Why Hazbin Hotel's Creator Literally Cannot Listen To Notes From Fans (Sorry) [Exclusive]

The trajectory of Vivienne "VivziePop" Medrano's rise in animation reads like a Hollywood "dreams come true" story. After years of making independent videos and the popular "ZooPhobia" webcomic, she successfully crowdfunded the "Hazbin Hotel" pilot through Patreon before the project was picked up by A24 and Prime Video for a full series. The Hellaverse fandom (made up of "Hazbin Hotel" and "Helluva Boss") was so ravenous for updates that even new character design reveals went viral — prompting me to explain to the /Film staff what a "Tumblr sexyman" is. When season 1 premiered, the response was explosive. Songs from the show topped the Billboard charts, and seasons 3 and 4 were greenlit over six months before season 2's debut. "Hazbin Hotel" exemplifies what's possible in adult animation, and its creative team deserves every bit of praise.

Yet with such a devoted fanbase comes pressure to deliver not just a great story, but one that satisfies supporters who have made the show a core part of their identity. Unfortunately, if you're reading this and hoping the "Hazbin Hotel" team took your Reddit or social media feedback to heart for season 2, I must hand-deliver a reality check on how animation is brought to life. "Honestly, just realistically, with the way animation works ... we are so far ahead," Medrano tells me during our recent interview. "I mean, season 4 is already written, and season 2 hasn't even aired, so there's no way for fan feedback on the actual story or narrative or characters, because I already know where they're going, and we kind of have to commit to a narrative."

That said, Medrano still pays attention to what resonates with fans; she just can't reshape the story midstream.

"Usually, the feedback that we will take inward is stuff about what people would want to see more of," says Medrano. She is intrigued by the response fans have had to certain characters or how the dynamics between characters have resonated, and it has inspired her to explore possibilities that she might not have originally planned for. However, animation takes time, which means that if "Hazbin Hotel" were to implement any of the fan feedback tangibly, the results wouldn't be seen until season 5 at the earliest. "It's always helpful, but I think people sometimes think like, 'Oh, they heard our note about that!' And I'm like, 'No, we just knew it internally,'" Medrano says.

She cites the breakneck pacing of the events in season 1 as an example of something fans had plenty to say about, but notes that the entire team was aware of this as they were making it. "I know it was fast," Medrano says, "I think that was the number one thing that we got feedback on, and we knew." Fortunately, as the team head into season 2 knowing seasons 3 and 4 were already greenlit, it gave them the runway for some breathing room because they knew they had the space to explore. "I think that is something that we did address in the sense that we had more breathing room," explains Medrano. However, when we get down to brass tacks, a production like "Hazbin Hotel" takes one to two years to produce a single season.

"And because of that, it's like, 'Yeah, we can't stop,'" Medrano says. "We can't wait to hear what you guys thought of something before we make later seasons, because then you won't get the show until you're a decade older."

Medrano is incredibly proud of what everyone accomplished, especially given how difficult it is to make a show like "Hazbin Hotel." But with the future no longer in limbo, the show is on its way to being the best it can possibly be. As she tells me: 

"It's a show that really is a challenge in every way. It's hand-drawn, it's got really, really stylistic characters, and it has musical numbers. So [season 1] was an enormous accomplishment, and I'm very proud of it. But season 2 to me feels like an entirely different beast because when we were really doing season 2, we already knew that seasons 3 and 4 were going to be able to happen, and so that allowed me to approach the season as a story so differently because I knew that we didn't have to cram everything in."

The "Hazbin Hotel" team sees this as an opportunity to properly build up characters the way they wish they could have had the time to do in season 1, and many of the things they couldn't "fit" then are now able to live on in other seasons. "As a writer and as a storyteller, to know you have more runway is the biggest gift in terms of focusing in and telling a tighter, in my opinion, narrative," Medrano says. "And a lot of my shows are about that bigger narrative and figuring out the flow into each arc of the story." Merano adds: "I'm so proud of season 2, authentically as a season. I just feel like we were able to improve on everything from season 1; the scale, the quality, the character dynamics, the overall writing, the music — everything to me personally kind of levels up in season 2."