Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin are the co-creators of FOX’s hit animated comedy series The Great North. Season 3 premieres this Sunday Sept. 25 at 8:30pm with the fun and heartfelt episode “A Knife to Remember Adventure”. Wendy and Lizzie discuss how they kick-off the new season, their plans for the show’s future and if they’d be open to a Great North movie. Plus we pick our favorite Julianne Moore performances! (There’s a reason.) This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.

Jackson Murphy: We’re kicking off Season 3, but the show has already been renewed for Season 4! Congratulations. How does it feel?

Wendy Molyneux: It feels incredible. And that’s the wild thing about animation: you are always working a year ahead. It feels great to know we now have this great year ahead of us to make 22 more episodes of The Great North. It’s a tremendous relief and a big challenge, and we’re really excited for the writers’ room to be back.

JM: I’ve noticed over these past five years, FOX has put even more care into animation. It’s been wonderful, and Lizzie, your show has been one of the reasons why. How have you seen firsthand through making these first few seasons of The Great North the care and attention that FOX has towards your show and animation?

Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin: FOX is such a special place to be for animation. You go back to the early days of The Simpsons. I grew-up watching The Simpsons on FOX on Sunday nights. To have a show on that night, part of Animation Domination, is incredible. They’ve done it for so long. There’s a reason why it has been around. They do truly care about their shows. We get such great feedback from them. They really build a night that is really special. It’s all about the fans. And we certainly feel it. We feel the pressure, in a good way, to deliver something that can stand-up next to the other shows that are on that night. It’s been an incredible experience. We’re excited to continue to do it: to air Season 3 and to continue with Season 4.

JM: The quality — and the love and appreciation from the fans are really there. This Season 3 premiere episode is called “A Knife to Remember Adventure”. I’ve screened it, and I really enjoyed it. Wendy, this Crocodile Rob’s restaurant the gang goes to is the most fun place in the world.

WM: It honestly is. There’s actually quite a kerfuffle on Twitter recently about whether chain restaurants are “good”. But I feel like as a kid if you’re ever lucky enough to go to dinner, what you really love is when your parents take you to The Rainforest Cafe or Olive Garden. You’re not trying to go for some molecular gastronomy. These chain restaurants try to create a whole world for you. That’s kind of what this Crocodile Rob’s place is. And for a reason revealed in the episode, the Tobins have not really been able to ever go there. They go and they discover a paradise the likes of which they’ve never known, which they then have to hide from their father — that they’re sneaking off. It’s sort of like an affair they’re having with Crocodile Rob’s. Anyone who’s ever fallen in love with a chain restaurant — and let’s face it, we all have — whether you pretend to be snobby about food or not, I guarantee you everyone has that one place.

JM: And new Emmy winner Murray Bartlett from The White Lotus voices Crocodile Tom. He could get nominated again next year for voicing this character. He’s fantastic.

LML: Anything he does from here on out… he deserves to be nominated. He’s so funny and it was such a delight to record with him. We enjoyed The White Lotus. It was such a get to be able to have him guest voice on this episode. So we’re thrilled.

JM: And Wendy, this episode features a lot of songs. The Great North is a rare network show (and you do it with Bob’s Burgers as well) that’s able to have songs. What does that freedom and excitement feel like to put songs into not just an animated show — but one in primetime on a network?

WM: I think songs are a great storytelling device. They help you understand the emotion of where the story wants you to go — being really transported by a place or a person. It also lets you tell a lot of story. There’s a song later in it that’s not quite Crocodile Rob’s-based where you find out a lot more about the history of the Tobins and something that’s been going on in their family for a while. And within the two minutes of the song you can find out so much because songs let you move around in time and meaning. That’s one of the really great things we’ve been able to experience on Bob’s and The Great North.

JM: Nick Offerman leads the voice cast as Beef, and he has one of the best voices in the biz. And what he has to do in this episode is effectively deliver awkward small talk lines. Lizzie, how was it watching an actor having to really act in that way and pretend to have these moments?

