For four seasons, Tim Rozon has played the legendary Doc Holliday on Syfy's Wynonna Earp. Holliday may be straight out of American history, but Rozon has offered his own indelible interpretation of the character that fans love no matter what questionable activities he gets up to. That's sure to remain true in the second half of the fourth and final season, where Doc is still grappling with his feelings for Wynonna after she crossed a line he may not be able to forgive her for.
Before Wynonna, Doc and company stroll into the sunset, CBR joined a roundtable interview to talk to Rozon about the end of the series. Rozon discussed what fans can expect from the remaining six episodes of Wynonna Earp, Doc's character arc throughout the show and his new upcoming series, The Surrealtor.
Rozon teased where Doc Holliday is going in the series' last batch of episodes and expressed gratitude for where his character ends up at the conclusion of the show. "I loved the ending, I was very proud of it," Rozon said. "I think in so many ways, [Doc] had to let go of the past to have a future, and I thought that was really beautiful. I felt like he finally let go. And I think it's starting now already where we're at in the season, but by the end of it you will just see the full release of just letting go. Sometimes you gotta let the old ways die, and I think he did. I love it, I thought it was beautiful. Most importantly is I think the Earpers are going to love it, the ending. And so that's what makes me happy the most."
Rozon also hinted at what Doc's newfound freedom from the past could mean for his relationship with Wynonna. "For Doc, he's decided he's let go but that doesn't mean that Wynonna is ready to let go," Rozon explained. "And the same time she's had the actual burden of being the one who had to fight the curse, she was the only one who could save the day at the end of the day. You can pretend everybody else could, but at the end of the day, it always fell on Wynonna, she always had that burden. […] But I think for [Doc] now he's realizing the curse is gone. You know, "What are we fighting for anymore? Maybe it's in letting go, we can finally have a future if we let go of this past." Doc held on to his past for so long that when he finally let go, for him, it was such a relief that he just wants the same for Wynonna. I don't know she will by the end of the season. It's easier for Doc to do it in some ways, he doesn't have the burden of the curse where she does. But I don't think they can be together if she doesn't let go of it either. And I hope she does."
Yet, while Rozon was pleased with the way Doc's character arc wrapped up, that doesn't mean playing him was always easy. Throughout the show, Doc made some difficult choices that Rozon confessed he found challenging to bring to life. "We're very fortunate that [Wynonna Earp creator and showrunner] Emily [Andras] is very approachable and she always asks […] where would you like the character to go. I never answer. I'm not that type of guy," Rozon explained. "I trust in what she's going to do. At the end of the day, I'm there to do my job, which is to try and tell [her] character the way [she] wrote it the best way that I possibly can. And there's been some tough moments for me in the four seasons, the vampire stuff and Doc's done some bad things that were tough on me. […] But then you know the way it all came full circle in the end is why I knew, this is why I trusted from day one because I knew I was in good hands. I knew the character was in great hands.
"I didn't realize how much it would hurt sometimes playing a character when a character does something so against what you would do as a person. But you gotta let go. You're not you, you're that character. And that character, he's not you."
Rozon and the whole Wynonna Earp crew has been on an especially emotional roller coaster ride throughout Season 4. Despite a Season 4 renewal, it was unclear if the show would come back because of funding issues. And although the season was delayed, fans cheered when the first half of the fourth season finally premiered. Unfortunately, it was recently announced ahead of the second half of the fourth season that the upcoming episodes will be the show's last. Rozon shared what that journey was like to go through as a cast member. "It's like every emotion you can imagine in one," Rozon revealed. "It took us two years to film Season 4, to finally finish it. I don't know what happened between Season 3 and 4, I don't know all the details of why we almost lost the show, the IDW stuff. I never got into that. I just know that the Earpers fought and rallied in a way that was so inspirational that I'll never forget in my entire life. And then we finally came back, and I remember being so excited and it was amazing. […] And [I was] so grateful to get back to these characters that we almost lost.
"Then this global pandemic hit. […] And I said, 'Oh man, are we ever gonna finish?' And then we were," Rozon continued. "We were the first people who came back, we were the first production to come back in Canada during COVID, series-wise. I remember being so happy and so lucky and just aware of how much responsibility we had to the Earpers. But I was also aware when we filmed it that this could be it. Just because of how long it finally took to get there and the way the story went and the way it was told so beautifully and elegantly, I just had this feeling like, 'Okay, you got to be ready to say goodbye to this guy, because it's going to be tough.'"
Luckily, Rozon won't be absent from our screens for long. He's already landed his next role in another Syfy series called The Surrealtor. "I wrapped Season 4 of Wynonna Earp on a Friday and I started [The Surrealtor] on the Monday. It's incredible. My character is the character of Luke Roman at the Roman Agency and we're an agency, and we take on houses that no one else can deal with, researching and investigating and fixing the things that go bump in the night. It's super fun. I get reunited with Sarah Levy from Schitt's Creek, so that was awesome. The rest of the supporting cast is absolutely incredible. And it was super fun. And, look, I mean it's tough to say goodbye to the character but I was lucky enough that I got to jump into another incredible one. So in that sense I feel really lucky and fortunate. I'm excited. It should come out in the summer."
Still, Rozon made it clear he will always be happy to be associated with Wynonna Earp, and especially the Wynonna Earp fandom. "You know, this is a character that I love maybe more than any other character I've ever got to play," Rozon shared. "But the most amazing thing that makes it all kind of easy is that I thought the show ended beautifully. And I think the Earpers are gonna be really happy, and for me that's all that matters, is they're the ones that deserve it. They're the ones that deserve to be happy at the end of this. […] They're the ones who fought and rallied and I feel so lucky to be a part of that fandom.
"You know what the Earpers created is more powerful and more important than a television show that we told," Rozon added. "We told a beautiful story, don't get me wrong, and it touched a lot of people, but the way that that community's touched people and brought people together is just, it's inspirational. It's magical."
Produced by SEVEN24 Films and IDW Entertainment, Wynonna Earp stars Melanie Scrofano as the title character, Dominique Provost-Chalkley as Waverly, Katherine Barrell as Nicole Haught and Tim Rozon as Doc Holliday. The second half of Season 4 premieres March 5 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Syfy.