Sweet Tooth season 2 is almost out – and the Netflix series' showrunner Jim Mickle has teased the story is about to get even more ambitious. Mickle tells SFX magazine in the latest issue, which features Star Trek Picard on the cover, that there's plenty of space to tackle this after the first season expanded character arcs and back stories from the comics.
"Now we can take all these characters and really pit them against each other, but also start to dive into the mysteries too," he says. How the hybrids came to be, and how they are part of what wiped out humanity, will continue to be slowly revealed this season. The plucky menagerie, inspired by The Goonies, is represented through real kids wearing practical animal prosthetics – which Mickle says has been daunting.
"Before we went into this season, the thing on everyone’s mind was, 'How the hell do we pull this off?' Doing Gus and Wendy practically, and [groundhog hybrid] Bobby as a full puppet almost crushed the season one production. Now we have 15!"
With the stakes amped up, Mickle says a big theme for season two is that realization that "you can’t go home again," which was inspired by the discomfort of coming out of Covid. As Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) and Aimee (Dania Ramirez) team up to get the kids back, they'll pick at one another’s vulnerabilities. "With Aimee, the moment the world turned upside down, she locked herself away. And then she never really came out," Mickle adds.
With Jep, the tragedy of his lost family and his work with the Last Man army will continue to haunt him. Mickle says creator Jeff Lemire joined them in the writers’ room and was adamant that the show shouldn’t lose the darkness and edge established in the comic for Jep.
"Nonso has this gentle giant thing to him that you don’t want to take away. But I think we found a really great balance of being able to bring that out in an unexpected way, but still letting that play again."
Mickle also teases that the Singhs will continue to struggle with the moral dilemma of Rani’s virus infection and the cost of killing hybrids to save human lives. "In season one, we were able to push them really far. Now we’re turning the screws and spinning the dials to push them again. I love where they come out with all this."
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That's just a snippet of our interview, available in the latest issue of SFX Magazine, which features Star Trek: Picard on the cover and is available on newsstands this Thursday, April 20! For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.
