'The Mysterious Benedict Society' cast, creators tease Tony Hale's 'cult leader' turn in season 2 (original) (raw)
"This guy reinvents himself as a happiness self-help guru and that was something none of us expected. He's a smart dude," Hale says.
Published on October 7, 2022 04:25PM EDT
In The Mysterious Benedict Society season 2, the villain just wants to make everyone happy. Doesn't sound too bad, right?
Wrong. When the cast and showrunners of the Disney+ series stopped by EW's New York Comic Con video suite on Friday, they revealed that one of Tony Hale's two roles — Dr. L.D. Curtain, the evil twin of Mr. Benedict — is going to be like a "cult leader" this season with his new mission of selling happiness to people.
Tony Hale as Mr. Curtain in 'The Mysterious Benedict Society'.
"In the first season, Curtain's whole thing is to try and control people — like Tony," executive producer Phil Hay jokes. "In the first season he was controlling them via negative emotions like anxiety. We thought that it was interesting that he thought he could control people by making them happy which is the flip side of the same coin. It also allowed us to portray Curtain as a cult leader which turned out to be very, very enjoyable."
While Hale jokes that he won't reveal which real cult leaders he used for acting inspiration, he does admit that he loves the direction the show takes with Curtain this season. "The group of Benedict and his family, we were so blindsided because we end the first season thinking we took care of him and then this guy reinvents himself as a happiness self-help guru," Hale says. "And that was something none of us expected. He's a smart dude."
Hay also explains that season 2 is going to show how Mr. Benedict's gifted orphan recruits get even closer now that they've formed this found family — though it won't always be smooth sailing, especially when Mr. Benedict and Number Two (Kristen Schaal) get kidnapped. "Season 1 was about these guys becoming a family, finding a family for the first time," Hay says. "Season 2 we were thinking, okay, now you have a family that you've never had, it's not that easy to be in a family sometimes. It's about now how that relationship develops and we were really excited to see how these guys became a real family together, and that's a big part of the second season."
Check out what else the cast and showrunners revealed about season 2 in the video above now.
The Mysterious Benedict Society season 2 premieres Wednesday, Oct. 26 on Disney+.
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