Big Laughs, Big Rigs: What We Learned About Twisted Metal Season 2 at Comic-Con
Anthony Mackie, Stephanie Beatriz, and their co-stars talk about the new season, including a seven-month time jump.
Here’s what you might’ve heard if you were standing outside Ballroom 20 on Thursday afternoon at Comic-Con: explosions, machetes slicing through flesh, and lots of laughter.
The first two were courtesy of exclusive clips from Twisted Metal Season 2 screened specially for the Comic-Con audience. The laughter was from the enthusiastic crowd and the Twisted Metal panelists: executive producers Michael Jonathan Smith and Asad Qizilbash, executive producer and star Anthony Mackie, and cast members Stephanie Beatriz, Joe Seanoa, and Anthony Carrigan.
The hour-long panel dove into the new season of Twisted Metal, streaming July 31 exclusively on Peacock. In Season 2, John Doe (Mackie) and Quiet (Beatriz) gear up to compete in the batsh*t drive-to-the-death tournament hosted by Calypso (Carrigan). The prize for being the last driver alive? Get one wish granted. Any wish. In the cutthroat post-apocalyptic world of Twisted Metal, there’s quite a lot worth wishing for.
The season introduces more iconic characters from the PlayStation video game, rounding out a crew of the apocalypse’s finest maniacs. This ain’t your average ensemble comedy, though. As Beatriz put it, “It's not on an ensemble of buddies. It's an ensemble of people that wanna murder each other but also are having a very good time together.”
Read on for the actors’ reflections on their characters and what to expect from some of the major players in Season 2 of Twisted Metal.
John Doe
Mackie spoke at length about the next-level stunts in Season 2, so it’s safe to say John will be getting himself into epically sticky situations. Even though he’s often the source of big laughs, you can’t help but root for John on a deeper level.
“Comedy is tragedy plus time, right? And when you look at somebody like John, he has so much tragedy in his life that it's informed the person he's become,” Mackie said. “He has the ability to be courageous. He has the ability to be elusive, but he also has the ability to have fun and experience things for the first time.”
That joy is part of John’s delightful dynamic with Quiet, who was last seen in Season 1 shooting John after she’s left behind. Based on the clips shown at the panel, it won’t be long before they’re reunited and back at it.
Quiet
Beatriz gave fans an update on where Quiet begins Season 2, confirming that there will be a seven-month time jump between the first and second seasons. For the last seven months, Quiet has joined up with the Dolls, a group led by Dollface. Their mission? Equality for all. And having some fun along the way.
“John's been inside New San Francisco. She's pretty sure he is gonna stay there. She's been boning some other people, some of them have some beautiful ladies. She's also realized that she wants to continue her track of being this Robin Hood-esque character,” Beatriz shared. “What she and the Dolls want is for there to be no wall between the insiders and the outsiders anymore. Equality for all, everybody has access to things like a home and safety and food and happiness.”
She quipped, “You know, our show's not really about anything.” Get you an action-comedy that can do both.
Calypso
Twisted Metal newcomer Anthony Carrigan shared more about bringing the iconic Calypso to life and what it was like “being the new kid in school, albeit the new weirdo with long hair who grants people wishes.”
The unhinged laugh? “It kind of just bubbled out of me,” Carrigan said. He elaborated on getting into character, explaining that the name and his attitude toward the derby played big parts: “First of all, his name's Calypso... I mean, he looks like Tommy Wiseau. He has this insane glee about what's going on and his control over this tournament.”
Carrigan went on to describe how special it was to play Calypso as a fan of the video games. “I get to say, ‘Welcome to Twisted Metal!’ and just saying that, I was like, 'Oh my God, that's from the video game!’ There are these moments where you get to high-five your 8-year-old self and it’s really special.”
Sweet Tooth
Seanoa was repping everyone’s favorite murder clown, a role he shares with voice actor Will Arnett. “Sweet Tooth is very much a collaborative effort,” he said of the process working alongside Arnett. “Will and I got together in Season 1, sat down for quite a bit, and hashed out the nuances of Sweet Tooth... I spent the first season doing my best BoJack Horseman impression every time I delivered a line.”
Seanoa’s physical performance and Arnett’s voice bring a sweet synergy to a character you're somehow rooting for.
Axel
One exciting behind-the-scenes tidbit shared by Smith was how they pulled off the character design for Axel, the hulking human-car-hybrid played by Michael James Shaw. While many would assume a guy suspended as the axel between two humongous wheels driving through flames might be all special effects, that’s actually not the case.
"Anytime he is sitting still, it's real,” Smith revealed. “We built a humongous rig... We couldn't just take tractor wheels. We had to find the rubber and mold it around the rig because there weren't wheels big enough for it. The gears all move. When the thing moves, we have to have two puppeteers move him, and then any time it moves faster than a mile an hour, it becomes a CG asset scanned from Mike Shaw and from the rig. The VFX of it is really impressive. We really put a lot of love and care and effort into making sure Axel looks like incredible.”
So, will you drive? If you’re ready to floor it and enter the chaos of Calypso’s tournament, stream the first three episodes of Twisted Metal Season 2 on July 31, followed by two episodes dropping weekly for the rest of the season.
Need a refresher? Stream Season 1 of Twisted Metal exclusively on Peacock before the new season arrives.
