The Cast Of Hazbin Hotel Talks Fandom, Favorite Scenes, and Dream Cameos For Season 2
Fans have been obsessed with the world of Hazbin Hotel since Vivienne Medrano dropped the original animated pilot on YouTube in 2019. It follows the princess of Hell Charlie Morningstar as she aspires to rehabilitate demons to reduce overpopulation in her kingdom. Now, paired with A24 and Prime Video, the NSFW animated musical hits the small screen. Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado spoke with the cast and creatives at the New York City premiere.
“It’s been unreal,” creator Vivienne Medrano told me about the support from fans. “We’re in a golden age of people making their own projects and them succeeding online and finding their audience. I’m honored because Hazbin… there was a universe where we pitched it around to some places and nobody really knew what to do with it. It was a musical, raunchy R-rated thing that also centers a lot around LGBT stories and has very complicated characters that are flawed and their flaws are the point and on display.”
She continued: “I think that hit a core four our audience on YouTube and I think it hit a core with a lot of people who feel they struggle with things or they’re flawed and all these things. I feel like that to me is why I was making it because I am also a very flawed person and I just wanted to comfort of a story about second chances and growing past that.”
Jessica Vosk, who plays Lute, was thrilled to be a part of such a special show. “It's a very, very amazing thing to be a part of and show that there's such a fandom of this show that has existed long before season one has even come out,” she said, “especially when we get to see what hell is and what heaven is supposed to look like. It's just such a backwards show and I love it so much.”
Erika Henningsen plays the leading role of Charlie Morningstar in her first series regular voice over role. “I got to chart her journey because she goes on a big journey over the course of this first season, which is really fun,” she shared. “Going back to rewatch it, it felt like how Erika felt being in the recording studio. The first day, I was super new to the project, super new to the experience. And then by the end, Charlie sort of finds her inner strength and I feel like that is how I felt as I was recording it. Like finding more trust and faith in myself just as an actor in animation, but then also the character is doing the same thing.”
She loved how “collaborative” of an art form musical animation is. “You just throw out whatever choice you want and it's so fun. It feels like getting to improv on the spot and those improvs end up in the finished product,” Henningsen said. “It plays to my inner child in the best way 'cause I think the only thing they can do is say no so let me try everything. It's like being in your own little personal imaginary world for a couple hours while you record the episode and it's so special. I love it. And you get to wear sweatpants! What's not to love about sweatpants and recording an awesome animated show?”
Henningsen originated the role of Cady Heron in Mean Girls on Broadway and shared how much she loves when musical adaptations are brought to life. “It just allows the musical art form to permeate deeper and to permeate wider across the globe. I grew up on Disney movies and musicals and that's not always the case for people,” she enthused. “I'm so excited for people to see the Mean Girls movie and for them to discover that recording and then to hear perhaps the old Broadway recording. I'm happy for people to hear the songs and to play them over and over in their car. I think music is the universal language. Anytime that we end up musicalizing a known entity like a movie or a book, it just makes me so happy ‘cause it's what I love the most. Music is what we do when words are not enough, so it's always going to be the most joyful and the most heartbreaking. There are some songs in this that break my heart.”
Fans are excited for Huskerdust, but Keith David and Blake Roman loved working together too. “The fact that I was just doing an interview with Keith David? I grew up playing Halo and playing Mass Effect and watching Adventure Time. Just being able to even have that one occasion with Keith, like, he's such a legend. He's inspired me from the start to want to be a voiceover actor. It's surreal,” said Roman, while David saying: “I look forward to playing with him some more. It's always great when you get to play with someone who throws the ball back at you.”
Playing fan favorite character Angel Dust is Roman’s first series regular role as well. “How I connect with Angel Dust is... he's a sensitive person underneath all of the hardened exterior that he has. A lot of how he is is because of the insecurities that lie underneath all of that. I know all of us have our insecurities and how we react to them is what makes us,” he explained. “I connect to him in a little bit of opposition. He doesn't trust easy. He really doesn't trust people easy. I trust people a little too much.”
When it comes to Medrano’s favorite moment of the season, she’s excited for people to learn more about Angel Dust. “Episode four is very special to me because it's an episode that the concept of it I've had since working on the original pilot. I was like, ‘I know this episode exists, I know it's gonna exist.’ It's a very emotional episode,” she said. “I wrote it wit a good friend of mine and it's a special episode for so many reasons and I think it's one of the strongest in the show.”
Henningsen also can’t wait to dive further into her character’s relationship. “I'm really pumped for people to see how Charlie and Vaggie develop as an adult relationship,” she said. “I just love the two of them together.”
Meanwhile, the cast unanimously loves “Happy Day In Hell,” the song that Charlie opens the show with in the first episode. “The song in the first episode ‘Happy Day In Hell’ is the best ‘I want’ song I've ever gotten to sing. I've done a lot of theater. It is truly one of my favorite songs I've ever gotten to sing,” Henningsen told me. “Not just because it's well crafted, but it sets the tone for the series in such a perfect way. I don't even really know how they did it because they didn't know where it was going. They wrote that and we didn't have the end of the series yet. But when you hear my other favorite song, which is in the final episode, they're kind of mirror images of one other in the most epic, awesome way.”
Roman added: “I just love listening to Erika sing. It's funny... if I'm in like proximity to Erika, like, I have to be hugging her. She's like a walking teddy bear and being able to just listen to her absolutely like skrelt face on a song is just great.”
When episode five rolls around, we’ll get our first look at the king of Hell himself Lucifer Morningstar. “We turn the traditional idea of Lucifer on its head,” said Jeremy Jordan who plays the fallen angel. “He’s very insecure. He’s basically a bad father, but who wants to be better. But he’s spent too much time alone that eh’s become this weird eccentric.”
Lucky for us, Hazbin Hotel has already been picked up for a second season! The cast brought up some Broadway legends when it came to who they’d like to see join the Hazbin world. “One person that I love, and it's very obvious, is Lea Salonga. But she has such an angelic voice, maybe she could come in as an angel. My angel. Save Niffty,” said Kimiko Glenn, while Roman said: “Alex Newell. That's who I'll say. I want Alex Newell on Hazbin Hotel and you heard it here first. I love her. She's so great.”
The first four episodes of Hazbin Hotel are streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes dropping January 25 and February 1.
