[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to a very special edition of the Cosmic Cafe. Live from New York, Comic Con. I'm ayla Ruby and we have a very special interview for you today with Vivian Medrano from Has Been Hotel. She's just finished the panel where they announced the stellar voice cast for the show and we had some questions. So without further ado, enjoy.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: Cool. So hi, nice to talk to you. So this you just said is your first Comic Con. Have you have you gone down to the show floor? Have you seen any cosplay from hasn't?
[00:00:37] Speaker C: No. Well, so I haven't gone to the show floor yet here, but I have seen cosplays like at other cons and stuff like that and I know they go hard, so I can only imagine what they are for this con.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: I saw it, Charlie, it was amazing. Oh, that's awesome. So definitely get the chance. So can you talk a little bit about the transition from Patreon and YouTube for the pilot to a 24? What did that look like? How did that all happen? That's the dream.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Yes. Oh my gosh. Everything I've made for really my whole early career and my whole life has been through crowdfunding and through commission and freelance and just working my way up. And thankfully I kind of was fortunate enough to gain an audience for my work early enough that I started to be able to rely on things like Patreon and crowdfunding, eventually merch to kind of sustain these projects and build them. So the has been pilot, when I first made it on YouTube, it started very small. I put my savings into it. I kind of put everything I had into it to start it up, to pay for the people helping me in the beginning. And then as it went through the crowdfunding and through the support, we were able to afford more people and it got bigger and his songs and all these things and it just grew. And so to be able to have a studio behind that, that is just supporting it from the word go and being able to kind of just make it on this bigger scale was definitely like a learning experience, but it was really exciting and it was amazing that we were able to do that.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: So you talked about the learning experience a little bit. Can you talk about so obviously a pilot is very different than like a season of Telephision, eight episodes. Can you talk about anything that was challenging or alternately really gratifying about pulling that off? Because that's quite a feat.
[00:02:26] Speaker C: Yeah, it was a very big difference. Obviously focusing on 130 minutes short for multiple years was definitely like we could kind of put our whole focus in it and it was really scrappy and made with love and everything like that. Whereas the process for a full season is like, obviously it's multiple episodes, so it requires much more of a pipeline. It requires much more planning and much more development. And thankfully, I had a little bit of experience with Pipeline because in kind of the development of Has Been, I have another series that's very similar. So I was able to kind of like even though that one was still indie as well, I got to learn how my studio operates and how I'm comfortable working. And so when we went into production for season one of Has Been, it felt very natural. But it was it was a huge challenge to just in general work with a studio and kind of this bigger pipeline for the first time.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: Now I know. So season one is coming out in January.
It got a two season order. Can you share anything about season two? Are you in development on it? Like, where are you in the making.
[00:03:31] Speaker C: Of so we currently are writing it, which is really exciting. It's a very exciting new story. Obviously, it follows the events of season one, which people haven't seen yet. But I'm so excited. I think it picks up in a perfect way. It focuses on a very fun villain and it's a villain that we do meet in season one. So it's very exciting.
And yeah, I'm very excited by this process. Starting again, what can you tell us.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: About Charlie's story in season one, her arc, anything that what's she going to go through? What's her deal?
[00:04:06] Speaker C: So Charlie's biggest challenge in season one is that they're kind of like right in the first episode, we kind of find out that there's a kind of new challenge to the hotel that kind of creates a ticking clock for her to kind of prove it. And that kind of ends up being the kind of challenge of the first season is that she has this obstacle to overcome past just proving it's possible in the first place. There's kind of a time element.
[00:04:38] Speaker B: I.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: Think that gives a good sense of what the season will kind of be, but it's also full of getting to know these characters and getting to understand why Charlie is the one at the center of it.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: So we just got to see and hear the music from that opening in the first episode. Is there going to be more music as we go on through the, like, your hallmark?
Can you talk about that or tease anything?
[00:05:06] Speaker C: Absolutely. So every episode has more than one song in it. So it's super musical. It's saturated with songs. The songs are totally varying in the kind of genre and the kind of sound and who performs them. It's very based on what character is performing. So there's so many different kinds of music that kind of fit these different kinds of characters performing and very excited for people to hear it because there's a lot of music in the show.
[00:05:32] Speaker B: So I think originally Has Been was going to premiere in the summer and now it's in January. Can you talk at all about layer scheduling or no.
[00:05:43] Speaker C: So the biggest thing about the change was really just that at first, Hazard didn't have a distribution partner. And so when Prime Video came in, it was so exciting, but obviously a lot of things had to go into play for that. And so it kind of pushed out when the original aim was when it was with a 24 exclusively. So it's really exciting and I think the show is going to like I think it's a better time for it. I think it's fresh and it's exciting and it's going to be way more accessible in that way.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: When you created these characters, when you created the series, did you ever expect that there was going to be this kind of fan reaction and just it resonating so much with people?
[00:06:27] Speaker C: When I first made it, I did not it had a following in the sense that I'd been growing my audience and I had a following and I knew people were going to watch it and I knew it was going to be for them, but it exploded in a way that I never thought it would. And it kind of went past that audience that I'd already built. It was like the world all of a sudden and that's now become such a passionate fan base for all my Helloverse projects. And it's so cool and I'm so honored that it's a really passionate fan base. And so I want to do right by everybody, and I think we do okay.
[00:07:08] Speaker B: So if you were a character and has been a hotel in season one, who would you be and why?
[00:07:13] Speaker C: Oh my gosh. I always joke that I wouldn't fare very well. I would fare very well with Charlie. So I'm wondering if there's a character that obviously she befriends. I feel like all the characters are cooler than me, so I couldn't really be any of the characters. But if I was, like, a sinner in this world, I would want to go to the hotel, because Charlie would actually be nice to me in this hellish world.