LML: Anytime you record with Nick it’s just really fun. Obviously he’s got an incredible voice and is so talented. We are so lucky that he enjoys doing this show and has time for us. He’s a very busy man. It’s fun to put Beef in those type of situations where he has to face some of his anxiety. I don’t want to speak for Wendy, but there’s a little bit of Molyneux in the character of Beef. A little anxiousness, naturally, in our family. It’s fun to see that comfort and Beef pushed through those moments. That’s why he’s such a lovable and fantastic character. Nick is able to take-on all those personality traits of Beef so effectively. It’s almost like Nick and Beef are two different people. To see Nick become Beef in the recording sessions is always amazing.

JM: Nice. And there’s real emotion to this episode, through Beef’s scenes with a couple key characters. There’s a scene with Honeybee telling Wolf, “Your mom is haunting you like a Julianne Moore performance.” So Wendy, what’s the Julianne Moore performance that really gets you?

WM: Well it’s got to be [Linda in] Magnolia, right? Oh wait! There’s another one. Magnolia for sure. Her big monologue. And then her in Still Alice. She plays a woman struggling with Alzheimer’s. I’m not kidding that I was haunted by that. She made it feel so real that at the end of the movie you felt as if you had gone through the entire journey with her. Julianne Moore is truly the best.

JM: Lizzie, what about you? I also think her as Sarah Palin in Game Change. That was a powerhouse performance too.

LML: I mean, can we name one that doesn’t haunt you? No. There’s too many. The one that she’s in with Colin Firth…

JM: Oh, A Single Man.

LML: A Single Man! Haunting movie and the performances are beautiful.

JM: I wanna also talk about The Bob’s Burgers Movie. You two were executive producers. A big critical and audience success. I really enjoyed it. Lizzie, how was that experience of bringing it to the big screen and having it FINALLY get to the big screen? It was delayed for so long.

LML: The experience of seeing it… we worked on it with everybody at Bob’s, but it’s truly Loren [Bouchard] and Nora [Smith] really at the helm of it. They worked on it for so long. Of course there was the pandemic, so we were working at home for such a long time leading up to the release. Seeing it on the big screen, I felt like I was just a fan of Bob’s Burgers — the most magical experience to see it all come together. Everybody involved with it knocked it out of the park. It was a great celebration of Bob’s.

JM: Nice. Wendy, does having Bob’s go to the big screen and how that all went give you ideas on a plan for if The Great North could go to theaters?

WM: No. And here’s why! Right now we want people to watch The Great North on the small screen. We are only in our third year. We’d love for people to just check it out on FOX and Hulu. We don’t think past tomorrow. We think about making Season 4 great, and we don’t think past that. If we took our eyes off the ball now… we want to make sure every episode feels special and really shows you something new about Alaska and the Tobins. We do not think about a movie at this point of our working on The Great North. We’re just thinking about the show. We’re thinking about it for you so you can enjoy it.

JM: Well that’s good to still be focused on this and maybe down the line you’ll cross that path.

LML: Sure! Never say never.

WM: Talk to us in seven years.

JM: Alright! Well Wendy, what else can fans expect from Season 3?

WM: You’ll see the return of a lot of our faves, [including] Ron Funches as Jerry, Honeybee’s brother. Rob Delaney returns as Beef’s brother [Brian]. We have some fun episodes coming up that are reflective of Alaska and some of the quirkier things that might go on that make the state so special. We have a fun episode coming up where Ham and Moon participate in a gentleman’s pageant. Some more Alaska-based hijinks for the Tobin family.

JM: Nice. Lizzie, it is interesting you have to look ahead to Season 4 but you’ve got Season 3 all in your head already. And now it’s going to come out over the course of eight or nine months — to have to keep some of these secrets a little longer?

LML: You know, it is. It’s a lot of information you have to keep in your head. At times I feel like I can’t remember if certain things have aired yet or not. I sometimes have to remember if that episode was Season 2 or is that coming-up in 3 or is it something we’re talking about for 4. We do all of our work so far ahead. It’s nine months from when we read a script ’til when it ends-up on your TV… or more… so there’s a lot of lead time and a lot of episodes swirling up here. But hopefully we’ll be able to keep track, and it’s always fun to see the fans reacting to each episode as we release them into the world after having them just for ourselves for a year!