Last Thursday saw the return of cult hit series Doom Patrol for its second season. The breakout DC Universe hit is now reaching new audiences as it co-releases on both DCU and brand new streaming service HBO Max.
In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Jeremy Carver has been discussing the character arcs which will play out over the course of this new batch of episodes.
“One of the things we were really interested in doing with Doom Patrol from the get-go was diving into the pasts of these characters who have lived so long to see how they became this way,” said Carver. “We got into that a little bit in season 1. But we were excited to have nine or 10 more episodes to go even deeper and, to be blunt about it, see even more of what was screwing these people up over the years.”
“Part of that was what Niles Caulder did to them,” Carver added. “A lot of it is the same stuff we all deal with: generational family trauma. That’s what season 2 really starts to delve into. When we look back at our characters’ lives, whether they were children or had children of their own, they were either on the receiving end of trauma or dealing out their own trauma. We had an interesting time walking our characters through each of those scenarios.”
Carver also talked about the introduction of Dorothy Spinner (Abigail Shapiro) to the series and the effect this has on the team, particularly her father Niles Caulder (Timothy Dalton).
“Dropping Dorothy into the mix was a big challenge,” noted Carver. “We were trying to bring in a character that was somewhat different from our team in that she has suffered every bit of trauma that everyone else did, and yet she manages to wake up every morning with this bright, shining smile.”
“In our alone moments with Dorothy, we realize just how much she’s struggling like the others to keep the worst parts of herself bound and controlled,” continued Carver. “Then we have Jane, who does see similarities to Dorothy and goes to take Dorothy under her wing in the early episodes. The relationship between Dorothy and her imaginary friends and Jane and the personas that live in the Underground does become one of the most complex and even fraught relationships of the season.”
Doom Patrol stars Brendan Fraser as Cliff Steele, Matt Bomer as Larry Trainor, Diane Guerrero as Crazy Jane, Alan Tudyk as Mr. Nobody, April Bowlby as Rita Farr, Joivan Wade as Vic Stone and Timothy Dalton as Niles Caulder.
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