[00:07:38] Speaker B: Why do you think so? It resonates a lot. Why do you know it hit that nerve? What do you think? Why do people laugh?
[00:07:47] Speaker C: I think there's a lot of thank you.
I really think what made it different was that the show and it kind of came from this inside me, is that I really like when things and shows and stories allow the characters to be flawed and allow them to grow and to change. And I think that's something that the world is not black and white, and I like things that explore the gray in that and the complexity of life and of mistakes and of things like that. And I think there's also a very queer element in the show. Like it's an incredibly queer show and that's also something that matters a lot to me. But I think in media especially there's a lot of media that doesn't allow queer characters to be flawed or to not be a perfect representation of whatever identity they have. And I think that really resonated with a lot of people and a lot of queer people because it is a show that says, hey, it's okay to be kind of like yourself and make mistakes in coming into yourself. So I think that's really what resonated about it. Or at least I feel like it resonates with me. So maybe that's what resonates with others.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Was there anything so you have Hell of a Boss, you have Husband. Is there anything else floating around that maybe you're thinking about adding to this universe? Not that we can share.
[00:09:17] Speaker C: There's so many things that I want to add to this universe.
This universe itself is expanding. It's very big and there's so many sides to it. So obviously has been the main side. It deals with Lucifer and Charlie being the princess of Hell and Heaven and these kind of big grand themes of redemption and what does that mean? And it's much more kind of like biblically sourced. Whereas I have another series in the same universe called Hell of a Boss and that one deals with the sins and the Hellborn species and kind of how that kind of exists separately through the things happening and has been. And so for me, there's so many stories in this universe. So there's lots of things that could either be added to has been or be their own thing or just things like that. But it's kind of an ever expanding Helliverse, I call it.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: Do you ever see a live action version happening at some point or do you think animation is your happy place?
[00:10:14] Speaker C: I love animation, obviously. It's my world and I feel like it's where the characters get to be the most expressive and the most themselves and the most freedom of who we can cast and whatever. But I would love someday for there to be a has been or a has been related Broadway musical because the stage is what inspires so much about what I do. And it would be so cool. It'd be the coolest thing ever. Broadway already is such a big influence on me and I'm such a big theater fan that it would be unreal to have characters I made on stage in any way.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: My mind is blown by that. I can make the that's fantastic. Okay, so there are some differences between the pilot and the new season. Can you talk about that at all? Talk about how that works or anything like that?
[00:11:07] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
The biggest changes are kind of obviously the visual style is very polished versus what it was in the original pilot. The original pilot was the first big project it'd ever made like that. So it's very messy. I hadn't yet learned to kind of overhead things in the way that I do now. And I've kind of learned to really get that cohesive look to things.
And so I did so much learning on that original pilot and on the early seasons of my other series that I was able to apply to Has Been when we started on it. So it's so much more polished. The characters kind of have a little bit of an upgrade in their looks. They're a little bit more animation friendly and a little bit more like eye catchy.
And it's been like a really cool thing to see how much more realized the new series is. But the events of the original pilot I did want to kind of honor. So the series somewhat kind of piggybacks off the events established in the pilot, but kind of with a fresh coat of paint in the new kind of storyline.
[00:12:17] Speaker B: Can you talk about your writing process?
You have an idea for the episode. What does that go through in your head?
How do you turn that into a season?
[00:12:30] Speaker C: I jokingly say this, and it's kind of become like an adopted catchphrase for the show, or at least for me is that Has Been is a comic book show, like a comic book show, only the comic doesn't physically exist, kind of exists in my head. So it is kind of like a very intense lore and there's mysteries and there's twists and there's turns and there's arcs for the characters and there's big reveals and there's secret characters to come and all these things that kind of like a traditional comic book would have. So the writing for it, for me, it's like so much in my head. And then when we get into the writer room and when we create the map for the season, it's just like kind of all this info dumping and this is what's going to happen. So maybe we should lay the foundation in this episode and kind of let it play out and stuff. So there's so much of things to keep track of, but it's really exciting for me.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: Is there anything that you feel has inspired you when you're creating this show? Any influences that have been in your head while you've been making it?
[00:13:39] Speaker C: My biggest influences are really with music and with the musical side of things. I obviously turn to music for inspiration and even to get a vibe of a character I kind of put on. I make a playlist for what I think the character would listen to or what songs just remind me of them. And that kind of helps to kind of get into the vibe.
I have so many influences as just a filmmaker and as a creator. But Has Been does feel like it came from my desire for I also adore adaptation of any kind, especially of pre existing mythos or lore or folklore and things like that. And so Has Been obviously comes from biblical sources or demonology. And it's like my take on kind of pre established things.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: Okay.
So is there anything you want? Your fans, the greater has been world to know that we haven't talked about?
[00:14:39] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh. I'm really just excited for people to see it. It's been so long in the making and so long in the waiting, and I know everyone's really dying for it. It's been so long. It's so anticipated. So for me, obviously, I don't want to spoil anything, but I can say that I'm so proud of it. I feel like the season really does deliver. It's eight episodes of just nonstop jampacked music and story. And I feel like every character gets their moment. And there's obviously a really fun new villain that people haven't seen yet. And I can't wait for people to see these characters in action in this way. And I can't wait for them to.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: See where the story goes. Thank you so much.
[00:15:25] Speaker C: Of course.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:15:28] Speaker D: Thank you for listening. You can find the companion article for this podcast along with all the other news. For those who like superheroes, science fiction and fantasy films, TV shows and other
[email protected], have a great day.
