The Animated Series' Creator Unveils Rosie and Alastor's Backstory Serves as a Huge Season 3 Tease
Devoted viewers of the show at last got a much-anticipated origin story in season 2's episode 4, titled “It's a Deal.” This episode is likely to prompt a lot of discussion and pose numerous inquiries about the essence of one particular demon Overlord who seems significantly stronger than anyone previously realized. The new revelations feature a glimpse into the mortal existence of a fan-favorite character before his demise and condemnation to the underworld.
A Major Tease for Upcoming Installments
The show's creator shared an inside detail about “It's a Deal” – it serves as a major tease for season 3. She also offered more insight into the process of designing the human versions of her demonic cartoon figures.
Warning: Spoilers for episode 4 of Hazbin Hotel, season 2.
In the episode, a flashback discloses that fan-favorite personality Alastor, the Radio Demon was a serial killer in his mortal days. Knowing full well he was headed to the underworld, he made contact with the afterlife in advance to obtain a strong position in Hell. The charismatic leader, the charismatic leader the cannibal faction in Hell, vowed Alastor he would become “the strongest Sinner in Hell” in exchange for his eternal spirit.
This raises an important query: How is this character sufficiently strong to raise Alastor above every other Sinner Demons?
“The agreement between Rosie and Alastor is the initial building block in a larger narrative that involves a great deal, moving into season 3,” the creator explains. “Clearly that is an excellent question: How is she so strong? The solution could be many things, but the answer is in season 3. I am thrilled for fans to witness it.”
There’s no telling how long the audience will have to remain for Hazbin Hotel’s next season. The production companies have approved seasons 3 and 4, but the showrunner often notes that animation is a time-consuming endeavor, and subsequent seasons have no release dates yet. Still, she says holding off on specific information is a crucial aspect of maintaining the second season's focus where it belongs.
“The difficulty of any agreement with infernal beings, or narratives that have mysteries, is providing the audience sufficient clues to be like, Something's up here, and then revealing that as we go, and letting that be gratifying,” she comments. “So I am quite eager.”
Mysteries Resolved in The Next Season
The creator promises that season 3 will tackle the questions followers have been posing, like why Rosie ordered Alastor to disappear for a seven-year period, which diminished his influence in the infernal realm.
“The whole seven years, and the deals these humans are making, and all that — it's feeding into a bigger narrative,” she says.
Meanwhile, the origin story episode provides a further look into what the core cast of Sinner Demons looked like as humans, the second after seeing another character's Victorian-era mortal appearance in episode 2. She explains that a lot of thought went into these character designs.
“The mortal forms of the characters carry so much weight,” she says. “They range from looking really different from their infernal version to looking almost identical. With Pentious, the initial design we see, there was some internal discussion within the team between going with a design that symbolizes the character, versus going with an option that's historically correct. We opted for creating a design that just felt like it was him.”
She mentions the primary controversy over the mortal look of Pentious was his long hair: “We were like, ‘Nobody typically had extended hair of that style in Victorian-era London.’ But at the same time, we believe the silhouette is extremely crucial, and we also just thought he appeared attractive. We were like, ‘This seems correct.’ We kind of gave the excuse that he lived in seclusion, so he just allowed his hair to lengthen. So there is always a solution. As we create the mortal forms of these characters […] it's such a fun thing to explore and figure out. I'm excited for people to see more of what the human forms look like.”
New episodes of Hazbin Hotel season 2 are released on midweek on the streaming service.
