The last season of Big Mouth was released in December 2020 and Netflix never said anything about stopping it there. They have already renewed it for season six but first, we are waiting for the fifth season to air.
At the occasion of the fifth edition of the USC Comedy Festival, the show’s co-creators and executive producers, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett as well as the co-executive producer Kelly Galuska were present to talk about the animated series.
One of the big topics was the recasting of the biracial character Missy Foreman-Greenwald. In season four, this character has known a major growth discovering her culture and self. With that, a subject that was already on the table for the new season was around actress Jenny Slate announcing that she would step back from voicing the teenage girl.
As the end of the production of Season 4 happened around the time of George Floyd’s killing, Mark Levin revealed that they “all agreed that it was the appropriate time to make the change“.
The voice change happened during episode 9 ‘Horrority House’ of the last season, as Levin mentioned, “We had already been deep in exploring Missy’s journey, her own awakening to her Black identity, and then also her struggle with self.
In the ninth episode, she is in a funhouse and sees all different versions of herself, and they shatter. She put together a mosaic, and that mosaic of Missy comes to life, and that’s the moment we trade-off.”
Ayo Edebiri took up the role from Jenny Slate. What is interesting is that, prior to joining the cast as Missy’s voice, Edebiri was already a writer on the show. Goldberg explained, “Ultimately, Ayo felt right and maybe had a leg up because she was in the writers’ room, and had been a part of all these conversations about how Missy was going to evolve“.
The Big Mouth team also announced that they wanted to continue to make an effort to embrace authentic representation, on screen but also behind the scene.
Of course, the entire conversation didn’t turn around this major progress in the animation world. The creatives also talked a little bit about season 5 with USC’s Professor J.D. Connor. Season 5 is scheduled for this year but we are still waiting for a release date.
The creators shared a few concert details but Levin disclosed that the forthcoming season will explore “a little bit more about kids advocating and becoming political“. However, this will not become a very topical comedy as they wish to have a timeless series. Especially if are taking into account the time they need to make a season.
The first season of Big Mouth was released in 2017 and was created by Flackett, Goldberg, Levin, and Nick Kroll. In the animated series, we follow several teenagers who are discovering how their lives are upended by puberty – its wonders and horrors.
Since its beginning, the series has earned four Emmy nominations and, last year, Maya Rudolph won one in the category of Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance.
#Peace.Love.BigMouth
