The surprise Netflix hit "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" will come out with its second season release date sometime next year. Now one of the show's co-creators has spoken out on rumors and plot spoilers surrounding the second series.
In an interview with Marc Snetiker of Entertainment Weekly, series co-creator Robert Carlock talked about the success behind season one and what viewers could expect from season two. He created the series alongside American comic Tina Fey.
"Tina and I were really excited for people to see it, but at the same time, the whole Netflix universe was new," Carlock said in regards to releasing all episodes of season one at once. "We couldn't be happier with how it went. It did feel like an opening weekend, and the notices were good."
Snetiker then asked Carlock on what stood out from the production of season one.
"One thing that stood out, and this is always a goal with a new show, is to earn the room to have every character interact and have story together," Carlock said. "By the end, we had Lillian and Jacqueline off on a story together, which is something that in the first episode you couldn't have thought would have happened."
Carlock added that Kimmy, played by Ellie Kemper, "brings people together" in the show. Snetiker then asked him to spill details on the character known as Tituss.
"The hilarious thing...we named the character Titus because we thought of him [actor Tituss Burgess]," Carlock said. "Having worked with him on 30 Rock, he's a character, and we didn't know how skilled he was, really. He would kill with every line on 30 Rock, but we're stupid."
Carlock added that Burgess had to "audition for a part named after him."
"It was such a delight, and seeing the two of them together, Ellie and Tituss... you need at least two characters to work, and then you get Carol Kane and Jane Krakowski and it felt like, oh, this is a show," Carlock said.
Snetiker later asked Carlock on what he thought about Netflix's distribution model, which encouraged viewers to watch all episodes at once in what has been termed as "binge watching." In addition, people subscribed to the service for a monthly fee, which eliminates commercials.
"We certainly couldn't be happier," Carlock said. "Among other things, we got to take out all the commercial act breaks. We edited the first 6 episodes thinking they would be on broadcast, and we were a little nervous going back."
While he and Fey still believed and will continue to work in the broadcast medium, Carlock stated that he liked the idea of people choosing to watch the show on Netflix.
"They pay to have Netflix and they click on that button and they watch you, and it's a more active experience, and I think that that has a little something to do with people's enthusiasm for it," Carlock said.
Carlock then turned his focus on what viewers can expect for season two of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt."
"At the center is a character who has some childlike and repressed qualities, and thus has some limitations on herself that I think dictate the limitations on the show," Carlock said of the challenges. "And I mean limitations in a good way. How do you operate within them? How do you push outside of them?"
According to Snetiker, season one focused on "Kimmy's origin story." He wondered if other characters will get their own backstories in the new season.
"Absolutely," Carlock quipped. "Titus has stuff to deal with; he's running away from his own past. I think we all are. And thank goodness everyone's got Kimmy there, and of course she'll have her own problems, too."
Carlock added that the next challenge will be figuring out how depict "the next chapter in Jacqueline's life."
"She's someone who seemed to have everything, and is now in a place where she has to figure out what she actually wants and how she's going to get it," Carlock said of Jacqueline. "It'll be fun to try to find something that she can be going for, now that she knows Kimmy's deal and that light has been shined on her."
Carlock then told Snetiker that the writing portion of season two would begin in the middle of May, and shooting would start in August. He hoped the series would be released sometime in the spring of 2016.
"Netflix wants them all at once and all done," Carlock said. "Ordinarily, we've got the first six done when you start a season on [a] network, and then you're kind of overlapping as it's coming out. They want all 13 and that's great, but complicates post-production a little bit."
