Sweet Tooth Showrunner Reveals How Series Stands Apart From The Last of Us (Exclusive)

The first season of Sweet Tooth premiered in the summer of 2021, an apocalyptic show about a pandemic that might have arrived at the worst possible time. Sweet Tooth persisted though, earning critical acclaim and a quick renewal for another seaosn. In the two years since then there have been a few other very high profile shows with similar vibes, HBO's The Last of Us and Station Eleven the biggest of them all. Speaking with ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview for the new season of the show, we asked series showrunner Jim Mickle how they manage to make sure they're keeping themselves in their own lane and away from other shows in their subgenre. In short, it's all in the tone. 

"I think the pilot we really found a tone of what the show was going to be, that some of that was by design, some of that is just organic and it just happens and it happens when you have Christian and it happens when you cast Will Forte and happens when you shoot in New Zealand," Mickle revealed. "But you just find this at a different flavor, which is great. And I think that grew during season one and... everybody knows what it is because you're constantly finding it in season one. Season two, you can come in and sort of go like we all know what Sweet Tooth is."

He continued, "And so there's definitely times where you start to tell the story and you start to go down these roads and you start to go like, I feel like I could see this in any apocalyptic show or movie. And so a lot of times you can come back and we just say like, what's the Sweet Tooth version of this? And, and in season two, everyone kind of understands what that is and even if you can't entirely define it, you sort of know when it is and when it isn't. So that's a big part of it. But I think a lot of that is just being able to sort of stay in our lane and do what our show does and, and not try to feel like we're trying to chase other apocalyptic things."

Based on the DC comic book series by Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth is executive produced by Jim Mickle, Susan Downey, Robert Downey, Jr., Amanda Burrell, and Linda Moran. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Television. with the new season set to premiere on Thursday, April 27.

Here's the official synopsis for Sweet Tooth Season 2: "As a deadly new wave of the Sick bears down, Gus (Christian Convery) and a band of fellow hybrids are held prisoner by General Abbot (Neil Sandilands) and the Last Men. Looking to consolidate power by finding a cure, Abbot uses the children as fodder for the experiments of captive Dr. Aditya Singh (Adeel Akhtar), who's racing to save his infected wife Rani (Aliza Vellani). To protect his friends, Gus agrees to help Dr. Singh, beginning a dark journey into his origins and his mother Birdie's (Amy Seimetz) role in the events leading up to The Great Crumble. Outside the Preserve, Tommy Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) and Aimee Eden (Dania Ramirez ) team up to break the hybrids free, a partnership that will be tested as Jepperd's secrets come to light. As the revelations of the past threaten the possibility of redemption in the present, Gus and his found family find themselves on a collision course with Abbot and the evil forces that look to wipe them out once and for all."