Our favorite horror-for-hire gang is back! Los Espookys returns to HBO for its second season of fright-on-demand hijinks. As with many productions the show was delayed as result of the pandemic. However, the show returns for its second season on September 16th – and it does not miss a beat.
Los Espookys premiered in 2019 to both audience and critical acclaim. It’s quirky, offbeat nature and clever lampooning of cultural and societal tropes from Spanish telenovelas to Herbalife pyramid schemes quickly caught on.
Co-created by Fred Armisen, Ana Fabrega and Julio Torres, Los Espookys follows four friends— Renaldo (Bernardo Velasco), Andrés (Torres), Tati (Fabrega), and her sister Úrsula (Cassandra Ciangherotti) — who launch a business staging horror-themed events. Think – The A-Team, but way funnier, weirder, and catering to fangoria aficionados.
The second season finds our paranormal creators dealing not only with the day to day of their jobs, but larger existential issues. Renaldo is haunted by a beauty pageant ghost, Úrsula finds herself in the midst of a political campaign to replace one corrupt politician with another. Uncle Tico (Armisen) must find an existence outside of his life calling of being a parking valet. Overprivileged Andres is adapting to a life without privilege and Tati’s is adjusting to being a woman married to a gay man as well as a fledgling author – of sorts.
We had a chance to catch up with Fred Armisen, Ana Fabrega and Julio Torres ahead of the premiere and get the scoop on what to expect this season, the process of coming up with ideas for the show and what they enjoy most about Season 2.
‘LL: This season tackles a bunch of overarching individual storylines for each character, along with the missions in each episode. How did you come up with the ideas?
Julio Torres: Two steps. First, we have this bounty of ideas that we work on, and then we put the roadmap on how to showcase all those things.
Fred Armisen: As crazy as it sounds. We do try to keep it grounded in some kind of reality, just so there is a dramatic element, all to keep it going and balance it out.
‘LL: This season seems to delve more socio and political commentary. Was that by design or did it just arise organically?
Ana Fabrega: It was a mix of organic and planned. But not too heavy handed. If were making a show about Latin America, you’ve got to address the influence of America on the countries. So having a cartoonish villain – who sometimes helps and sometimes doesn’t – but can help you turn an election, that feels true to the history of the region.
Armisen: Exactly what she said. (Laughs)
‘LL: Did the pandemic alter story lines and production for Season 2?
Fabrega: We wrote this season before the pandemic and shot a little more than half and during that two-year break. But we didn’t change anything, we just went back and finished what we planned.
‘LL: How do the concerns of Latinx culture and representation and what it means to be seen on screen. How do those concerns effect storylines, or do they at all?
Torres: Part of the bliss of making this show is that it accidentally, or coincidentally, effortlessly checks a lot of those boxes just by allowing Latinx or queer people do what they do. It happens organically, so there is never a checklist of things we need to show or do or comment on.
Fabrega: That’s what makes the show feel so distinct from other shows that may need to check the boxes. We just make the thing we want to make, and it comes out that way.
Armisen: It’s fun and nice to depict weirdos.
Fabrega: – Yesss…. Hispanic people can be weird! (Laughs)
‘LL: What are you most excited about for the second season?
Armisen: Just that it actually got completed. At the time we didn’t know. We shot half and then stopped and had to wait a month, then re-start, then stop and wait again. The big feeling was -we [finally] did it! We hope that the happiness we felt in completing it, that it translates to the audience when watching it.
Fabrega: I’m excited, it feels like a much stronger season. I just feel like we wrote a better season, our director amplified the stories. It feels like an evolution and maturity from the first season.
Torres: We leaned into the oddities of it more and fleshed out the world. I am excited for audience to see that.
‘LL: Any ideas for Season 3?
Torres: We are constantly talking about little ideas, wouldn’t be funny if this happened or that happened, but there is no grand plan.
The creators and cast may not have grand plan, but after seeing the new episodes, fans are sure to be wanting more. Until then Season 2 of Los Espookys premieres on HBO on September 16th.