Lovecraft Country: showrunner speaks on that finale

Warning: Be sure you have seen the season finale before reading!

Lovecraft Country came to a thrilling finale yesterday after a wildly imaginative and genre-bending season….

But there were also some very big moves that pose questions for a second season (which is yet to be formally renewed).

Showrunner Misha Green spoke to the Hollywood Reporter about that ending.

Here are several excerpts.

All of the deaths in the season finale were surprising, but first I’m curious about your decision to kill Christina (Abbey Lee) and Ruby (Wunmi Mosaku), and end their storylines where you did.

We talked about the Christina and Ruby relationship and the course of their arc over the season. In the idea of these potions and being able to swap bodies it felt like at the end of the day Ruby would choose her sister, and that would upset Christina who’s actually gotten closer to Ruby than she’s gotten to anyone in a very long time. So that just felt like the natural progression of that story and that portrayal. And then Christina, she’s not invincible anymore, and it just felt like the question of what would happen to her was answered by Dee’s robotic arm. (Laughs.)

And then we get to Tic dying. That was the biggest surprise because he’s been the lead of the show this whole season, and connected everyone to this world of magic. So how did you arrive at the decision to kill him off?

In the writer’s room we talk a lot about this idea of the hero’s journey, and what that means. How do you change power structures that are so powerful? And part of that thought was that you have to make sacrifices to change the world. So it was very interesting to us to watch a hero know that’s what’s coming, and know he has to do that to change the power structure within Lovecraft Country, which is magic, knowing that his sacrifice was going to be worth that. It was just exciting to watch that character go through that, to see this person that had been kind of actively fighting his death the whole season, actually accept it and walk towards it.

What’s the status of season two? Have you begun writing or any pre-production yet?

I literally just finished season one like three weeks ago. (Laughs.) So yeah, we’re not. We’re in talks with HBO the possibility of it, but nothing’s official.

Should a season two happen, will Jonathan Majors be back in any capacity?

Pleading the fifth. No spoilers. (Laughs.)

Fair enough. Will season two follow the same characters?

Pleading the fifth. No spoilers. (Laughs.) I think that one of the things that was really exciting for me in season one, and working with HBO PR, was really trying to keep every episode as much of a surprise as possible and to let the audience get to go in and experience it. And I feel the same way about season two. There’s definitely a path forward that we have, but I definitely want to keep it close to the vest. It was one of the things that was exciting about reading Matt Ruff’s book [on which Lovecraft Country is based] for me: every chapter as it was unfolding I was like “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” We want that to be the experience, because that’s the best genre experience.

You can read more here.