Hazbin Hotel’s Vivienne Medrano On The Biggest Moments Of Season 1

Hazbin Hotel is finally a fully-fledged series, seeing great critical success since its release earlier this year. With humble beginnings as an independently-produced pilot uploaded to YouTube, the show is wrapping up its first season this week, nearly five years after its initial viral success. Now made in conjunction with A24 and Amazon MGM Studios, the series features stars like In the Heights’ Stephanie Beatriz, The Princess and the Frog‘s Keith David, and Erika Henningsen, known for her role of Cady Heron in the Broadway production of Mean Girls.

The show follows the story of Charlie Morningstar (Henningsen), princess of Hell, and her titular project: a hotel where lost souls can be redeemed and get into Heaven, in turn avoiding the yearly purge the angels inflict on Hell’s inhabitants. It’s the brainchild of Vivienne Medrano, who also serves as the creator of the web series Helluva Boss, which is set in the same universe. Since its release, Hazbin Hotel has received favorable reviews praising its musicality and levity, and the show has already been renewed for a second season.

Screen Rant recently interviewed Vivienne Medrano to discuss the first season now that it’s come to a close, reflecting on its biggest plot points, standout behind-the-scenes moments with the Hazbin Hotel cast, and what fans can expect from season 2.

Vivienne Medrano Talks Hazbin Hotel

Screen Rant: I would love to talk a little bit about the recording process behind Hazbin Hotel. I know that you were present for essentially all of the recording sessions, so are there any moments that especially stick out to you from that whole process?

Vivienne Medrano: Oh, there’s so many. It was two years ago, so it’s hard to remember them. But I do have some moments that for me, a big one was hearing because – Erica was the first session ever, Erika Henningsen as Charlie. So it was so incredible just hearing it for the first time after so long.

And then the magical moment for me in that session was her doing “Happy Day in Hell” for the first time, because she did it in all one take and then at the very end she didn’t have enough air for that huge final note. And so there was this moment where she had sung the song phenomenally and me and Richard [Horvitz], my voice director, we were just like [showing a shocked expression] this, you can just see us – just chills, just seeing her perform the entire song through until that ending bit. And then she went like [acting out hitting a wall] this against the wall and was like, “I can’t do it.”

It was the coolest thing in the world to see her do that, and so that was a special moment. And then there’s been a couple moments. I remember one with Jeremy [Jordan] where there was one really finicky melody and finicky note. And it wasn’t like he couldn’t hit it, it was more just the arrangements of notes was complex and weird. And so we were doing a couple runs of it and then he finally did it. He did it perfectly and then he continued in the rest of the song, but making up his own words. It was: [singing] “I did it, I did the right note,” and it was the funniest. I remember that one really vividly because it was such a big moment, because he just kept going for a while and it was really fun.

So there was so many moments like that in the recording session. The actors bring a lot of humor and a lot of added Walla jokes that aren’t technically in the script. And so that whole process, we have so much fun. There’s so much laughter, and so much goofy things that happen, and so many silly bloopers and things like that that happen in it.

And as we said, the final two episodes coming out this week. I’m curious what you’re most excited to see fans react to in those final episodes? This will go up after they air, so it won’t be a spoiler.

Vivienne Medrano: Okay, so I can spoil, okay. Honestly, the biggest moment – because I watched the episode with my crew and with my family the biggest moment that I’m like, “It either gets a gasp or a laugh,” is when Pentious gets immediately zapped away. And that’s what I wanted, because I knew he wasn’t going to be gone forever.

So we were okay letting that moment be kind of a joke, even though it’s horrible. He just [Laughs] gets demolished immediately. But I also love that moment, because it is a genuine build-up and it’s so fun. But then Adam just being himself, I think that’s also a nice villain moment for him that he’s just like, “Nope, I don’t care how badass this guy thinks he looks. He’s gone in two seconds.” And so I think that moment I’m really excited to see people react to because I feel like especially for live reactors, they’re going to see that moment and freak out and not realize until the end.

And I’m also curious, this ended obviously showing Lilith being up in Heaven this whole time. I am sure you can’t reveal a whole lot about the second season, but are there any hints you can give about her situation and where her narrative will be headed next season?

Vivienne Medrano: The most I can say is that the Lilith narrative is – hands down – my most excited – like I’m so excited to get into that story, but it is also the big mystery, kind of, of the show. So it needs some time to kind of – that’s the first big reveal. “Oh my gosh, she’s been there, why is she there?”

And those are kind of questions that we’re slowly going to start getting answers to over the course of the next couple seasons and things like that. So I’m very excited for that to be kind of like the slow burn mystery of the show. But season two definitely gives some more pieces to that.

And I’m also curious in terms of season two what fans can expect from the sort of ongoing rivalry between Vox and Alastor, because I love it. Radio versus television is just so fun.

Vivienne Medrano: I’m so excited. I think it’s made pretty clear in the ending episode that the Vees are going to be a bigger part of season two, because now they’re kind of empowered with the reality and the realization, “Oh, we can fight back actually. That’s the thing we can do.” And obviously, with characters as power hungry as them, it just only makes sense for that to be their goal.

