Matthew Lillard Teases Deep Cuts and Fun for Longtime Fans in Special Betrayal at House on the Hill Season of Treason Haunt

Avalon Hill has teamed up with actor, producer, director, and tabletop entrepreneur Matthew Lillard to create a special two-part Haunt for Betrayal at House on the Hill 3rd Edition as part of Betrayal Season of Treason. The new Haunt is titled Thirteen Ghouls Are All That, and is themed around Lillard's career in the form of a fictional actor named Dexter Norville and his sidekick P.I. Pup. Fans can tune into a live play of the new Haunt right here at 7 PM, but ComicBook had the chance to speak to Lillard all about the new Haunt, which features a host of easter eggs that fans who have followed Millard's career will undoubtedly get a kick out of.

"It's one of those things that in my life very rarely do opportunities come along and you're like, oh, I'm excited about this. You get lucky and you find something that speaks to you," Lillard said. "It speaks to the person you are and speaks to the brand that speaks to who you are as a person. Like me doing something for Doritos doesn't make any sense. Me doing something for Betrayal is like, oh, this is epic. Sitting down with the team and saying, 'Hey, what do you guys want from me? What do you expect?" Because in this kind of a relationship, I want to be engaged authentically, I don't want to just put my name on something because you're creating a Haunt."

"Let's dig in and let me help and let me be a part of the game design. Stepping into that and having the team sign onto that was really exciting, and then in the early part of the process, I was like, 'Hey, if we're using me, then let's build the Haunt around something I'm associated with, like becoming an older, fading actor,' which I thought was awesome. And so that's where we started that conversation," Lillard said.

The team mined Lillard's career and wove references into every part of the Haunt, and some of the Omens are fantastic, with Lillard noting some pretty deep cuts. "Let's find fun Easter eggs from my path in my career, I didn't think they would deliver such deep cuts. There are some cuts in there I'm like, 'Wait, I think this is from In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale,' or there's just some random stuff, which I thought was hilarious for the weird obtuse Matthew Lillard fan out there who's followed along with my long and painful career.  I think that when you give creative people the ability to do what they do best, and empower them to have fun, then you get these great results," Lillard said.

"I think that's what happened here. I think that collectively the team, I was like, 'Let's dig into my career, let's make fun of it, and let's have fun.' And I think that as you play through the game, you can feel that, the idea that the cats are coming. That's a reference to Wing Commander, but the idea of giving them an opportunity to poke fun at something, they had a blast. And I think that that comes off in the game," Lillard said.

Lillard had the chance to test the Haunt out at Gen Con, and it was another level of thrill to see the fans put the Haunt through its paces and come away having such a great time.

"Getting a chance to sit down at the table playing the new edition, playing through the Haunt itself was awesome. I played at home once and obviously, I read through all the cards and I got familiar with it," Lillard said. "Then we went and shot it at Gen Con and had an absolute blast playing it. That's when it comes alive. We were excited to be there and excited to play something for the first time. It had never been played before in that capacity, and so I think the game came to life through that, right through the live play."

"And look, you're surrounded by people, you're surrounded by the crew, you've got lights going, and there's a performative aspect of it, sure. But the good news is that the game held up," Lillard said. "You spent all this time and energy putting something together and in gameplay it was like, oh, this is as fun as we had hoped. That was the rewarding part. You put all the time and energy into it, and then once you get it and it goes live, under live fire, it was like a blast. So that's good."

"I'm excited for fans of the game, fans of Matthew Lillard and his weird career, getting to smash those two worlds together," Lillard said. "And the idea that the team Avalon Hill is making this haunt a free download, I think is super cool. I think it's a celebration and you don't see that very often from big corporations. The idea of, 'Hey, let's give back in this moment.' And trying to build the Season of Treason to try to support the game in this moment I think is super cool."

Lillard would love to team up on another Haunt down the line, but the idea of new people coming in and lending their unique voice to Haunts is one he hopes to see continue even if it's someone else.

"Yeah, look, I would love it. I think that the only important thing, in this moment, is that we deliver for the fans of Betrayal, something that they have fun doing, whether it's me or anyone else. I think that the intersection of pop culture and a game that gives you something fresh to play, I think it's exciting and really smart. It makes the game evergreen if you continually add cool nuance and cool and exciting ways to rope people into this awesome game, Lillard said.

If you are interested in checking out Matthew Lillard's new Haunt, you can download it free of charge on Hasbro Pulse, and the link will become available at 7 PM EST. You'll need the base game to play, so head over to Amazon or Walmart to pick it up.