'Lucifer' boss teases final season's Looney Tunes-style episode animated by 'Harley Quinn' vets

Nyehhhhh...what's up, Satan? With the sixth and final season of Lucifer just two weeks away from premiering on Netflix, showrunners/executive producers Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich sat down with Collider to discuss Tom Ellis's last hurrah as everyone's favorite fallen angel. In particular, the series bosses opened up about Season 6's animated episode — devilishly titled "Yabba Dabba Do Me" — which pays homage to classic Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera offerings.

"I just didn't think I'd actually get to, because it's just such an undertaking," Henderson explained. "But it was COVID and we were looking for ways to have fewer days on set. And so the problem became the opportunity, because I secretly had been wanting to do it for years."

He went on to reveal that the special was brought to life by a number of core team members behind DC's acclaimed Harley Quinn series on HBO Max (including Quinn supervising producer Jennifer Coyle). "We got super lucky," Henderson continued. "Because we had this just incredibly lucky window of time where you have these animators who can just bring so much humanity to cartoons. And so it was just this wonderful confluence."

"We were sort of talking about doing a Hanna-Barbera style, and then they actually worked a bunch of Looney Tunes influence in there as well, which you very much see in there," added Modrovich. "I mean, we gave them our instincts and they just flew. They're amazing. Like they're just incredible to work with. I mean, we had the starting point, but they brought it to life."

But like the musical or film noir-inspired episodes, the showrunners had to find a way to "earn" a legitimate reason to go animated. "How do you earn it within the language of the show? That was important," Henderson concluded.

Lucifer Season 6 claws its way out of well and onto Netflix Friday, Sep. 10. Now that the show is coming to an end, Henderson has been tapped to spearhead another intriguing Netflix project: a live-action take on Pokemon.