So I’m very excited because season two, yes, definitely centers around the Vees and Vox specifically. And it’s going to get into much more of his relationship with Alastor, how it got there and how with Vox being the threat, how that affects Alastor and the other characters in the hotel. So I’m very excited for that, because I love those characters and I think it’s going to be really fun.

Yeah, me too. And I’m curious what you feel are the biggest lessons you’ve learned from producing season one that you’re going to carry with you into this second season?

Vivienne Medrano: I think the biggest lessons I learned was just making a show for the first time with another studio and with another team. There’s a lot of growing pains and I think we cited all the things that went wrong or caused bottleneck or anything like that early on. And so I feel very comfortable, because going into season two, there was a lot more upfront conversation about what didn’t work season one and how to approach it in season two.

And also I think there’s just an understanding of how much work goes into the show and what it’s like and everything like that. So I feel much better about going into season two. I think it’s going to be much smoother, and then hopefully if we get more, it’ll just continue to be smoother and smoother like how most shows fall into a rhythm – that’s the hope, for sure. But I think we learned a ton and know at least some of the problem points that we can iron out this time around.

And of course there was a really long stretch of time between when you released the initial pilot and the release of this first season. I’m hoping fans don’t have to wait quite as long for a season two?

Vivienne Medrano: Definitely not as long. I’m a big advocate for letting things take the time they need. And production, I mean, I literally actually don’t know the projected release date or aim or anything like that, but roughly season one took about one-and-a-half, two years. So I think it’s probably similar, just because we are in the early stages. However, that’s not nearly as long of a wait, and that’s kind of a normal wait for animation. So it’ll be a normal wait for animation. But I do think it’ll be worth it.

I think the season is obviously great, and then hopefully if there are more, there probably won’t be as much of a wait. I think it was just the way this show was made season 1, and then season two was greenlit, but it was through the Amazon of it all. So there was still a lot of getting into that process. And so I think anything moving forward will probably be less of a wait than this one. But I am really excited because I feel like we set it up very well for it to be a worthwhile payoff when we do get season two again.

Yeah, definitely. You mentioned you’re in early stages of season 2 now. Are you allowed to expand on that at all? Is it table read stage? Or, can you not say anything at all?

Vivienne Medrano: I don’t know if I can say, but I think it’s been safe just because cat’s out of the bag, there’s been some posts and stuff. We’re in the writing recording stage, which is very exciting. It’s been awesome to get back into the booth with the actors.

You mentioned how there are tons of really fun bloopers that are in the show, in the recording process. Are there any of those that especially stand out to you? Those sound like they have a lot of potential to be very funny.

Vivienne Medrano: Yeah, I feel like we really need to go back to the footage of season one to find some of those fun moments. I’m sure there’s so many. I can’t off the bat, like I said, it was so long ago, other than the ones I mentioned. But the other example of things that happened in the booth that are really funny are: we do things called Walla, which is basically when there’s crowds or there’s things going on – commotion, fights, things like that where a character needs to be making a ruckus or saying things or we just have to fill up the empty silence.

Me and Richard really encourage the actors to do silly, funny, improv-y things. And so some of the funnier line reads and dialogue comes from just random things they say in Walla. And for me a good example for that is in episode three, where Vaggie throws Pentious and Angel off the building into the battlefield. All that stuff that they’re saying and screaming from the battlefield is just stuff that Alex [Brightman] and Blake [Roman] came up with. And it’s so funny, because my favorite one is just hearing Angel go, “I blame you, you crazy b****!” [Laughs] And that was entirely him, but I loved it, so I just kept it.

And then similarly, Joel [Perez], who plays Valentino, there’s a whole bit in episode six where he’s talking to a girl and he’s in the club and you can just hear him talking, and Joel just said the funniest things and all of that was him and I just left as much of it as possible. So the whole time you can hear Valentino talking, it’s just Joel going off as Valentino, and it’s so funny. So I guess it’s not quite a blooper, but it’s from the actor and I love it.

More About Hazbin Hotel

Hazbin Hotel follows Charlie, the princess of Hell, as she pursues her seemingly impossible goal of rehabilitating demons to peacefully reduce overpopulation in her kingdom. After a yearly extermination imposed by angels, she opens a hotel in the hopes that patrons will be “checking out” into Heaven. While most of Hell mocks her goal, her devoted partner Vaggie, and their first test subject, adult film star Angel Dust, stick by her side. When a powerful entity known as the “Radio Demon” reaches out to assist Charlie in her endeavors, her crazy dream is given a chance to become a reality.

Created by Vivienne Medrano, Hazbin Hotel is based on her popular animated pilot released on YouTube in 2019 and quickly gained over 92 million views and a rabid worldwide fan base. The series blends adult humor, unforgettable characters, and catchy musical numbers creating a wholly original and unique world.

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Source: Screen Rant Plus

Hazbin Hotel

Release Date

January 19, 2024

Cast

Erika Henningsen , Stephanie Beatriz , Blake Roman , Amir Talai , Keith David , Alex Brightman , Kimiko Glenn , Joel Perez , Christian Borle , Jeremy Jordan

Seasons

1

Creator(s)

Vivienne Medrano

Writers

Dave Capdevielle , Kendraw Cook , Raymond T. Hernandez , Vivienne Medrano , Daniel MacDonald , Maritza Medrano

Directors

Vivienne Medrano