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Anthony Mackie, Twisted Metal Creators Talk "Insane" Hopes For Season 2 of Peacock Series
"I think if people give this show the leash that it deserves to get you into it, I think Season 2 is going to be insane."
While there's no news yet from Peacock about a second season of Twisted Metal (after all, the show only premiered this week), series lead Anthony Mackie believes it'll be hard for the streamer not to pick the project back up once audiences connect with the colorful cast of characters.
"I’m excited about a second season," Mackie — who also serves as an executive producer on the video game adaptation (stream it right here!) — told SYFY WIRE over Zoom prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike. "I think when people see the show, the characters have developed in such a way that you get attached to them; that you enjoy the banter between all of them."
RELATED: Critics Say Peacock TV Adaptation Takes Twisted Metal Franchise for Wildly Fun, Anarchic Joyride
***WARNING! The following contains major spoilers for the Twisted Metal finale!***
Twisted Metal cast and crew members share their hopes for Season 2
Samoa Joe, the hulking individual behind the Sweet Tooth mask, hopes to see the sociopathic clown (voiced by executive producer Will Arnett in post-production) "branch out."
As revealed by the finale's mid-credits stinger, the ice cream truck-driving looney is a lot harder to kill than we originally thought, and getting run over by his erstwhile buddy Stu (Mike Mitchell) won't have improved his mood much. "I’d love to see him get even more vicious than he was in the first season," Joe admitted. "And maybe see an even darker side of Sweet Tooth going into Season 2."
You're telling us that wasn't his "darker side"?!
In terms of plot, we know a second season would revolve around a deadly vehicular tournament (the exact kind featured in the PlayStation video games) hosted by the mysterious leader of New Chicago: Calypso. Whomever wins said contest will be granted their heart's deepest desire, and Raven (Neve Campbell) hopes to collect that ultimate prize with the help of Mackie's John Doe.
"I've heard what the ideas are. I can't speak about them [although] I’d love to," teased Supervising Sound Editor and Re-Recording Mixer James Parnell. "But I think if people give this show the leash that it deserves to get you into it, I think Season 2 is going to be insane. We have to be in the middle of the tournament or John has to make his way to the tournament [from] New San Francisco."
Speaking hypothetically, costume designer Liz Vastola feels like "the costumes might be kicked up a notch" for the tournament setting, "because it's part of their showmanship," she explained. "But it’s also all about the cars. And so, I always want to make sure that we’re complimenting the vehicle, which is really the soul of what Twisted Metal is about."
RELATED: Twisted Metal Stars Sound Off: "There’s So Much Cool Sh**" in Wild New Peacock Series
Cast member Stephanie Beatriz (Quiet) has high hopes for "a lot more vehicular tournament-ing," "lots of demolition-style" mayhem, and "more hand-to-hand combat" in a second season.
"I think the fight scenes are so fun to watch, especially when there’s an element of comedy in them," she added. "If we’re lucky enough to get a Season 2, I’m excited to see how the world continues to flesh out because there’s so little of it you’ve actually seen. Even though you’ve gone across the United States, the Wild Midwest, you haven’t seen a ton."
She continued: "We haven’t been too much inside any of the city walls. We don’t really know what New Chicago looks like, we don’t know who’s at the top. Who’s got all the power? How do you get more of that power? How do you distribute that power equally and ethically to the people [in] need? Because there are have and have-nots in this series and part of Quiet’s journey is… instead of focusing on revenge, now she’s focusing on, ‘Well, what about the idea of revenge for everybody? How about everybody else that’s struggling? Can I do something to help?’"
Did Agent Stone really die in the Twisted Metal finale?
And then we have good ol' Agent Stone (Thomas Haden Church), who took an axe right to the face before Quiet threw him a gun, offering up the same ultimatum the highwayman gave her brother, Loud (Richard Cabral), in the season opener. Stone holds the barrel to his temple and we hear a gunshot as Quiet and John drive away from the scene. What we don't see is the man's brains splattering all over the blacktop, which means he could still be alive. Funnily enough, Church says the Episode 10 script was much less open-ended.
"It’s funny, we debated that. Because the way it was scripted, is that you do see that happen," the actor revealed. "As we got closer and closer to it, I started asking [showrunner] Michael [Jonathan Smith], ‘Do you think you want to see it?’ And he goes, ‘I don’t know, man. Everybody really digs Stone. Everybody’s really digging the character. Maybe we want to leave it to the imagination.’"
All 10 episodes of Twisted Metal are now streaming on Peacock.
Want more original Peacock content? Be sure to check out Bel-Air, Killing It, A Friend of the Family, Poker Face, Joe vs. Carole, Mrs. Davis, MacGruber, and Based on a True Story.
**These interview were conducted before the actors' strike.**
