Max’s Gremlins animated series had a successful season one with Secrets of the Mogwai. Season two, Gremlins: The Wild Batch, premieres Thursday October 3rd. Executive Producer and showrunner Tze Chun and fellow EP Brendan Hay preview what fans, including those who love the iconic movies, can look forward to from this fun group of characters and some exciting new ones. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity. Images Courtesy: Max.)

Jackson Murphy: Tze, let me ask you about the reaction to Season 1. How did you feel coming out of that, and what was the approach going into this second season?

Tze Chun: I think Brendan and I were just so overjoyed by the fan reaction and the critical reaction. I guess Gremlins fandom is very non toxic. (laughs) As a fan of the Gremlins movies myself, I was so happy to be able to contribute to the canon, and I think that hopefully with the reaction to season one, people tune in for season two. It’s been so much fun to work on the show.

JM: Brendan, what were your creative story goals going into season two, which is set a year after the events of season one?

Brendan Hay: Season one did the heavy lifting. Season one established our world, our cast and got everybody back in the tone and the spirit of the Mogwai. So Season two was our chance to open it up and even have more fun and also get deeper emotionally. We wanted to explore our full ensemble — get more into the emotional depth of Elle, of Ming Na’s mom, of Grandpa Wing, of everybody. This is our chance to do that. And even Noggin — being able to have an episode that really focuses more on him and his point of view. And at the same time, in the spirit of “Gremlins 2” the movie, we wanted to get weirder. And we did.

JM: (laughs) I want to bounce off of something you say about the emotion there because Tze, Elle has this dream and this vision of wanting to find her mom in America and this need for that to happen. Have you in your life creatively, when it comes to the projects you’ve worked on, maybe including this, have had a dream, a vision, some kind of calling to you going, “Wow, I need for this to happen?”

TC: When it comes to anything creative you have a first kind of spark of, “Alright, what do I want this to be? And that to me is as close to a walking dream as you can have. The hardest thing is, “How do you surround yourself with people that are better at writing and their job than you are so that you can actually make that a reality?” I think that for season two, we really really wanted to come up with a really deep emotional story for Elle, and this dream was a way for us to show that it was something that was so deeply ingrained in her that maybe she couldn’t even admit that she wanted this. We’ve had such an interesting journey with that character. In the first episode of the first season, she’s introduced almost as a villain. And over the course of the season, we really get to know her. We understand her deep trauma, in the way that obviously harkens back to Phoebe Cates’ incredible monologue in the original “Gremlins”. And in season two, we really want to deepen that and show her making some kind of positive strides towards healing that trauma.

JM: Also in the ensemble is the character of Sam, who is voiced by Isaac Wang, who’s fantastic in the [recent] film “Didi”. Brendan, what blows you away about what he’s able to do as an actor and with this voice performance here as Sam?

BH: Isaac is growing so much as a performer in front of our eyes. He’s always been good. As much as the character of Sam grows from season one, from being kind of a sheltered kid to taking on their responsibility and not running away from it… I feel like Isaac [also] has his own coming of age in life. And across season two, seeing him being able to handle more complexity of emotions through his vocal performance and everything that he’s bringing to the character. This season is Sam being presented with different kinds of avenues of where his life could take him and not always making the right choice and dealing with that. It’s fun watching Isaac do it and also for the fun side fact that Isaac recorded this all while it during the pandemic [at home]. He brought so much energy and life to every performance and he was awesome.

JM: Tze, there’s very cool looking sequences we get into in the first episode of this new season. We go into a movie theater and a little bit beyond, and you take us to this area of ice and snow, and you really pull that off. Tell me about creating that, bringing that to life.

TC: I think that the Gremlins animated series really shows, “What is the surface of what’s going on in our real world?” And when our characters delve deeper, there’s a spiritual, mystical world underneath it. And this was just such a fun way of conveying that. Shanghai was more of a real world target for the Mogwai in the first season. So in season two… not just being able to do an homage to the movie theater sequence in the [first] “Gremlins” [movie] but also to show, “Okay, underneath the city, what is there? What is the history of Shanghai?” After Brendan and I work on it in the writer’s room, there’s a whole team of people who really visualize it and make that world come to life. Hats off to them.

JM: Gizmo has been a symbol for this brand and his franchise, now in this new step [as well]. Brendan, what does it mean to have a symbol like that? Somebody instantly recognizable and a face for this brand that can appeal to multiple generations?

BH: That really is it. There’s a reason we all fell in love with Gizmo back in 1984. As a kid back then, I not only just wanted Gizmo toys, but I named my first cat Gizmo. Gizmo just immediately is the pet that everybody wants. The friend that everybody wants. Hats off to Joe Dante and everybody who created him originally. Joe really tapped into something with that. It’s an honor to get to carry that on now and just try to make sure we don’t drop that baton and we keep Gizmo lovable.

JM: He certainly is. And you’ve got Will Forte in the voice cast as an Alcatraz warden with some secrets. Tze, Will Forte’s done a lot of voice work over the years. What do you see as some of the highlights of the complexities and the tonal changes that he can bring on a moment’s notice when it comes to characters?

TC: Brendan and I were just so happy to allow Will, for the first time in his career, to play a weird character. It’s so fun to write these scripts, see what it looks like on the page, think about what it’s going to sound like, what it’s going to look like and to have the actors just knock it out of the park. The greatest joy you can have as a writer and producer is to have the show just get better and better every time someone’s hands touch it. And someone like Will, such an incredible voice actor, such control over his voice, such incredible comedic timing. We were just so lucky that we were able to get him and so many other of our voice cast over the course of the season.

BH: I’ll also give Will Forte the shout out, so we recorded, during the pandemic, and we basically got to see everyone in our cast’s closets that had become their makeshift recording booths. No offense to everybody else, but Will Forte had the nicest closet.

JM: Wow. Will Forte with the top closet in the choices. Very cool. You talk about recording this during the pandemic, we’re here in September of 2024. So Brendan, what does it feel like to be a part of something that has had this process of, maybe it’s taken its time a little bit, but it’s here and it needed to be good and needed to get out there, but having this on the brain for a long time and getting it out there now?

BH: It feels amazing to get it out there. Really can’t wait for the fans to actually be able to see it and to enjoy it the way that we have been. And honestly, it’s been a relief and a joy to have it on my brain for so long. It was nice, in the midst of the pandemic, in the midst of anything that has happened in the last several years… we had such an amazingly talented and kind hearted crew that all got along and worked together well. Being able to, no matter what else is going on, dive in and be a part of this project and just have fun creating this world and playing with Gizmo — it was a source of joy.

JM: Nice. Alright, final question for both of you. I’ll start with you, Tze. Besides examining Will Forte’s closet, what has been the wildest aspect of working on
“Gremlins: The Wild Batch”?

TC: Wow. I think the wildest thing is what Brendan was talking about. Season two… I think we pitched it two weeks into the pandemic. It really was a project that kind of kept many of us sane while we were locked in our houses. And, it’s just such a joy to be able to share something that really kept us going during this really difficult time. And now everyone gets to see it.

BH: I basically echo and agree with everything Tze said. Also the fact that at some point, we were able to say, “Yeah, but what if we did the ‘Gremlins’ version of ‘Godfather II’? And pulled it off.