Four years ago I interviewed Brandon Sawyer, who was executive producing the first Boss Baby spinoff series Back in Business. Now he returns as EP of the new, follow-up series The Boss Baby: Back in the Crib, debuting this Thursday May 19th on Netflix. Sawyer shares what drew him BACK to the iconic DreamWorks character and what he loves about this cast and crew. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: This is a sequel series to a sequel movie. So how did Family Business (the movie that came out last summer) really open the doors to this new series?

Brandon Sawyer: They were the whole genesis of this series even existing. We ended the previous series and were able to give it a proper finale and wrap-up that whole story. And mentally, I just assumed I was done. I felt very satisfied with what we did. But then I got to see an early preview of the movie, probably a year and a half — at least — before the movie actually came out. And I saw these new characters: Tina, Tabitha, what Tim was like as an adult and Carol. The more I sat with it and watched it, I just knew we were NOT done with these characters and this world. There was a whole new version of this show that could exist — just wiping the decks of everything except Boss Baby and kind of starting from there.

JM: I love that you bring-in Ariana Greenblatt to reprise her role as Tabitha. I saw her in The One and Only Ivan and Love and Monsters. She’s a fantastic young actress.

BS: She’s amazing. When we were working on the cast for this series, they brought us into a recording session with her and [director] Tom McGrath for the movie saying, “You should come look and see if maybe you want to work with her and maybe have her be Tabitha on the show — or if you feel like you want to recast.” And two minutes and a few lines in I was like, “Nope — no second guessing here. She is so good.” Her instincts are so good. She’s so funny. She’s got a great texture to her voice. She’s so natural in her performance. I was thrilled to work with her.

JM: Nice. I can’t wait to see her career continue to rise. You wrote this first episode of Back in the Crib. What’s the checklist? What is the prep for making the perfect first episode of a new series?

BS: Oh, perfect? Man, I wish I knew! To make what we made, I would say… the first was just the need to exist. Why are we doing this? And there was the practical question of: Well the movie has given us this device — this formula upgrade that can shrink an adult back into baby form. So we needed an excuse to do that. Why might he need or want to do that? So that was the first task. And then coming up with that idea of (laughs) “Well, he works for a big corporation as an adult. Why don’t we just frame him for embezzlement and send him on the run from the FBI?” Once that was in place, things started falling together pretty quickly. That was the big key.

JM: Yeah I was surprised we were going down that path with the embezzlement. It’s kinda deep and raw and relates to a lot of what’s going on in the news.

BS: It was fun to do!

JM: (laughs) Tina describes Ted (The Boss Baby) as “unorthodox”. Based on your time working with The Boss Baby himself, would you describe him as unorthodox?

BS: Oh absolutely. And I think if you watch this series, especially, we tell a very linear, serialized story from beginning to end of the series. By the end, you’re gonna see how unorthodox he is as a Baby Corp. employee. Lots of big surprises towards the end of the season.

JM: Cool. One of the highlights of the first couple episodes is Buttsnuggers Diapers. How did that name emerge in the writers’ room?

BS: I wish there was a better story than it was just funny. I will always give credit where credit is due but I think that one was me. I think that was in that first script just coming up. We knew this new CEO NannyCam, played by Nicole Byer, was gonna be an influencer and hawk some product. It was just, “What’s the funniest product for her to hawk?” Always looking for musicality in the words and Buttsnuggers Diapers… worked.

JM: It does work. Those are some funny moments when she looks into the camera and the one-liners. I saw Nicole at the Critics Choice Awards. She co-hosted with Taye Diggs in March. So funny. I’m sure working with her was just as much of a joy.

BS: It was. Absolutely. I am crushed that all of these wonderful people that we got to work with on this show — that this all happened during COVID. I still, to this day, have not sat in a room with probably 90% of them. And Nicole’s one of them. We cast her remotely. We recorded remotely. The energy, even over Zoom like this, was just so much fun that I was sad that I was not there across the glass of the booth to see it happen in person.

JM: You won two Emmys for The Penguins of Madagascar series you were a part of — these projects with these iconic DreamWorks Animation characters. Those Penguins are awesome. How have you seen, firsthand, the impact these characters have had on people of all ages?

BS: (laughs) I get it from friends who either travel or live in different countries of the world. I just [about two weeks ago] got a photograph of a friend who’s working on a movie in Hungary, and he sent me this bus station ad with The Boss Baby and a dog and the text in Hungarian. The number of times I’ve gotten that… Bootleg Penguins t-shirts in a market in Brazil… I forget how global… I can’t think about that because it would paralyze me. “Millions of people around the world care about what’s gonna happen to this character next.” If I start going down that road, I’m gonna be a wreck at the keyboard. It’s just a fun bonus that happens afterwards to see how people are responding to it.

JM: Wow! An interesting line from Tina says to The Boss Baby in the first episode: “We have lives and interests outside of our jobs.” What are your interests and your life outside of your job, and can you really make that separation, even though what you’re working on is so fun? What about family time?

BS: I do. And I will say, that was one benefit of doing this show during a pandemic. Right now, I’m sitting in my bedroom office where I’ve been working for the past two and a half years. And it’s lovely to just be able to finish work or take a break from work and just open the door that’s here and spend some time with my family. That’s the biggest interest outside of work and the much more important interest: family time. I got kids. It’s a pleasure to be able to spend time and do things with them.

JM: Families will now gather around their TVs to watch this new Boss Baby series. I remember my crib when I was a baby. I can still picture being in it. Can you still remember the crib — or maybe the first bed — you had?

BS: I can’t even remember houses. I’m a military brat, so I was lucky to stay any place for two years, so (laughs) I’m lucky to remember locations, let alone specific rooms and cribs inside of them. So no, those memories are lost to me.

JM: Oh, well hey, you’ve got a nice bed behind you!

BS: I know. It’s great! Very comfy.

JM: (laughs) When you find inspiration in your daily life, how much of that has gone into these Boss Baby series, whether it’s interacting with young kids or adults?

BS: It’s quite a bit… because it’s not just me, obviously. Just to give one example: one of our writers, Tanner Tananbaum, spent time with the Second City improv troupe in Chicago. And late in the season, there’s an episode where Boss Baby goes to Chicago and the thing he wants to do is see this improv troupe. It’s not Second City, but he wants to see this improv troupe. That was coming out of this writer’s experience. There’s a lot of little things like that. I love surrounding myself with people who have life experience — who have been to things and have seen things… and having that come to life in our weird Boss Baby way.