Vivienne Medrano is the creator and one of the writers for Amazon Prime’s animated show Hazbin Hotel. Just through our brief conversation, she radiates joy at the show being made and, more importantly, being made in the way that she wanted — an incredible gift for her. Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, she talks about exploring the issues that she really wants to as well as making certain that, while the show expresses different forms of sexuality, it is not the main focus of what is happening. Finally, she talks about why Broadway musicals and animation go so well together — even when you’re in hell.
Awards Daily: The show is famous for the pilot coming out in 2019 on YouTube but you didn’t get to make the full show until 2023 on Amazon. How much of the show did you have mapped out in between that time?
Vivienne Medrano: A lot. The pilot took about 2 years to make and during that 2 years I was already starting to figure out where it would go. What would be the next episode, what would be the overall story of the first season? By the end of that 2 years I roughly had where I wanted the show to go and where I wanted it to end. Obviously a lot has shifted around over time and I became a better writer and storyteller over these years. I also have another series going on at the same time, so there has been change, but overall the building blocks of that initial concept have stayed intact. So, I definitely have a road map; the details are subject to change but the destination is set. Season 1 was exactly what I wanted it to be, with Adam as the villain and the first face-off with heaven. I’m very excited I got to manifest it.
Awards Daily: Speaking of Adam, I love that you go back to the original Lilith story, which I am assuming is the foundation of his douchey misogynistic persona in the show. How did you decide that he would be the leader of the exorcists and that he would be portrayed in this way?
Vivienne Medrano: Peeling the layers back of the story, it does start with the Adam and Eve and Lilith story, which is such an interesting story to me. So, starting from there was always very important for me. With Adam I obviously wanted him to be the villain so him being the exorcist leader just made sense in the context of the story. What is fun about him is he’s this kind of rock star leader guy so it made sense that he would be the leader of the exorcists, so it made sense from a character perspective but also in a story role way. I also just like the idea of making this character funny and also using it to explore toxic masculinity in a comedic but also character-filled way. I think he’s one of the funnier characters who was really fun to write. I got to lay the groundwork for him in the first episode that you have met this kind of guy before and that is the joke about him. In a weird way I think it makes him lovable, like, I love this character, he’s so awful.
Awards Daily: The show is also very well-known for being a musical as well. Why was that an important aspect in having that in your show?
Vivienne Medrano: Musicals are huge to me. I am a massive theater fan and I love how vast and varied musicals are. There is so much variety in musicals in terms of genre, tone, and maturity level. I love how animated the performances are on cast albums, and that was a huge influence on me because growing up I didn’t get to see a lot of live theater. So I would just have these soundtracks, and I would think they sounded like animated characters. I would imagine my characters in these voices. It was always very important to me to have the show be a musical because that’s just how I viewed and created the characters. To have them officially voiced by this kind of talent is just incredible. I think it speaks to the amazing marriage between live musical theater and animation, as we have seen through the success of animated musicals throughout history.
Awards Daily: So, you have a show that takes place in hell with a bunch of exterminating angels planning to kill everyone, everyone is miserable, and yet is a very perky and happy show. How did you try to keep this balance going?
Vivienne Medrano: I love tonal contrasts. I like when something very bright and happy is also very dark and scary. I love when music is upbeat but it’s about very dark subject matter. Something musicals do very well is that they make things palatable. So you can do things that are experimental and very dark and serious but it can be easier to digest with music. Something I really like about the show is there’s a contrast between the a****** setting and the main character who’s trying to be as optimistic, bright, and determined as possible while facing this adversity. But while they’re in hell we still see love, support, and found family. I also love the contrast of seeing that heaven isn’t perfect either, and it’s important to me that the show represents gray. There are good and bad characters in both Heaven and Hell. I think that is the point of the show. It’s not just one is good and one is bad; there’s a lot of nuance and I like exploring that nuance. I want the theme of redemption to permeate the show because it’s something I believe in in real life. I think it’s important to have respect and empathy for people who make mistakes and are willing and ready to overcome those mistakes. That’s why I think the hell setting works because it’s the most obvious place where people feel like if they’re bad they just go there, and if you’re good you go to heaven. I think there’s an interesting story there.
