While the comic book miniseries that inspired Syfy‘s Happy! had a brief run and a definitive end, that is not the fate producers — including the comic’s writer, Grant Morrison, who has taken a very hands-on role with the show — have envisioned for the TV adaptation.
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In fact, during a recent conversation with ComicBook.com, Morrison told us that he had the series planned out to three seasons already, and thinks there could be flexibility to go beyond that. It’s a far cry from the one-and-done story he told with artist Darick Robertson in the Happy! comic books, but also makes one wonder whether there could be potential for more comics down the line if the series is a big hit.
“If it’s a hit, we know exactly where we’re going with it,” Morrison told ComicBook.com. “We do have it planned out to three seasons so far. If it’s a hit, we’ll go back to that and see if we can extend it more — but we’ve taken it seriously. If the show is a success, we’ll know exactly what we’re doing.”
Specifically, there is a deeper dimension to the grimy, violent Christmas story than was present in the comics. Hints of that have already started to be sprinkled into the show, and the increase in sheer volume of content has meant that things needed to get a little deeper on the show than they were in the original comics.
Having built that, Morrison says that he and the other producers know what they want to do with it.
“We know where it’s going,” Morrison explained. “There’s a real big mythology behind it, which people won’t really be aware of until somewhere around I think episode four you start to see hints of it. So yeah, very much so. We’d love to keep going with these characters because we love them so much.”
Happy! airs on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Syfy.
You can check out Morrison and Robertson’s comic book series at your local comics shop or bookstore, or grab a digital copy of the trade here.