Exclusive: ‘Sweet Tooth’ showrunner Jim Mickle on the challenges of making a bigger and bolder season 2

Cr. Kirsty Griffin © 2021 Photographed June 2019

It’s not quite a legal requirement, but subsequent seasons of any popular show are virtually obligated to get bigger in terms of scope, scale, and spectacle, something Sweet Tooth creator and showrunner Jim Mickle was keenly aware of when he began crafting the second run of episodes for Netflix’s smash hit fantasy.

However, the danger is that making the world feel bigger can potentially end up leaving the characters feeling secondary, something the filmmaker was keen to avoid. Ahead of Sweet Tooth‘s return to Netflix tomorrow, We Got This Covered had the chance to speak to Mickle about his creative process, and how he managed to balance the micro with the macro when it came to combining story, action, visuals, and character moments all at once.

“Yeah, it’s different. It’s a challenge, it’s a real challenge. And in season 2, we were dealing with COVID in a way that we weren’t dealing with in season 1, because we were shooting in New Zealand and COVID was not there in season 1, and then it kind of hit pretty hard on season 2, and that added on top of everything else that we were trying to pull off.

So it’s interesting, because I remember not thinking it was that much bigger on the page, and then the production would say, “It’s bigger,” and I’m like, “I don’t know, it doesn’t seem that much bigger.” And then suddenly, you get out there and you’re like, “Oh, it’s bigger, what we’re doing is bigger.” We didn’t have a bigger budget, but we just pushed everything harder and heavier. And instead of having three hybrids, you have 15.

I think the beauty of that in season 2, like I was saying, is that in season 2, you know who the characters are, and you know what they’re up against, and suddenly, you can just start the story. Whereas in season 1, you’re still sort of building who these people are, and you’re sort of getting an understanding of where they are, where they come from. What’s so fun in season 2 is you can just kind of jump right in and pick the ball up of those characters, and suddenly tell even more nuanced things.

So that was a big part of it. But I think it was also the re-pairing this season of characters; we sort of took them everyone out of their comfort zone and matched them up with new new scene partners, really, that just get to explore new things. And that was a fun challenge this season. So it was definitely a lot harder. It was a tougher plane to land, but hopefully we got there.”

The first season of Sweet Tooth ended up becoming one of Netflix’s Top 10 most-watched English-language original shows of all-time when it first premiered, so there’s every reason to believe the sophomore season will come close to accomplishing a similar feat. Mickle has gone bigger in every way, but it remains a character-driven tale first and foremost, with subscribers eager to see what comes next when the series is back on our screens tomorrow.