WOLF LIKE ME Creator Abe Forsythe Previews Season 2’s Big Changes, Including ‘More Comedy’ and Edgar Ramirez

When WOLF LIKE ME ended its first season, in many ways the story could have come to an end there: Gary (Josh Gad) and Mary (Isla Fisher) had settled into a happy coupledom, with a baby on the way. Plus, Gary’s daughter, Emma (Ariel Donoghue) learned Mary’s big secret—that she is a wolf—and seemingly accepted it.

“Season 1 ended in a way where it could have wrapped up there,” WOLF LIKE ME creator Abe Forsythe acknowledges to Give Me My Remote in the video below. “It’s open-ended but I think…it could have been satisfying.”

But the “what’s next?” appealed to Forsythe in crafting season 2. (Which drops Thursday, October 19 on Peacock.) “Okay, now they’re pregnant, they’re going to have a baby,” he says. “They’re moving in together, which means that they’re gonna have to build a basement. They’re gonna have to prepare for the baby, but they’re also gonna have to be preparing for living with a werewolf like Mary and maybe a werewolf if the baby ends up a werewolf. And then there was…Emma go[ing] to high school, needing to get a doctor [for the pregnancy], needing to get an ultrasound, needing to do the classes—there [were] so many things.”

With all of the new elements to the show, an unexpected thing happened: “There’s a lot more comedy than season 1,” Forsythe says. “Which was a challenge to make sure we’re grounding it in the right way…There’s so many questions and so many things that you worry about knowing that you’re going to have a child or knowing you’re going to be responsible for someone else. And it seemed like continuing [to use] the werewolf metaphor into this new avenue would be just as interesting, if not more interesting, than what we did before.”

Getting to dive deeper into the Emma and Mary relationship was also appealing to the writer/director. “I actually think one of the most important relationships in season 2 is the relationship that Mary has with Emma,” he says. “Mary is so fearful of what she’s carrying inside of her—if it’s going to be a baby, or if it’s going to be a wolf, what kind of mother she’s going to be? I mean, she’s literally scared if she’s going to eat her child. And the relationship that she has with Emma, actually through everything that she’s given her in season 1, Emma starts to give back to her in season 2. And Mary realizes that she already is a mother, regardless of the baby that’s going to be born; she’s already a mother to Emma. And Emma is already starting to navigate the world in a much different way than before Mary was in her life.”

“And that, to me, was an interesting thing to explore, too—the importance of what being a stepparent can be as well, too, and how it’s just as important as being a parent,” Forsythe continues. “Every person that comes into your child’s life in a meaningful way, you really want to make sure that it’s going to be someone that is there to help your child navigate the world. And even though Mary—from the outside, when you know that she can turn into a wolf and kill you—it seems like such a dangerous proposition to bring into your child’s life. But without her in Emma’s life, Emma wouldn’t be where she is in season 2, and would be worse off for it.”

And Mary has a bit of unexpected baggage coming into play in season 2 in the form of Anton (Edgar Ramirez), a man from her past.

“I had the idea for Anton when I was still working on season 1,” Forsythe says. “The idea of bringing that character to the show was really what made me want to do season 2…I mean, he’s the antagonist. But the brilliant thing that Edgar brought to that role is…a sensitivity. And just a poetic, beautiful energy…every character in the show —except for Gary—completely falls in love with Anton. And that wouldn’t have been possible without Edgar playing that role, because we all fell in love with him as we were shooting it as well, too.”

“It made [him] such much more of an interesting threat, because Edgar brought all those elements into this character,” he continues. “He brought so much more than was on the page, which made the character so much more interesting, because you can understand where he’s coming from…and what he’s presenting to Mary makes sense, as well, so it’s that much more of a threat to Gary.”

WOLF LIKE ME, Thursday, October 19, Peacock

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• WOLF LIKE ME: Peacock Releases Season 2 Trailer
• WOLF LIKE ME: Peacock Sets October Release for Season 2
• Peacock Renews WOLF LIKE ME
• WOLF LIKE ME: Peacock Orders Josh Gad and Isla Fisher Rom-Com

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