It's time to escape and rebel in Sweet Tooth season 2. The next chapter of the Netflix comic book series picks right up from its cliffhanger season 1 ending, with Big Man and Aimee racing against time to save Gus and the rest of the hybrid kids from General Abbot and the Last Men.
Christian Convery returns to lead the cast of Sweet Tooth season 2 alongside Nonso Anozie, Dania Ramirez, Naledi Murray, Stefania LaVie Owen, Adeel Akhtar, Aliza Vellani, and Neil Sandilands. While exploring darker territory than its debut season, the new season never loses sight of the adventure and dark humor that made its predecessor such a hit.
In honor of the show's return, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with star James Brolin to discuss Sweet Tooth season 2, finding the narration without being given a whole script, his disappointment in Lightyear's failure, and more.
James Brolin on Sweet Tooth Season 2
Screen Rant: I've loved Sweet Tooth since it launched, and your work as the narrator really brings a dark comedy element. But I find it so interesting that between Sweet Tooth and last year's Lightyear, this is really your first big dive into the world of voiceover work. What has that been like?
James Brolin: Matter of fact, I had a voice agent, who I did what I thought were some good samples, and nothing ever happened for a couple of years. Of course, I was busy with Life in Pieces during that time, but this was in the last seven, eight years.
Sweet Tooth was a thing where Downey said, "I want you, you're the guy we hear in our ear, and I have no other choice." So, I ended up with it, and because of that, it sort of parlayed into Lightyear, so now I don't know if I'm going to be back to that franchise. It's too bad that movie didn't [do well], it was so grown up, it wasn't a Toy Story for kids, really. So, will there be more, will I be back? I don't know. Will I ever do any vocal stuff again? Who knows.
I'd certainly like to see more of it. With Sweet Tooth in particular, I love how the narrator almost gets to become even more of his own character as he's observing all of the darker events that happen in the story. What was it like for you when you got the scripts, what kind of direction were you given when you went into the booth to record?
James Brolin: Guess what, I was never allowed to read a script or a breakdown. I would get the lines I was doing the night before and print them out and get to look at them the night before, and then during COVID, they sent me a recording studio on a tripod that opened up with a screen and earphones, I'm talking to the sound guys at Warner Bros. But pretty much the last of the first year, and this year, I've driven down to Warner Bros. to do it.
Sometimes I knock it out in 40 minutes, a long session is two hours, and I leave kind of learning on screen with the dialogue also blasted on screen, and on a paper on a stand and three microphones. I'm learning as I'm doing, which is not unusual, you know, after years in this business, you kind of get used to winging it sometimes. But I'm surprised that they always had me winging it, and they would not tell me where it was going, and what I was doing, they would show me what I was talking about, but just that 20-second clip, so I'm the wrong guy to ask.
What has it been like for you to find the soul of your voice for this narration, even when you're presented with so little to go off of?
James Brolin: It's funny, I was thinking about that exact thing the last time I was there. I imagined a group of people sitting around in chairs looking at me, and that I had to convince them, and it would change my readings, and then we'd leave the recorder open, and I would try to do the same dialogue, but completely different.
I might do it five, six, seven different inflections on each sentence, and that way later on the director, the sound guy, could say, "Boy, that one hits it right on." It's up to them. And I have [Laughs]— it's awful when an actor is a director too, because I have gone, "Oh, they picked the wrong one!"
About Sweet Tooth Season 2
As a deadly new wave of the Sick bears down, Gus (Christian Convery) and a band of fellow hybrids are held prisoner by General Abbot (Neil Sandilands) and the Last Men. Looking to consolidate power by finding a cure, Abbot uses the children as fodder for the experiments of captive Dr. Aditya Singh (Adeel Akhtar), who’s racing to save his infected wife Rani (Aliza Vellani). To protect his friends, Gus agrees to help Dr. Singh, beginning a dark journey into his origins and his mother Birdie’s (Amy Seimetz) role in the events leading up to The Great Crumble.
Outside the Preserve, Tommy Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) and Aimee Eden (Dania Ramirez ) team up to break the hybrids free, a partnership that will be tested as Jepperd’s secrets come to light. As the revelations of the past threaten the possibility of redemption in the present, Gus and his found family find themselves on a collision course with Abbot and the evil forces that look to wipe them out once and for all. Based on the DC comic book series by Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth is executive produced by Jim Mickle, Susan Downey, Robert Downey, Jr., Amanda Burrell, and Linda Moran. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Television.
Check out our other Sweet Tooth season 2 interviews here:
- Christian Convery & Naledi Murray
- Jim Mickle
- Nonso Anozie, Dania Ramirez & Adeel Akhtar
Sweet Tooth season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.