[Interview] Los Espookys Creators and Cast on the Hilarious Second Season!

The hilarious Los Espookys finally returned for a second season on September 16h on HBO and HBO Max and it came back bigger and better than ever. The second season has spent its time deepening the characters and expanding the storylines.

Created by Fred Armisen, Ana Fabrega and Julio Torres (all of whom star) and also starring Bernardo Velasco and Cassandra Ciangherotti, the series follows a group of friends who run a business providing spooks and scares to their clients, which range from staging a sea monster to drive tourism to faking an exorcism to help a priest gain popularity in the church.

Gayly Dreadful was able to sit down with the series creators and the stars to talk about the bigger second season, writing a queer show, and what it was like getting back into the characters after COVID.

Season two is about change, as the characters seem to be going in different directions and the theme of exploring the context of exploring your dreams came up in reference to both season one and season two.

Julio Torres explains how the two season compliment each other.

“‘Following your dreams’ was such an important part of [season one]. And I think in the second season, there’s a greater look at the context of the world in which you follow your dreams. Ursula (Cassandra Ciangherotti) has a very broad philosphical ideas of what it means to be a good citizen. Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco)’s very specific in terms of the people he wants to help and Tati (Ana Fabrega) and Andrés (Julio Torres) are vastly thinking about their egos, in their very specific ways, and helping themselves. So I think that that’s sort of like what happens after you are achieving the thing that you want to achieve.”

One of the big things season two does is bring side characters more into focus. In season one, we’re introduced to Water’s Shadow (Spike Einbinder), a demon living inside Andrés and in season two we get to see Water’s Shadow in the real world.

Julio Torres explains what it was like to envision the demon in the real world.

“It was really fun to see the trope of a demon in an office, like having to go through the minutia of working in an office. Our friend Spike, who plays Water’s Shadow, has such like, obviously, a very strong physical presence.”

Julio goes on to explain some of the inspiration that went into having Water’s Shadow work in the Embassy.

“Many, many years ago, Spike and I did just like a YouTube sketch called Mermaid intern, where Spike played a mermaid who had an internship [on] land and was, like, micro-aggressed with questions about being a mermaid. And I think that we got to play with that again, here.”

One of the amazing things about Los Espookys is the diversity, particularly with queer representation. So I had to ask about the queerness in the show.

Ana Fabrega says, “I mean, we’re queer and we have queer friends and we put them in the show. It’s not necessarily a conscious thing. It’s just like, yeah, we happen to be queer and our friends are predominantly other queer people.”

I also wanted to talk to Bernardo Velasco about his character Renaldo. In season one, he is portrayed almost as an a member of the Aromantic spectrum, specifically as asexual. And I wanted to talk about his journey of discovery in season two.

Bernardo explains, “when was I growing and I hit that age where you need to start making different questions about yourself, your body and the surroundings with the other kids in the school…it was a big pressure to talk about that and to meet the demands of other people and the things we see in the media. I love that Renaldo…he sits down with himself and I love that that is one of his checklist [items].”

Renaldo sits down and makes a checklist to help determine his sexuality and at the end of the day, Bernardo says it brought him peace “that he is not really conflicted about what is going to happen with that part of his life. Maybe it’s a door that will be open in the future, but maybe not. And I think he is okay with that. And the people around him, his friends, are okay with that. And I like that the way he approached this question in this season is a way that many of us [did by going on the] internet, like let’s ask the computer ‘what is up with me?’ It’s funny that he doesn’t get real attached to that part. I like that he is free.”

As a final question, I just had to ask about Tati’s ever-changing jobs. This season, she becomes an aspiring novelist and, in true Tati fashion, doesn’t understand that she isn’t writing these famed works. She’s interpreting them as a Tati version. So I was curious what the creators thought they’d like to see Tati adapt next.

Ana Fabrega wants to see Tati adapt “one of those popular young adult ones [like] Ordinary People.”

Julio went with something a bit more concrete, “Hard Choices by Hilary Clinton.”

And as for Fred Armisen? “An Italian dictionary. Just like a translation of a translation.”

Catch up on “Los Espookys” on HBO and HBO Max now and watch the season finale this Friday!