THE MINDY PROJECT: Matt Warburton Teases Guest Stars, Romances, and More to Come in Season 2

THE MINDY PROJECT’s Danny and Mindy are officially together — albeit taking it slow — and are, as of now, kind of keeping their relationship on the down low.

But that’s not all the show has planned for the final episodes of season 2. To get a little bit of scoop about what’s in store, I spoke with THE MINDY PROJECT showrunner, Matt Warburton, to see what he could preview about the next six episodes…

You spoke about the complications that will arise from Danny and Mindy having different definitions of “taking it slow,” but are you planning on playing out their relationship for at least the rest of the season?
Matt Warburton: I’m going to have to leave that a little cloudy…from the first two episodes and beyond, [they have] the really sloppy, stutter-step, one step forward, two steps back that real relationships have. And I think it’s going to be pretty unpredictable. We are really proud of how these turned out. And there are definitely going to be times when our audience is going to be mad at us. [Laughs] So I’m excited for that.

At PaleyFest, you guys shied away from comparing Danny and Mindy to THE OFFICE’s Jim and Pam. Is there another couple on TV you do sort of see them paralleling?
MW: I’m only speaking for myself — because I’m sure [THE MINDY PROJECT creator] Mindy [Kaling (Mindy)] has her own influences and points of reference — but Bruce Willis and Cybill Sheppard on MOONLIGHTING, and the way their characters are so different. The one thing about Jim and Pam is they’re so clearly meant for each other. And you could say that about Danny and Mindy, but if you take your head out of the series for a second, no they’re not; they’re completely different. Their relationship [could be] a disaster.

[CHEERS’] Sam and Diane, couples where they’re about as different as possible, but somehow find a way to make things work in between giant fights — those are the couples we look to for inspiration.

That makes sense. BREAKING BAD’s Anna Gunn is guest starring this week. What can you tease about her character?
MW: [She’s] this great amazing actor, who we all admire, and she gets to play a bad guy this time. She gets to play this really tempting [woman]. We tried to find a villain who really clicked with something Mindy cared about — which, on one hand, she’s this altruistic doctor; on the other hand, she loves celebrity and fame and success and credit and honor, and all that stuff. So we created this  villain, Sheila Hamilton, who can really tempt Mindy: offer her the apple, and will she take a bite?

And Anna is so great. We definitely hope to have her back.

And you have some other great guest stars coming up, too, including Joanna Garcia Swisher and Jenna Dewan-Tatum. What can you tease about who else is in store for the last six episodes of the season?
MW: Both of them turned in great performances. We’re also really excited about Tim Daly. Peter MacNicol is coming in for an episode playing a really funny character.

Tim Daly comes in as this guy, and it’s so great when you have an actor come in with so much experience. We wrote him a character we were really proud of, and he had his own take on it: his own voice, his own rhythm. He’s a guy that’s really going to challenge Mindy, and he’s really going to challenge Danny, in very different ways. He’s one of the characters we felt we were the most proud of.

Is there the potential for Tim to return in season 3?
MW: He did several episodes this season, and I think people are going to really like his character. I would love if he could come back. I think our fans are really going to fall in love with this guy.

Adam Pally (Peter) is another actor who joined this season. Will he be a part of season 3, as well, or was that just a one-season arc?
MW: He has a deal in place for next season as well, so he’ll be there. We’re having a lot of fun with him. He’s a man-child, but in this next set of episodes, we’re definitely going to see a relationship arc for him, and hopefully more of that next season. We can play him as the reformed dirtbag who is trying to be a better guy, and struggles with every step of that.

That’s great. What can you tease about the Morgan/Tamra hookup?
MW: I think the moment it happens will be a surprise to the audience, and Morgan’s level of nudity will be the biggest surprise of all. So I will leave that as a bomb to drop.

The show really does have a great group of supporting characters with their own stories that require attention, but, as you pointed out, fans had been waiting to see the Danny/Mindy relationship play out. Was there difficulty trying to balance between giving that new relationship its attention while also being fair to the rest of the characters?
MW: One of the things that made it easier was for all the ups and downs of the Mindy-Danny relationship, the fact that both of them work together, means a lot of it can play out at the office. Where with some of the previous relationship arcs…we had to take her out [of the office]. The nice thing about this is when we have a lot of other things going on with Morgan or Jeremy or the other characters, [their relationship] can play out in our office environment, which brings us back to our characters. It’s easier this time around to keep telling stories about our other characters because of proximity.

Right now, only Peter has an idea of what’s going on. How will the show go about revealing the relationship to the rest of the characters?
MW: That’s something we had a lot of fun with, because we wanted to make sure each character got to react on their own. So they will find out very slowly.

When Peter started to piece together the Danny/Mindy relationship it actually reminded me a bit of Joey finding out about Monica/Chandler on FRIENDS. Was that an influence on how you’re playing out these reveals?
MW: To answer your question more vaguely, the fact that FRIENDS was able to play out some of these key relationships over…ten seasons was something that always gives us a lot of hope. It shows us as long as the characters are good, you’re going to want to follow them through any of these ups and downs. So I would say that’s the most influential thing about FRIENDS: the fact that they were able to keep it fresh with a very tight ensemble and really challenge their characters in a way that introduced people from outside — they had these amazing guest stars come in — but always brought things back to the core characters. That’s something we’re striving to do.

Completely makes sense. I know production on season 2 is completed, but since you got the season 3 renewal early, have you guys started planning next season yet?
MW: Everybody’s been taking vacations and stuff…I think where we leave things [at the end of the season makes it so] we keep things as interesting as possible, so I think we’re all really excited already.

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THE MINDY PROJECT will air two back-to-back episodes on Tuesday, April 8th at 9 PM on Fox. The show then resumes its regular Tuesdays at 9:30 PM slot on April 15th.

Related:

THE MINDY PROJECT: Matt Warburton Teases What’s Next for Danny and Mindy
THE MINDY PROJECT: Matt Warburton Teases Tonight’s Return
THE MINDY PROJECT: Ike Barinholtz and Xosha Roquemore Tease What’s to Come and an Upcoming Romance

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