WAYWARD PINES: Chad Hodge on Those Terrifying Abbies

WAYWARD PINES has revealed a lot about the truth of the town in the most recent episodes — and among the most freaky of unveilings has been the closer look at the Abbies, the (deadly) only living creatures (outside of the residents of Wayward Pines) in 4028.

“They actually look different [in the show] than they’re described in the book,” WAYWARD PINES showrunner Chad Hodge shared. “In the book, they’re more creature-like. What we were endeavoring to do here is, we were very concerned that doing them [that way,] all VFX, wouldn’t look great. Especially on a television budget, it’s a different kind of thing.”

“But what became so interesting was the Abbies are the evolution of humans — they are us,” he continued. “So I finally said, ‘What if they basically look like us? And they’re played by actors?’ They’re not monsters, they look like us; they’re essentially like us, but they’re a little different.”

By leaning into the Abbies’ similarities to humans, it allowed Hodge and the writers to take the terror over these creatures to a new level.

“There’s a term called ‘the uncanny valley,’ which is this really cool concept in science, which [says] that which is most like us, but just a little bit different, is actually the most frightening,” Hodge said. “Seeing something like an Abbie is way more frightening than seeing something like a dinosaur. ‘Oh, that looks like me, but there’s something wrong with that.’ And so obviously [the Abbies] are all played by actors and stunt people who look like us, but with the slight modification of the shapes of their heads, and the shape of their ears and teeth and things like that.”

As the show ramps up to its season finale later this month, an increasingly vocal fanbase has gotten behind it — including Stephen King, who tweeted his enjoyment of the series.

“That was crazy! I think having Stephen King say he loved the show was the most thrilling moment so far, on Twitter,” Hodge gushed. “You kind of can’t do better than that…for a show like this, for him to like it, and appreciate it, and want to go so far as to tell other people about it meant so much. We were all over the moon about that. And I’m a huge Stephen King fan. In fact, his book, ‘On Writing,’ is one of my favorite books about writing, and I’ve read it many times. And so it was just so flattering and mind-blowing to have him tweet about the show.”

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WAYWARD PINES airs Thursdays at 9 PM on Fox.

Related:

WAYWARD PINES Post-Mortem: Chad Hodge on Revealing Flashbacks, Kate’s Plan, and a Possible Season 2
WAYWARD PINES: Reed Diamond and Tim Griffin on the Big Reveal
WAYWARD PINES Post-Mortem: Chad Hodge on ‘The Truth’
WAYWARD PINES: Chad Hodge Teases ‘Get Ready for the Ride of Your Life’
WAYWARD PINES’ Cast and Executive Producer Share Why You Should Watch the New Fox Drama

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