Hazbin Hotel's Showrunner Reveals Rosie and Alastor's Backstory Is a Major Season 3 Tease
Devoted fans of the series at last got a much-anticipated backstory in season 2's fourth episode, called “It's a Deal.” This episode is likely to prompt extensive conversation and pose numerous questions about the essence of a certain demonic Overlord who appears far more powerful than any character previously understood. These fresh disclosures include a glimpse into the human life of a fan-favorite character before his demise and sentence to Hell.
A Significant Hint for Future Seasons
The show's creator shared an inside detail about the episode – it acts as a major tease for season 3. Additionally, she offered further details into the process of creating the human versions of her infernal animated characters.
Warning: Spoilers for the fourth episode of Hazbin Hotel, the show's second season.
In the episode, a flashback reveals that fan-favorite personality Alastor, the Radio Demon was a mass murderer in his mortal days. Knowing full well he was destined for Hell, he made contact with the afterlife in advance to secure a powerful role in Hell. Rosie, the charismatic leader Hell’s cannibal community, vowed Alastor he would become “the strongest Sinner in Hell” in return for his soul.
This prompts the question: In what way is this character sufficiently strong to raise Alastor over all other Demonic Sinners?
“The Rosie and Alastor deal is the first stepping stone in a much bigger story that involves so much, moving into season 3,” the showrunner explains. “Clearly that is an excellent question: How is she that powerful? The solution could be many things, but the revelation is in season three. I'm very excited for fans to see it.”
It is uncertain how long viewers will have to remain for Hazbin Hotel’s next season. The studios have approved the third and fourth seasons, but the showrunner often remarks that animated production is a time-consuming endeavor, and subsequent seasons have no release dates yet. Nevertheless, she states withholding on specific information is a crucial aspect of maintaining the second season's focus in the right places.
“The challenge of any agreement with demons, or stories that have enigmas, is giving the audience sufficient clues to be like, Something's up here, and then revealing that as we go, and letting that be gratifying,” she says. “So I'm very excited.”
Questions Answered in Season 3
The creator assures that the upcoming season will address the queries followers have been posing, like why the cannibal leader ordered Alastor to disappear for a seven-year period, which diminished his power in the infernal realm.
“The entire seven-year span, and the pacts these humans are doing, and everything — it's feeding into a larger story,” she reveals.
Meanwhile, the origin story episode offers a further look into what the main characters of Sinner Demons appeared as as mortals, following after viewing Sir Pentious’ historical mortal appearance in episode 2. The creator explains that significant consideration was put into these character designs.
“The mortal forms of the characters carry great significance,” she says. “They range from looking quite distinct from their infernal version to looking almost identical. With Pentious, the initial design we see, there was a little bit of a debate within the team between going with a design that symbolizes the personality, as opposed to going with something that's historically correct. We leaned toward creating a design that just seemed like it was him.”
She mentions the biggest debate over the mortal look of Pentious was his long hair: “We were like, ‘No one typically had long hair like that in Victorian-era London.’ But simultaneously, we think the silhouette is extremely crucial, and we also just felt he appeared attractive. We were like, ‘This seems correct.’ We kind of gave the excuse that he lived in seclusion, so he just let his hair grow out. So there's always a way. As we design the human versions of these personas […] it's such a fun thing to investigate and figure out. I am looking forward for fans to see more of the appearances of the human versions.”
New episodes of Hazbin Hotel season 2 drop on Wednesdays on Prime Video.