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'Reginald the Vampire' showrunner explains the finale's twists and teases Season 2
What's on deck for Reg and Maurice going forward?
Ever since his siring in the pilot, the first season of Reginald the Vampire has been about Reginald's slow march to The Assessment. If he blows that, he gets dusted. To say it's been a lot of pressure on 'ole Reg (Jacob Batalon) would be an understatement. But we finally got to the big night in the Season 1 finale, "Reginald Andres Beyond Thunderdome." And, it was full of carnival games, subterfuge and triumph!
In our last exclusive Reginald the Vampire post mortem, showrunner Harley Peyton returns to break down some of the best moments of the season finale, which put Reg and Maurice on top for once, and to tease what audiences can look forward to if the series is picked up for Season 2.
It's finally Assessment time, but you handle the big event in an unexpected way. Talk about that.
I feel like the Assessment was always such a big thing. It loomed, obviously, over most of the season because we're all waiting for him to do it. It was always sort of funky and weird and DIY in the novel but there was a moment when we realized we don't have the money to do, like, American Ninja Warrior level stuff. We can't afford to do that. So the Assessment, it's not that it lost importance, but it ends pretty quickly in the episode. It's not the entire episode at all. Even though we build toward it, and we want to give it the do that it deserves, and make all that happen. I think we have a very funny way that Reginald manages to out-think the process that I was very happy with. Nonetheless, I realized that where the show lives is what happens after.
The after being the big celebratory party at the Slushy Shack?
Yes, my favorite part of the finale, as much as I love the Assessment, is the party they have at the Slushy Shack afterwards where you see these newly minted couples. And, some of them are kind of a surprise, I suspect, like Todd and Mike. Then there's Nikki and Ashley, who we've actually built to a little more obviously and more carefully. There's Maurice and Angela in a way too. Because Season 2 is about being a couple, and what happens to all of them. And of course, Reginald, and Sarah will always be the centerpiece of that.
Going back to The Assessment for a minute and seeing Julian Richings as Logan. Did you pick him from your days working with him on Channel Zero?
I worked with Julian on a pilot many, many years ago, actually for SYFY called Three Inches. Julian was in that and he was so great. I suggested him, of course, for Channel Zero. He was always my first choice for Logan.
You also squeezed in an Ocean's Eleven-type reveal into this episode in how the gang worked together to bring down Logan.
Yes, Ocean's Eleven was kind of the touchstone, any one of those movies like that. That was something that we wanted to work out and then reveal it all during the flashback, and then get to things like Claire's superpower. It was really fun. I was very happy with the way that worked out.
Speaking of Claire, what are we supposed to take away from what she does to the vamps and how she reveals it to Maurice?
We talked a lot about that early on, because her power — such as it is, with laser eyes — wasn't really revealed until the second book. I really wanted to get it into our first season but SYFY was very smart in making me slow play it, because I was ready to jump in. In fairness, the focus needed to be Reginald. But we always wanted to get to this moment, and it just worked out perfectly that she would do that to the vampires who've been sent to kill her. Without giving anything away, it becomes very, very important in the second season. It's all about being the daughter of an Incubus. There are not many of those and so that's really where that power came from. The metaphor for her is puberty, of course. But now, in Season 2, it's going to be becoming a young woman.
Talk about having Sarah and Reg together in the place they both prayed, and revealing that to one another. There's so much hope there for them.
They're so great together. And we always wanted to build to that moment from [Episode 7] where he ruined everything, so it has meaning. And so that's why it wasn't about them just getting back together at the end of the season. In Season 2, that'll be part of their journey.
Last but not least, you add angels into the mix after teasing them with their blood. What does Urial's appearance portend going forward?
In the book, there's a war with the angels. Now bear in mind, we can't afford a huge war with the angels. [Laughs.] Happily that's not what happens. I'm not going to give anything away, but I got lucky there. For me, it was just having a really big moment about how can we leave the audience wondering what happens next? It was showing how Urial basically kills cuts off her head in the aftermath of The Assessment, and there he is about to have a slushy, it's hard not to think that Reginald is in a huge amount of trouble. But let's find out what an angel thinks when it has his first sip of a slushy, that's all I'm saying. It gave us a ramp to a second season that I was really happy with. It's gonna be pretty wild.
