The Animated Series' Creator Reveals Rosie and Alastor's Origin Tale Serves as a Huge Teaser for Season Three
Devoted fans of the show at last got a long-awaited origin story in season 2's episode 4, called “It's a Deal.” This installment is likely to prompt a lot of discussion and pose numerous questions about the nature of one particular demon Overlord who appears far more powerful than any character previously realized. The new revelations include a look into the human life of a fan-favorite character prior to his demise and condemnation to Hell.
A Significant Hint for Future Seasons
The series creator shared a secret about “It's a Deal” – it serves as a huge hint for the third season. Additionally, she offered more insight into the methodology of designing the mortal forms of her infernal animated characters.
Spoiler alert for episode 4 of Hazbin Hotel, season 2.
In the episode, a look back discloses that popular character Alastor, the Radio Demon was a mass murderer in his mortal days. Being aware he was headed to the underworld, he established communication with the afterlife in advance to obtain a strong position there. Rosie, who leads Hell’s cannibal community, vowed Alastor he would become “the strongest Sinner in Hell” in return for his eternal spirit.
This prompts the question: How is Rosie sufficiently strong to raise Alastor above all other Demonic Sinners?
“The Rosie and Alastor deal is the first stepping stone in a larger narrative that encompasses so much, moving into the third season,” the creator explains. “Obviously that is an excellent question: How is she so strong? The solution could be various factors, but the answer is in season three. I'm very excited for fans to witness it.”
It is uncertain how long the audience will have to wait for Hazbin Hotel’s next season. The production companies have green-lit seasons 3 and 4, but the creator often remarks that animation is a slow, lengthy process, and later seasons are undated. Nevertheless, she states withholding on specific information is a crucial aspect of keeping season 2’s focus in the right places.
“The challenge of any kind of deal with demons, or stories that have mysteries, is giving people just enough information to be like, Something's up here, and then unveiling that as we go, and letting that be gratifying,” she comments. “So I am quite eager.”
Questions Answered in The Next Season
The showrunner assures that the upcoming season will address the questions followers have been asking, like why the cannibal leader ordered Alastor to disappear for seven years, which weakened his influence in the infernal realm.
“The entire seven-year span, and the pacts these individuals are doing, and everything — it's feeding into a larger story,” she reveals.
Meanwhile, the Rosie/Alastor backstory episode provides a further look into how the core cast of Sinner Demons appeared as as mortals, following after viewing Sir Pentious’ historical human form in the second episode. The creator says that a lot of thought was put into these character designs.
“The human versions of the characters carry so much weight,” she notes. “They vary from appearing quite distinct from their infernal version to looking almost identical. With Pentious, the initial design we see, there was a little bit of a debate within the team between going with something that symbolizes the character, as opposed to selecting something that's historically correct. We opted for creating a design that just seemed like it was him.”
She mentions the biggest debate over the mortal look of Pentious was his long hair: “We were like, ‘No one typically had long hair of that style in Victorian-era London.’ But at the same time, we believe the outline is extremely crucial, and we also just thought he looked good. We were like, ‘This seems correct.’ We kind of gave the excuse that he's a hermit, so he just allowed his hair to lengthen. So there is always a solution. As we design the mortal forms of these characters […] it's such a fun thing to explore and determine. I am looking forward for people to see more of what the human forms look like.”
New episodes of Hazbin Hotel the second season are released on midweek on the streaming service.
