Lost Get's Fresh Blood

[Sydney]

"Lost" Gets Fresh Blood by Marcus Errico Jun 6, 2005, 8:05 AM PT Looks like Jack, Sayid, Kate, et al. are getting some more company on mystery island. ABC confirmed Monday that Michelle Rodriguez will join Lost's cast of castaways full-time next season. The news was first reported by E! Online TV columnist Krisitin Veitch. (This story contains possible spoilers, so consider yourself alerted.)

In part one of last season's finale, Rodriguez's character, Ana-Lucia Cortez, was briefly shown in a flashback scene flirting with Matthew Fox's Jack in a Sydney airport bar before the ill-fated Oceanic flight 815 boarded. She and Jack compared seat assignments (Jack was in the middle of the plane, she was in the tail section) before she got a cellphone call and left him hanging. Although ABC and Lost masterminds J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof won't say exactly in what capacity Rodriguez will be appearing, speculation is already rampant that she will not be relegated merely to flashbacks. Lost message boards are filling up with possible scenarios to explain her character's addition to the cast, with the leading theory being that, as some of the plane-crash survivors surmised during the first season, passengers in the tail section of the airliner landed on an as-yet unexplored nook of the island and will be reunited with the main ensemble in season two. When last we left the show, which was one of the season's biggest rookie hits, averaging nearly 16 million viewers, Jack, Locke, Kate and Hurley had blasted opened the mysterious hatch and found...a long, dark passageway. Meanwhile, Michael, Walt, Jin and Sawyer's boat ride was interrupted by the less than neighborly "Others," a group of men who intercepted the raft, kidnapped the seemingly clairvoyant Walt, shot Sawyer and blew up the vessel. Michael was left treading water among the wreckage as Jin dove in to try to save Sawyer. In an interview on Los Angeles' KROQ radio last week, Abrams said the raft crew will eventually make it back to the island, but come ashore away from the rest of their pals, possibly setting up the discovery of Rodriguez's character and perhaps other survivors. Abrams also suggested that one of the stars is unhappy with his current contract and will likely be killed off at the beginning of the second season and won't be featured in any further episodes, even in flashbacks. The producer didn't drop any hints, but, per message board speculation, the leading candidate appears to be Naveen Andrews, who plays Sayid. Aside from the Rodriguez casting tidbit, the show's brain trust is throwing another bone to loyal fans to keep them occupied over the summer. A new Website has been launched for Lost's fictional Oceanic Airlines at Oceanic-Air.com, containing secret messages, behind-the-scenes info on the show and a trailer for season two. (Hint: Use Hurley's cursed numbers, if you dare.) Rodriguez, 26, hit Hollywood's radar after her breakout performance in the Sundance hit Girlfight. She has also appeared in The Fast and the Furious, Blue Crush, Resident Evil and S.W.A.T. She recently wrapped the Wes Craven-produced horror flick Breed and a voice role in the Latin-themed animated film Sian Ka'an with Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina. The first season of Lost will be available on DVD on Sept. 6, ahead of the debut of the second season, which will now air in the 9 p.m. slot on Wednesday.