Mike Flanagan serves as co-creator, writer, director, and executive producer with Trevor Macy also executive producing The Midnight Club. All episodes of season 1 are currently streaming on Netflix. At New York Comic Con, I had the opportunity to speak with the talented creatives!
At a hospice for terminally ill young adults, eight patients come together every night at midnight to tell each other stories — and make a pact that the next of them to die will give the group a sign from the beyond. Based on the 1994 novel of the same name as well as other works by Christopher Pike.
Of course, the first thing we had to talk about was the pure excitement that everyone in attendance at New York Comic Con had for the new series and what that felt like.
“This is my first Comic Con, so it’s been great. We haven’t gotten to see it yet, we’ve been kind of shuttled from thing to thing. I keep looking through the window at the floor, wanting to get out there, so I really hope we get to do that soon and the panel, you know, nothing is better than being able to interact directly with fans so I’m very excited about it,” Mike Flanagan shared.
“My first New York Comic Con,” Trevor Macy continued. “I’ve been to San Diego quite a bit, so I’m really excited to be here.”
Next, we spoke about what themes or messages they hope audiences resonate with or think about after watching The Midnight Club.
“The biggest thing that we talked about that I think resonated with the cast and crew the most, and certainly in the writer’s room, was the idea that all of us at the end of the day, no matter what we believe happens after we die, we are all stories and writing our own story is really important,” Flanagan expressed to me. “So life is really just deciding what we want our story to be and I think if there’s one thing I hope people grab, it’s that.”
Macy added: “I enjoy reaching out to a generation who thinks about death differently than mine and I think opening up that conversation was something that didn’t happen when I was younger. I feel it happening now and I’m really grateful that it’s happening kind of around the show because I think having agency over your life at any moment, but especially your last moments, that’s pretty cool.”
With all the work behind the scenes that go into making these incredible shows, I had to ask them what it’s like when they see everything come together for the final version.
“I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a final product on these because I’m writing, I’m directing, I’m editing, then it’s mixing VFX reviews, final color,” Flanagan revealed. “One step in that process is almost never that we sit and watch the show. When you’re working on something like this, you’re only focused on one little bit at a time. So I watched the pilot of Midnight Mass last week and that was the first time I feel like I’ve seen it.”
The most wonderful part of the interview was discussing the response from fans and the impact of their stories.
“I’m always bowled over when I meet the fans,” Flanagan said. “I was at a convention in Connecticut a few weeks ago with my wife and I had never done one of those. She’s like, ‘you’re gonna love this, you’re gonna meet the fans,’ and people came up, they had Cups of Stars and Red Room doors tattooed on their bodies. Seeing what these shows have meant to people, that’s incredible and we don’t often get to connect with that directly. So that’s the coolest thing.”
“Well, especially you don’t get to get to connect with it in person so much, so we’re so grateful to be here where you can,” Macy explained. “It’s just really great because you get to feel the impact of the show in addition to just like knowing it’s out there.”
Lastly, Macy told me what he was most excited to share with audiences:
“I am really excited to introduce the vast majority of this cast to the world. They’re never gonna have an experience like this again. It’s so wonderful to see them at their first Comic Con. They did such an amazing job under really difficult pandemic circumstances and I’m so proud every time I watch them. I think that’s the great thing that I look forward to being in the world.”
One thought on “Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy Talk Netflix’s ‘The Midnight Club’ at NYCC”
Comments are closed.