Disenchantment Returns! Interview with Showrunner Josh Weinstein Part One

10 February 2021 // Interviews

Fans of Matt Groening’s Disenchantment certainly have started 2021 in the right way as a brand new series of the fantasy series has recently arrived on Netflix.

With Princess Tiabeanie, Elfo and Luci all returning to stream, the third season of Disenchantment takes a decisive step in the right direction and finds its stride in its third season, exploring world’s old and new such as the snooty Bentwood, the murky underworld and a closer look around Steamland, answering questions left from the previous series and delving deeper into the mysteries that surround Dreamland. Throughout the series we are once again accompanied by the hilarious cast of oddball characters and who each project the narrative through bingeworthy episode after bingeworthy episode.

Helming the show is Josh Weinstein, a frequent contributor to Groening creations such as The Simpson’s where he and writing partner Bill Oakley oversaw the show when it was at it’s high of it powers, bringing the world Who Shot Mr. Burns among other classics as well as Futurama. Beyond the ‘Groening-a-verse’ Weinstein has written for show such as Gravity Falls and Danger Mouse whilst still finding time to create his own shows such as the cult classic Mission Hill and UK based puppet favourite Strange Hill High.

We caught up with Josh Weinstein for part one of an exclusive interview at the launch of part three of Disenchantment.

The wonderful thing about getting the show back is that the questions get answered. The other wonderful thing about getting the show back, is that even more questions get asked!

Yeah, we love that gradual unfolding of mysteries, but also the deepening of them. I think season three is the deepening of all the mythology, the questions and the characters, and then after season four (which hopefully will take less time than a year to release because we’re actually mixing and posting those 10 episodes, and we’ll be done with those in May so hopefully it will be less than a year to see the next part) Netflix will order 20 more and that will be speeding them towards the conclusion of everything. Matt and I had the ending, and the various steps towards the ending in mind from when we started. The way we plan is similar to how Alex Hirsch planned Gravity Falls, we know certain tentpole character developments and plot developments. But certain things come up as we’re writing

Though we know Disenchantment will be a finite story, how much has the fan reaction expanded this world? Are there certain tangents that you’ve been invited to go down because of the the audience.

Yeah, I think I think that’s a good question too, places like Steamland, which we loved, and always intended to have a big role. But we saw that a big group of fans really love that. So we figured that it is a good thing and we want to go back to that. We also found that was true of fantasy, people really like to see new worlds. So we try every season to go to someplace new, and fold that into the overall story. The whole idea of making a show serialised has also come, in part from fans reactions and our own reactions, because you’ll remember, in the first season, we had intended the show to be a mix of episodic and serialised episodes. So we thought maybe 60% would be arc driven and 40% would be freestanding episodes. However we found that after the first season, that confused people because they wondered, ‘what is the show, what does the show want to be? Is it going to be just episodic like Futurama, or are they going to tell some ongoing story?’ It’s also an age of Netflix, where people are bingeing stories, and you want to mock that continuity. So I think we, along with the fans decided after the first season, we really should just be telling serialised story after serialised story, even though each episode has to stand on its own, but each episode somehow has to contribute to either the overall arc or the character development.

It must be tricky to have kept that balance together?

I think we have only just managed to really get it down. And even then I’m betting that some fans will be frustrated. Each episode does have some specific contribution to the arc. But yeah, I think we’re learning. Here’s my excuse, like the show that the show itself is about finding yourself. That’s really what it is, like, underlying all the fantasy, but I think the show is also finding itself for, for what’s the best form of it. And we’re just getting that now.

There’s history there isn’t there? Obviously, people would say that the Simpsons and Futurama established themselves in season three, So people thought that they were enjoying season one, season two will be delighted with season three, you must be glad to have found that kind of groove?

Matt and I watch all the episodes together once we have them, even while we’re in the middle of editing, just to make sure that they really flow and pull you along.

In terms of developing the characters, the last season, we saw some really big developments in the kind of the Bean and Elfo relationship and Luci gaining a kind of mortality.

That’s been intentional all along. The story is about Bean, Elfo and Luci, and it’s really as I said before, it’s about finding yourself and they’re all of a certain age, it’s about being from 18 to your early 20s and finding your place in the world. Luci is more like 10,000 years old, but in demon years, he’s like 19, same as Bean and Elfo, they’re supposed to be 18 or 19. So all these characters are finding themselves and you’ll see in Episode Six (Last Splash) Bean finds herself in a certain way that a lot of people have been speculating about for a while, in that episode we’ll answer some questions that have been asked about that.

I’m sure the characters have evolved even further than what you might have imagined at the beginning?

Yeah, because they just start out with with drawings and we have in our head some basic character elements that want those characters to have, and even a basic idea of how they play. A huge amount also comes from the voice actors we have and how they interact together, definitely for Bean, Elfo and Luci and characters like Zog and Una there is a huge amount that comes from the actors, they all really enjoyed playing these characters so a lot a lot comes from them.

I notice from season one ad-libbing Elfo’s catchphrase has become “bum-bum” and a part of his character.

That was a thing that was ad libbed on stage! So now during the pandemic we’ve had to record the actors separately. Before that, we always tried to get them in a room together. The whole bum-bum run came from having Eric Nat and Abby in the in the recording studio together. And that entire thing just came from their heads. But we loved it. And so we kept it alive, and that’s another thing that fans like, ‘bum-bum’ for some reason struck a chord with the fans. So we’ve kept that – and oh, oh, that will be answered in Part Four why Elfo always speaks about getting slapped on the bum bum it has a deeper canonical meaning but it started as an ad lib.

So this thing just keeps growing and growing. As much as you have to eventually complete the arc, are there still extra stories that you’re adding?

We keep finding stuff, stuff is coming up that sort of ties into the canon that we have. Part Three is really the middle and so like after, I’d say that part four through six is going to be the end and wrapping up and bringing things together into a close.

In our last conversation, you mentioned that there are aspects in episode one that really tell you what’s going to happen during the series

If you look at the very first episode, there’s the airship in the background of a shot in Episode One, when Bean Elfo and Luci are fleeing to the Enchanted Forest, in the distance, there’s a Steamland airship. So there’s some things that people have already caught on to, but there’s still something huge that no one has caught. Matt said, before the show premiered the first image you see is very important, and people haven’t gotten what that is yet. And it has appeared frequently throughout the whole series. So there’s still mysteries people haven’t gotten, but then all the big stuff was laid in from the first episode.

So I don’t suppose my expert interviewing technique is going to be able to twist your arm to give us more more revelations or the audience just gonna have to wait?

As a friend I could give you some more revelations! I would say for the for the big one, just look at background. That’s… That’s still extremely cagey. But if you look in the background of a number of shots throughout the series, you might start to get what we’re talking about. That’s really like a side thing, as opposed to like, deeper character developments.

Obviously, a new season comes with new guest stars and I was delighted to hear the the unmistakable tone of Richard Ayoade

Oh, yes, we love them so much. And I think you know, but I’m obsessed with the Mighty Boosh, that’s my favourite show of all time. Years ago, I did a pilot that never went anywhere for an animated pilot with Fox Television, with Matt Berry which was an agonising process because of Fox but we kept going through different inclinations. And then they said let’s bring in Rich Fulcher and make it an animated snuffbox which really made no sense, but we did it to, keep this project alive. So I ended up working with both Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher so I knew if I have a show obviously I want both of those guys on. Through Rich, who’s also a writer on the show, we got Noel Fielding and then for there, we got Richard Ayoade who obviously was one of the main voices on Strange Hill High, as well, so I loved him already. And so it’s my goal to get all the voices of the Boosh eventually on the show. I also want to say like, having a mix of great British actors, great. comedians and Americans is a really like delightful mix and it happens to work in a medieval kingdom. Our king, for some reason has a New York accent and other people have British accents and whatever, but somehow that mix really works.

I think that’s because John DiMaggio is the only person that could create that kind of vein popping bluster. I think I mentioned in our last interview that the British accents actually sound British thanks to the likes of Noel Fielding and Lucy Montgomery

Yeah, Lucy Montgomery is a secret weapon because she’s able to do American accents as well so she does a lot of other side characters. I think it’s rare that American actors do British accents well, but there’s some super talented British people like Lucy Montgomery, who does them and you would never know. I should also say one of our big guests who’s going to be a recurring character, you’ll meet her in Episode Five Mora, the mermaid, played by Meredith Hagner and Mora, as you see Episode Six is hugely important character for Been and also the deeper mythology of the show.

In Episode Six when Bean first meets Mora. There’s big chunks of ad libs that were between Abby, and Meredith Hagner just because they really hit it off in person that we put in the actual episodes and stuff that we could have never come up with in writing.

Disenchantment is available to stream now on Netflix. Keep your eye on Skwigly and on our Twitter and Facebook feeds over the coming weeks for the rest of the interview.

Disenchantment Returns! Interview with Showrunner Josh Weinstein Part One

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