Hazbin Hotel's Creator Reveals Rosie and Alastor's Backstory Is a Major Teaser for Season Three
Devoted viewers of the series finally got a much-anticipated backstory in season 2's fourth episode, called “It's a Deal.” This episode will probably spark a lot of discussion and pose many inquiries about the essence of one particular demon Overlord who appears far more powerful than anyone before realized. The new revelations include a glimpse into the human life of a beloved character prior to his demise and condemnation to the underworld.
A Major Tease for Future Seasons
The show's creator disclosed an inside detail about the episode – it acts as a huge hint for season 3. She also offered more insight into the methodology of creating the mortal forms of her demonic animated characters.
Spoiler alert for the fourth episode of Hazbin Hotel, the show's second season.
In “It’s a Deal”, a look back reveals that popular personality Alastor the Radio Demon was a mass murderer in his human life. Being aware he was destined for Hell, he established communication with the afterlife in advance to obtain a powerful role in Hell. The charismatic leader, the charismatic leader the cannibal faction in Hell, vowed Alastor he would become “the most powerful Sinner in Hell” in return for his soul.
This prompts an important query: In what way is Rosie sufficiently strong to elevate Alastor over all other Sinner Demons?
“The Rosie and Alastor deal is the first stepping stone in a larger narrative that involves so much, moving into season 3,” the showrunner explains. “Clearly that is a perfect question: How is she that powerful? The answer might be many things, but the answer is in season 3. I'm very excited for fans to see it.”
There’s no telling how long the audience will have to wait for Hazbin Hotel’s next season. The studios have green-lit seasons 3 and 4, but the creator often remarks that animation is a slow, lengthy process, and later seasons have no release dates yet. Still, she states withholding on specific information is an important part of maintaining the second season's focus where it belongs.
“The challenge of any kind of deal with infernal beings, or narratives that have mysteries, is providing the audience just enough information to be like, Something's up here, and then unveiling that as we go, and allowing that be satisfying,” she comments. “So I am quite eager.”
Mysteries Resolved in Season 3
The creator assures that season 3 will address the questions followers have been posing, such as why the cannibal leader commanded Alastor to disappear for seven years, which weakened his power in the infernal realm.
“The entire seven-year span, and the deals these humans are doing, and everything — it contributes to a larger story,” she says.
In the meantime, the origin story episode provides another glimpse into how the core cast of Demonic Sinners looked like as humans, following after seeing Sir Pentious’ historical human form in the second episode. She explains that a lot of thought went into the visual creation of these forms.
“The mortal forms of these personas carry great significance,” she says. “They vary from appearing really different from their demon form to seeming very similar. With Pentious, the initial design we see, there was a little bit of a debate within the team between choosing a design that symbolizes the character, versus selecting an option that's very time-period accurate. We leaned toward creating a design that just seemed like it was him.”
She says the biggest debate over the mortal look of Pentious was his long hair: “We were like, ‘No one really had long hair of that style in that historical period.’ But at the same time, we think the outline is so important, and we also just felt he appeared attractive. We were like, ‘This just feels right.’ We kind of provided the rationale that he's a hermit, so he just allowed his hair to lengthen. So there's always a way. As we design the mortal forms of these characters […] it's such a fun thing to explore and figure out. I am looking forward for fans to see more of what the human forms look like.”
New episodes of Hazbin Hotel season 2 drop on Wednesdays on the streaming service.
