following in a long line of actors who left Juilliard in their third year. Val Kilmer, Robin Williams… Juilliard’s fourth year at that time and I think it’s still the case, was where you study for three years. You do plays, but it’s in conjunction with classes. And then your fourth year becomes solely a performance year. There’s a couple of classes that are like, “How to Audition!” and “How to Get an Agent!” And I had worked really hard to get an agent before I left Juilliard, I had an agent before my third year. So I didn’t feel those classes were necessary and I didn’t need a year full of, you know, “18th century Spanish plays that have never before been translated until now!” That’s awful. That sounds awful! I like the people at Juilliard.

BLAST: What fictional character would you most like to play? Have you ever thought about it?

AT: Wow. Gosh. You know, I don’t know.

BLAST: Maybe another round as Steve the Pirate?

AT: (laughs) Sure.

BLAST: So we’ve got Alan the Vampire Slayer, we have Wash the TV show, and a Steve the Pirate movie. I hope you know I’ll be holding you to your word.

AT: (laughs) You know I don’t know that a Steve the Pirate movie would be very interesting without the rest of the cast. He doesn’t say very much… His humor is best in small doses of “Garr!” and “Arrgh!” in the right moment. I would only want to undertake that with Justin Long, and Christine Taylor, Vince Vaughn, Joel, Ben Stiller. We’d need the whole group.

BLAST: (laughs) Fair enough. What is on your iPod?

AT: What’s on my iPod? I’ve got a lot on my iPod. I can tell you what I’m listening to right now… My current favorite song is by a band called Band of Skulls, it’s called “I Know What I Am.” Great song. And I’ve got a little throwback to when I was in high school, Anthrax’s “I’m the Man,” hysterical song. A hard band but the song is really funny. And the Black Keys’ new album is fantastic. There’s a song on it called “I Got Mine,” which is kind of that bluesy, ballsy music. The whole album is great. I could go on, and on, and on…

BLAST: You are a regular at fan conventions, so I was wondering: are you a sci-fi fan yourself and will you be at this year’s San Diego Comic Con?

AT: I don’t know about San Diego. Am I sci-fi fan, that was the other question? I liked “Star Trek: The Next Generation” when I was growing up, a lot, and the original “Star Trek” when I was a kid, watching re-runs. But “The Next Generation” is the first show that really grabbed me. I loved the characters, I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Then I kind of took a break, well you know, “Star Wars” and all that stuff is great. But I wasn’t the biggest sci-fi fan until “Firefly “sort of brought me back in. Yeah, I am a sci-fi fan. The new “Star Trek” movie, best movie I’ve seen… you know, a lot of people say it’s the best movie they’ve seen since “Iron Man,” but I think it’s better than “Iron Man.”

BLAST: “Star Trek” was really good. It was a movie that had so much weighing on it, and managed to appeal both to the masses and the fans. Great movie.

AT: Yeah. I’ve seen it twice.

BLAST: Me too!

AT: Yeah. It was done, and I was like, let’s roll it again! I’m ready to see it again. Let’s go. Like, now. So entertaining, so entertaining. You know, they have something in the “Star Trek” franchise… I definitely haven’t seen all of it, but they have something in this one that I’ve only seen in “Firefly” before. You’ve got your hero, your Captain Kirk, getting his ass kicked. That first scene when you’re meeting him as an adult, he gets his butt whipped in a bar, and it’s hysterical. Very Malcolm Reynolds-y. And then also, when he lands in the ice planet before he meets Spock, and he’s complaining and trying to cite the rules that have been broken, and he’s looking off in the distance, and the the giant behemoth is coming at him. He’s running from it, screaming like a girl, (high voice) “No-o! No-o!” The hero can be very uncool, the hero can be afraid, the hero can be chicken. That was really refreshing. He can make mistakes and be goofy. That whole scene with him and the doc, and the shots. It’s just fun.

BLAST: There’s a certain fearlessness with the way Joss treats his characters and I think with the way they handled the characters in “Star Trek.” I think you’re quite right about that.

AT: Yeah. Absolutely, definitely.

BLAST: Oh — will we see you [on Dollhouse] next season?

AT: (pause) Yes you will.

You can read the entire interview here..

Fox have released 4 promotional photos for episode 1.09 “Spy In The House Of Love”. Click the jump to view them all.

Click to enlarge:

Copyright: Fox

Fox have released 7 promotional photos for Dollhouse episode 1.08 “Needs”. Hit the jump to view them all:

*Click to enlarge

Copyright: Fox

Thanks: Spoilertv