Avenue 5's Zach Woods Talks Taking His Comedy Into the Stratosphere

Whether it be The Office, Silicon Valley, or Veep, actor Zach Woods has appeared in a number of the most acclaimed comedy series of the past decade, sometimes as a character you love and sometimes as a character you love to hate. Woods continues his trend of being part of impressive and acclaimed ensembles, as he stars in HBO's Avenue 5, which takes comedy to all new heights by incorporating sci-fi and futuristic themes along with hilarious characters, with Woods holding his own against a number of comedic heavyweights. Season 2 of Avenue 5 is set to premiere on HBO on Monday, October 10th.

Season 2 of Avenue 5 takes us to a not-so-distant future where space tourism is a booming business. While manning a luxury spacecraft owned by Herman Judd (Josh Gad), Captain Ryan Clark (Hugh Laurie) finds himself in over his head when the ship is thrown disastrously off-course -- turning what was meant to be an eight-week cruise into an eight-year journey. Picking up five months after failing to reroute the vessel, season two follows the crew -- including fiery engineer Billie (Lenora Crichlow), unpredictable head of customer relations Matt (Woods), and faithful right-hand Iris (Suzy Nakamura) – as they struggle to lead, calm, control, and, if need be, hide from increasingly unruly passengers. On earth, they're lauded as heroes, and in space, everyone can hear them scream.

ComicBook.com caught up with Woods to talk about the roles he's most recognized for, returning to Avenue 5 for a sophomore season, and if he'll make the jump into any massive franchises.

ComicBook.com: You've been in so many different series, you've been in so many different comedies. Of all the things -- when you meet a fan of yours -- that they say to you, what is the weirdest thing that they toss out at you as a reference to your career?

Zach Woods: Well, I was on Silicon Valley where there was this running motif where I played this very unassuming character, who people would say about him, "This guy f-cks." So, sometimes people come up to me on the street an apropos of nothing are just like, "This guy f-cks." And that'll happen when I'm with elderly family members, on first dates, and memorial services, and it's very gratifying. It makes me feel seen. It makes me feel known, and I appreciate it.

Well, I'm sure when you are with elderly family members on first dates, having those strangers break the ice...

You get it. Because I always have to have a chaperone. Always my bubbala is with me on a first date because how else will I know if she's a suitable match? Or if she tries to get fresh. God forbid she tries to get fresh. Bubala's right there with her pocketbook to fend her off.

Since you have had so many comedies in your experience, and now you're working on Avenue 5, what is it about working on this series that maybe is different from The Office or Silicon Valley? What really makes this show feel so unique compared to your other TV shows?

The production scale is bananas. I mean, it's this gigantic ... Someone was saying, it looks like an airport terminal at United Arab Emirates. It's like a first-class terminal but blown up. It's this very weird, massive, vacuous space, and the story has all of this literally cosmic scale to it, and that is unusual. I'm used to playing more, even in Silicon Valley, where there were billionaires and things floating around, by and large, the story took place in conference rooms and houses and things, but to be in a thing where people's blood is turning to ice because they're out in the frosty expansive space is a completely new experience.

Your character in the show is a bit of a nihilist, we could say. There's not too much that he entirely believes in and he's okay with that. Now that you returned to play Matt for another season, what do you think about your character have you taken away from the experience? How do you feel that Matt has impacted your daily life?

What a great question ... I think one thing that playing Matt has done for me is that because he's so ... I think he really loves people, but I don't think he cares about much else, and I think that good-natured indifference, being able to get that into my body day in and day out on a set is actually really good practice, probably for other parts just to be loose and free and not too precious about outcomes. 

I think I've learned about not trying to hit the target so hard and just let what comes come, and hopefully, that's translated into my actual non-fictional life, but I'm not sure if it has. But definitely, being on other sets, I feel more capable of doing something that's almost certainly going to be bad, but might be good because of that devil-may-care attitude that I've inherited from Matt.

Making Avenue 5 over these last few years with the pandemic breaking up some of the production a bit, when you knew you were going to get to do Season 2 of the series, when you returned, what was the thing that most excited you? Whether it be about the character that you wanted to explore or what the overall storyline was for Season 2, what really got you excited for this sophomore season?

The true and probably annoying answer is just getting to be around the cast. The people ... There's a sweet, almost like tea circle energy to the thing. It's an older cast. Not old, but everyone's got kids and families and everything, which sometimes means the second that shooting is done, they defect to their individual lives. 

But this one was an interesting combination of a more seasoned, rooted group, but also one that was interested in being around each other. There was something about the sweet, sad warmth of the group that I found really inviting, and I think will be the thing that I take from this when I look back on it as, hopefully, a geezer, and think about it. I'll think about what it felt like to be in the company of these people.

Since this show is a little bit in the sci-fi realm and there's some of those themes, and your former Silicon Valley costar Kumail Nanjiani, he joined Star Wars, I know you're a fan of comedian Bill Burr, he joined Star Wars.

Wow. That's crazy you know that.

You personally, just as a fan of pop culture, do you, it doesn't have to necessarily be Star Wars, but do you have a geek-oriented show -- a Lord of the Rings, a Marvel -- do you have a thing that, even though you're more in the comedic realm, you would actually love to get the opportunity to join a movie, TV, big franchise thing? 

That's interesting. It's not like I've watched that many scary movies, but something about being in a really, really scary movie seems fun to me. I saw Hereditary and I was like, "Oh, my God, that's so scary." I think it'd be really fun to be in Hereditary. As like some sort of a creeper. I'm trying to think if there's anything else like fantasy stuff. 

The stuff that I like is actually, usually fairly intimate, and the world-building epic universe stuff is interesting, but it's not ... Oh, I've got one. Boxing movies. I love boxing movies, and I would love to be in a boxing movie as, I don't know what, like the predatory landlord who's going to kick them out of their clubhouse or something. But I would kill to be in a boxing movie. I just think I hoover those up.

As you say, "I would kill to be in a boxing movie," we've got Hereditary, we've got boxing. We can spitball some horror movie about you being a murderer just to get the opportunity to be in a boxing movie.

You know what's interesting is there actually haven't been any horror movies about boxers, but boxing is viewed from just the slightest of angles, a horrifying ... It's a very scary, maybe someone should make a horror movie about boxing.

I think we should make a horror movie about boxing.

That's right. Finally, our ship has come in.

Because people look at us, and they're like, "Peak athletes, peak boxers right here."

That's something I've had to fight against my whole career.

Having so many awesome characters in your career, is there one who maybe was an ancillary or a supporting character that you would actually like the chance to flesh out into another project? Would you want to do more Jared or do more Gabe as its own focal point of a project?

I love playing Gabe, but that was my first job, really, TV job. That poor man, I would be happy to never spend another instant in his skin. Even though I have great affection for him, it's not a fun ... It was a fun part to play because it's a funny show, but to be Gabe is not something I would wish on anybody, especially on Gabe. 

For me, I played this tiny little part in this little indie movie called Other People where I played the ex-boyfriend of Jesse Plemons' character, and for some reason, I had such affection for the character. It's a tiny blink-and-you-miss role, but there's something about him. I just really liked him, and sometimes, in the same way that you can learn things from characters, you can occasionally miss characters. And something about that guy, I'm always like, "Oh, I'd like to know more about him." So, if anyone's looking to make spinoffs from tiny indie movies from seven years ago about cancer, then you know who to call.

Season 2 of Avenue 5 premieres on HBO on Monday, October 10th.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You can contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter.