The following interview features major spoilers for the finale of The Afterparty season 2... you have been warned!
The second season of hit show The Afterparty has been quite the ride with numerous affairs, dangerous secrets, and a damn dog that just won't die (although being honest, I sighed with relief with that reveal). Events were all heading in one direction though, the unmasking of the killer, but did you expect the reveal?
That's right, fun uncle Ulysses (John Cho) is indeed responsible for the death of Edgar (Zach Woods) and his beloved pet lizard Roxana, but in a surprise twist it's also revealed that he really intended to murder his brother Feng (Ken Jeong). The horror! We spoke to the show's showrunner Chris Miller, alongside producing partners Phil Lord and Anthony King, to unravel the thrilling finale breaking down the reveal, those cameos, and whether the Redditors managed to solve the mystery. They also discussed what's next for the show teasing that more will hopefully be coming soon...
12DOVE: Congratulations on this season, it was very exciting! I was totally wrong regarding my guess as to who the murderer was...
Phil Lord: Who did you think it was?
GR: My suspicions were on Isabel as she's just so chaotic...
Anthony King: She was very chaotic!
GR: I've got lots of questions and it's weird as we can talk about spoilers, which are normally banned!
PL: We letting it all hang out?
GR: Yeah! So, at what point during the creative process did you realise Ulysses was going to be the murderer?
Chris Miller: It was pretty early! The way we try to construct the murder mystery is to figure out the crime and then figure out how to cover it up. That's the only way I know how to do it! So, it was built in from the beginning which helps make it not feel random, the whole thing is built around it. It also helps you have the feeling that of course it had to be him!
GR: So, did John Cho know when he was approached he would be playing the murderer?
CM: I did tell him, yes...
PL: Surely that's the opener?
CM: Actually, I think I told him the second time I spoke to him about it. The first was introducing the show, the second I shared with him the secret. But for everybody else, I didn't tell them if they were or weren't the murderer, only when they signed on we gave them all the scripts so they were all reading through to see if they were the killer.
GR: In the show, would you want to be the killer?
AK: It's certainly fun to be the killer as you get to play so much with it, covering things up, lying. But in our show, plenty of characters have secrets who aren't the murderer. Ulysses though is so two-faced and the reveal of how narcissistic he is at the end, it's such a fun turn for an actor.
CM: It's very juicy!
PL: Hmmm, I've been thinking about this. I'm going down a rabbit hole in my brain about why we dress up as murderers on Halloween. What is it about play acting our darker sides? We do it once a year to maybe get it off our minds.
CM: Yeah, it's an interesting way to explore our darker tendencies...
PL: I think we live in this less murderous time in our history, so it's something we are probably programmed to think a lot about but it doesn't happen as often as it used to. So, I guess we watch TV shows about it instead!
GR: Murder mysteries are definitely very popular right now! I want to talk about the cameos in the finale, we have Gemma Chan, Keke Palmer, Elijah Wood, and more. How did they come about?
CM: We just had fun trying to think about who would play these characters from the first season. We thought Gemma would be perfect for Zoe and Jack [Whitehall] was like, 'I know her I can ask'...
PL: He is so famous in England!
GR: Oh yeah, I can confirm!
CM: With everyone we just wanted to go with fun choices! We did want to try get everybody together but it ended up being too difficult, so we shot all those people separately.
GR: Was your cast happy with the actors you chose to play them in this meta part?
CM: Ermmmmm, I think so?
GR: You don't sound certain there?
CM: I mean, hopefully! Tiffany got to see Keke perform as her which was fun, she really enjoyed that. That didn't happen for anybody else though, I just sent them clips of their doppelgangers.
AK: In the first season, Tiffany improvised this whole monologue about how attractive she found Jaleel White. She told us that was legit, that's all her not her character. So, she pushed for him to appear in this one.
CM: So, she helped sort that out to satisfy her lifelong fantasy of being able to kiss Urkel [White's popular character from hit show Family Matters]. She got to do that!
PL: It's on all of our bucket lists!
GR: Tiffany living your dreams! I know you put plenty of clues in the show, hidden puzzles etc., for fans to spot. Have you been keeping an eye on the Reddit boards to see if they have been getting them?
PL: I don't, but I have a feeling Chris does...
CM: I do look at it once a week, yeah, and they catch so many but there's a handful they haven't picked up on, one of which I was happy went under the radar. I was so worried they would pick up on it I nested it amongst red herrings. It's been fun, they are very intense, go through frame by frame...
AK: They also found a lot of clues that aren't clues...
PL: I wonder if the Redditors would be surprised?
CM: Oh, erm. We knew the Redditors would solve it as it has to be a solvable murder mystery, but we want casual viewers to be surprised.
PL: So, they already figured it out?
AK: There's more debate this year but the prevailing theory is the correct one.
PL: Did they work out the shower thing?
AK: Yeah they did, they figured that out early actually, something weird happened in the shower...
CM: It's also like the wisdom of crowds, as one person notices something and the other something else, then someone else puts those pieces together.
GR: So, now that this season is over, I know you are on strike right now but once that's ended are you hoping to start work on season 3?
CM: That would be great! We have a lot of ideas and there's a lot more that can be done, we love the show too, so hopefully we can begin to do a third season. But even more hopefully the studios will offer a fair deal to the writers so we can make one.
All episodes of The Afterparty season 2 are now available via Apple TV Plus. If you want to find out more about this season, also read our interviews with actors Sam Richardson and Zoë Chao as well as the rest of the ensemble cast. We also have more with the creators and asked the team what they would pick for their mind-movies too.
For more great new TV shows coming your way this year, check out our recommendations of what to look out for.