Awards Daily: Speaking of that theme of redemption, (SPOILER) when Sir Pentious shows up in heaven after his death in hell, I like that it stays away from the miraculously surviving trope and instead goes that there can be redemption. Was that always the plan for him, or was it just a natural progression of the story?
Vivienne Medrano: That came about in a very natural way, that now that the question about if souls in hell can get better has been answered, it is now a question of how, and what made him different. The question of what is redemption still hangs around and we want to explore it. While this worked for that character, it may not work for the other characters. That is the nuance we still want to explore in the show. It was exciting to see what redemption looked like with the first character and we will now explore what got him into heaven and what got him into hell in the first place. I’m excited to dive into that.
Awards Daily: One of the darker aspects you take on is Angel Dust’s situation and why he acts and feels the way he does, stuck in an abusive situation. How hard was it to take on that subject, and how important was it to address?
Vivienne Medrano: It was very important to me. I really care about stories about abuse and toxic relationships and the hardship of that. Angel Dust is the most intense case as a character who’s both physically and emotionally abused and has gone through a lot of really dark things and uses his persona to mask that. That is something I have seen in real life, so even though I have not gone through the exact same experience there are so many people I’ve seen who have. I also feel like the sex worker experience is something that isn’t represented a lot. I think it’s very important not to demonize it and understand that there’s a real hardship that goes through people in that world. So those are issues that are very important to me and I’m really happy that the show got to be very honest with those scenes and got to go as dark as we needed to go.
He is a character that has always mattered a lot to me. Being a victim of abusive relationships, I feel very strongly about the found family, finding those kindred spirits that can help you start to heal and get out of those relationships. Which is why I think that episode resonates with so many. I co-wrote that one and it is very special to me, not just for the issues it deals with but because Angel Dust finds a connection with Husk and starts to feel the support that he needs. That is something that matters a lot to me.
Awards Daily: There was a scene that jumped out at me that I really liked. Alastor constantly has his smile up, always seems to be in control, and yet in the final song he still has his smile but he is agonizing over the fact that he almost died, questioning if he actually cares about people and then saying he’s all about saving himself. It is a wonderfully intense moment that I admit to watching way too many times on YouTube. I’m just curious if there’s anything about that scene that spoke to you or anything you can say about it?
Vivienne Medrano: I love that scene! That scene is so quintessentially Alastor, where we get just a peek into his motivations (and in season 2 we get to expand on that). As the show progresses you’re going to see hints and pieces of his true motivations, what his challenges are, and how he is dealing with it. It’s a challenge to work with him because we can never go too far without it being all revealed, and it’s fun to find the mysterious and trickster aspects of him. I love that we got a little taste of that at the end of season 1 so as we move forward we can see more of it. I love that about him. It makes him very fun to write.
Awards Daily: So, you have so many different characters with so many different motivations. Is there something that’s stood out or is very important to you that we haven’t talked about yet?
Vivienne Medrano: That’s a good question. I feel like I’ve covered a lot of the bigger things. One of the things I love about the show that I haven’t touched on yet (this is something I attribute to A24 and Amazon) is that it allows so many members of the cast to be LGBTQ and that they are still flawed characters. None of the characters are expected to be a perfect representational stand-in for a certain identity. The characters just get to be characters, and they also get to be queer very openly. It’s just fun for me as a queer woman writer that the show gets to be about characters first, especially for LGBTQ characters who a lot of times are expected to have their story lines be about their identity. I’m very happy that the studios allowed for the show to just be itself and the characters can be fun, nuanced, and flawed. I think that’s one reason it has resonated with so many audience members, is that it just gets to be fun characters that are like them, but not about the struggle about their identity.
Awards Daily: As a straight male it was fun watching and not noticing the sexuality. It was just a quick little moment where I would remember, oh, yeah, that character is gay.
Vivienne Medrano: Exactly, it just is! I think that’s what’s fun about it.
Awards Daily: Final thoughts?
Vivienne Medrano: I’m just so excited with this whole process. The fact that the show has done so well is an honor. Every day there’s a new exciting moment, and the audience is doing such awesome things. It is just awesome!