Conversations with the Executive Production Team of ‘The Mysterious Benedict Society’

​It takes a lot to bring a television show to the small screen, and one of the most important pieces of that puzzle are the people at the top of the show. For they direct its vision and oversee its assembly and we here at Nerds That Geek were fortunate enough to talk with the brain trust of the Disney+ series, The Mysterious Benedict Society, before season two premieres. To gain insight on what the show means to Executive Producers and Creators, Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi and Executive Producers and Showrunners: Darren Swimmer and Todd Slavkin and what they hope people take away from season two of this delightful show!

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Executive Producers & Creators:
​Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi

John Betancourt: Let’s talk about how this show came to life in the first place.

Phil Hay: We were sent the books by Trenton Lee Stewart and immediately just fell in love with them. And that launched a process of really trying to get it set up and made, which took years actually, and, you know, that seems to be our trend. Matt and I, it takes years for us to get things going. But once we do, we're really, really happy we got there. And we got together with James Bobin, who directed the pilot and the first episode of second season, and started collaborating with him on it, and long story short years later, we had the opportunity to make the show. It began at Hulu, and then it moved to Disney Plus, which actually is the perfect the perfect home for it. And it's just been a pretty spectacular experience from beginning to end.

John Betancourt: Matt, anything to add?

Matt Manfredi: No, Phil told it accurately.

Phil Hay: Thank you, Matt!

John Betancourt: What does it mean for each of you for this have to have come to life and hit a second season and be embraced by fans?

Matt Manfredi: It's been really, it's been really gratifying. And it's, you know, it's the goal… without sounding too, you know, whatever… to bring something joyous into the world. And, you know, it's really fun to make a show where empathy is the superpower. And, kids who are different, are embraced. And the thing that makes them different is the thing that helps them succeed. And getting to do another season of it is just kind of a dream come true. So, it's been really, it's been really gratifying, when it connects with people.

Phil Hay: I would add that we've done, you know, over the course of our career… we’ve done movies in very different registers, you know, and they all are different, and they all are different experiences. And this, it's been really wonderful to get to play in this sort of joyous… but very soulful, and hopefully very meaningful world. So, it's been really great and unique for us.

John Betancourt: What are you both hoping audiences take away from season two?

Phil Hay: What I'd love for them to walk away with is… is A. just the feeling of feeling closer and closer to these characters and feeling… it's funny, I'd say like… to feel like the love for their fellow person, you know, like to feel like that, you know, connection is possible and that the things that make us really… make these kids unique are their strengths and not their weakness, and those aren't weaknesses, like being different is actually kind of a wonderful thing. Especially if you can find other people that can support that. So that's a feeling that I'd love for people to have.

Matt Manfredi: Yeah, I think one of our one of our guiding principles in this season and last season is it's not, and our characters kind of play out this ethos, it's not that they win or lose. It's how they do it.

Phil Hay: Yeah, it's the means versus ends, you know? The means is important.

John Betancourt: What are you each most proud of when it comes to your work on this show?

Matt Manfredi: I think it's making a show where we can kind of explore characters in unique ways. Just to go off on these tangents, just have these flashes, that illuminate people and, again, showing people that just because you're different, it's actually a good thing. You know, it having empathy actually is a strength, not a weakness. And so, I'm proud of putting a show that says that out in the world.

Phil Hay: And I'm very proud of that too. And I'm also proud of our cast and crew and their… first of all the sacrifices they made in the first season to make the show during the pandemic where it was very difficult like very lonely, you know? They had to really, really rely on each other. And it's sort of wonderful… I'm really proud of what good spirits our cast and crew have, and, you know, there's just… you’re really lucky when not only are the kids, that are playing their parts great, but their families are great, and they're very supportive of the journey, and all of our adult actors are wonderful and it really does feel like a lot of people, you know, they say like, “Oh, this show feels like a family.” This one really does. People really care about each other, and I'm really proud of that.

Executive Producers & Showrunners:
​Darren Swimmer & Todd Slavkin

John Betancourt: How did each of you come to be involved as Executive Producers and Showrunners?

Todd Slavkin: We were given the scripts, the first two scripts were written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, and read them, fell in love with them. I know this book, because I read it to my daughter back in 2007. So immediately, we were excited. We met Matt and Phil; it was a hive mind fully connected. It was a wonderful vibe; we could see it being a great partnership. And we haven't stopped, you know. And so, the casting process after that, together the four of us, basically just, you know, began casting the show, and we were off to the races.

Darren Swimmer: Yeah. Well, Todd and I are writing producing partnership, we go back, we met actually, we were friends in the sixth grade, and an advanced placement science thing. And ever since then, we've been friends. And then we started writing together. So, you know, basically, what Todd said it was, was the two of us together, we, you know, we've been working together for as long as I can remember.

John Betancourt: Now I couldn’t help but notice in my research for this that season two is much bigger in scope. What went into the decision to give everyone such a grand adventure this year?

Darren Swimmer: Well, Book Two of the book series, you know, we follow the basic premise of that, that they're going to go on the scavenger hunt, they're going to go on a ship and go to Europe and go around, look at it. But we actually, we love that idea that they would be out on their own on this adventure, just the four of them, the… you know, the four kids against the world. And it was, it was a challenge in terms of well, how are we going to have… you know, last season, we got to have locations and sets. This is like a new thing, every episode. So, it was a little daunting, but we had to do it. And it was great. Because I think that the season has, again, the episodes have a freshness because you're in all these new environments every, every episode.

Todd Slavkin: Exactly what he said. The book had that; we added the idea of happiness as a new concept. The book never cut away to Benedict and Curtain. We knew they were kidnapped, but you didn't really cut away until the very end of the book. So, we knew as a television show… Tony Hale’s in the show! (laughs) We’re gonna see him in every episode. So, it really opened it up as a way to explore that brotherhood, and that relationship of these two brothers in a much deeper way than we were able to in season one. And that was a new thing we brought, we all brought to it, but I think very effective. And it turned out great.

John Betancourt: Now obviously messaging is huge and you’ve both kind of keyed into messages in this season. What is the number one message that you hope audiences take away from this season?

Todd Slavkin: Well, in terms of the happiness just explore that, because that's a theme that’s very relevant to the world we live in. Through social media, there's a pressure. Everyone's doing these pictures where they’re so happy and smiling and in these great locations, but it's not real. You can't be happy all the time. But if you look at someone’s social media page, like “They have the greatest life! Oh my God!” Well, that translates into this world. Where Curtain is creating this artificial happiness and you’ve got to be sad, it's okay to be sad. It's okay to feel true genuine emotions that aren't happy in order to experience happiness, because it's all relative, right? You need the spectrums of the highs and the lows to kind of even it all out. And it's not really a metaphor about drugs, but kind of, right? Anything that's artificial. Anything that’s making you happy, that's not coming from your heart and your soul isn't necessarily a positive thing. And I think that's one of the big takeaways for sure.

Darren Swimmer: I also think there's this theme of family where, you know, last season the kids discovered that they could kind of form a family of sorts, and this season, they have to say, “Well, now that we're a family, how do you go about that?” You know, Rainey, gets a little needy. He kind of like, feels like he wants more. He wants so much more reassurance. And then there's also you know, how do you be a part of a family but also maintain your individuality? And so that's something that we'll explore with the kids, you know, in some sense with the adults and them having these new roles as you know, parent figures and you know, how do they balance like how much they can let the kids be their own selves versus, you know, the people that they want them to be.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.