‘Raised By Wolves’: Aaron Guzikowski Teases New Android & Surprises For Season 2 [Interview]

One of the surprise series of 2020, HBO Max’s “Raised By Wolves” is finally returning for its second season. Created by Aaron Guzikowski, the first two episodes were directed by executive producer Ridley Scott who brought a stunning cinematic aesthetic to the proceedings. Scott, who has been a bit busy with two major film releases in the interim, wasn’t able to return for season two, but his fingerprints still resonate throughout the series.

READ MORE: ‘Raised By Wolves’ Season 2 Trailer: Ridley Scott’s sci-fi series returns to HBO Max

Set in the 22nd Century, “Wolves” follows two humanoid androids, Mother (Amanda Collin) and Father (Abubakar Salim), tasked with raising children (who just happen to be the future of the human race) on a new planet, Kepler-22b. After years of relative peace, they are caught in the crossfire of the Mithraic, militant followers of Sol (i.e., god), and atheists whose wars have laid waste to the Earth. By the end of the first season, Mother has given birth to a miraculous snake baby (it’s a lot to take in), their “children” have grown to include a flock of Mithraic colonizers marooned on the planet and a former atheist warrior, Marcus (Travis Fimmel), now believes he’s a prophet of Sol after hearing voices in his head. Where the series would go for a second season was anyone’s guess, but revisiting the tense relationship between Mother and Father is a smart guess.

“Mother had this child which was not Father’s doing. He kind of saw it as a betrayal, her serpent child and her whole kind of secret affair,” Guzikowski says. “And so now in season two, he’s trying to figure out what to do with these feelings he has. He still cares about the family. He doesn’t want to leave the family, but he has this kind of resentment and he’s trying to work through it.”

After one of the children discovers a skeleton of strange, ancient bones, Father begins working on a creation of his own.

“He finds these ancient Android bones, as it were, and figures out if he adds his own fuel blood to them, he can regenerate them slowly,” Guzikowski reveals. “And slowly, he begins to regenerate this Android that used to be amongst this ancient population. And through this Android, we start to learn quite a bit. But it brings with it its own set of problems, the same as Mother’s serpent child. So it’s kind of an interesting sort of thing with the creators and their creations and sort of their power over their creations and then their kind of creations power over them as well.”

Over the course of our interview, Guzikowski reveals more details about this new Android and its connection to the planet, how Scott was able to stay involved in the production, and much more.

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The Playlist: From what you went through making season one, what became a priority for season two?

Aaaron Guzikowski: Well, I had always envisioned that it was always about the family. This core family, the two androids, the six kids, and I just want to kind of keep that as the central focus. Moving as the world kind of changes around them as this planet is populated and all of these new discoveries are made. We’re still keeping a focus on these kids and how a lot of it is seen through their eyes, and trying to, keep the family aspect of the whole thing intact because it’s really Mother and Mother’s dream of this atheist human civilization. So really just wanting to ensure that I kept that aspect of it whole. I wanted that intimate sort of like we’re a member of the family sort of thing. I think that’s always kind of the challenge is that the show gets bigger and bigger and bigger and there’s just more and more kind of fantastic insane elements to deal with. That really just keeps coming back to that kind of core concept and making sure it’s healthy and growing along with everything else.

Was there anything you took from fan reactions of the first season that made you think, “Oh, maybe we should dive into this a bit more”?

There were so many different kinds of [reactions from the fans]. They were kind of all over the place, which was great. Obviously, there’s a great deal of focus on Mother’s character and there’s a lot of interest in her and where she’s going to, where we’re going to take her. And, there’s a lot of questions too, about things we saw in season one. Like Tally’s ghost [and] people asking what does this mean? Is this coming back? Is this all part of some larger framework? And it is. I think it’s just a lot of kind of things hanging off those branches. And also just kind of my own selfish desires. Which aspects of the planet I’m looking to explore. I see it as a haunted house. And now in season two, we get a little bit into who used to live in this house. What happened here? Why does it feel this way? Are they still here and we don’t actually know it? Really kind of coming at it that way. I think that’s the constant challenge with the show. Because if so much of it is it’s a mystery. You want to reveal, you want to get answers, but you want to make sure that that central motor that just keeps it all, “tell me more, tell me more, I want to know why.”

In that context, when you were planning out this season, did you already know where it was going to go?

Yeah, there’s a basic architecture that goes for about five seasons.

O.K.

I have some pretty big things that I know are true, and I know that is going to happen. But in between those big things, it kind of just constantly changes because you see it on screen and it kind of talks back to you. And you want to listen because that’s kind of the great thing about writing TV. Especially if you can go for more than one season, the show can start to talk back to you and you can kind of get this interesting sort of conversation between you and the thing that you’re kind of working on. And you kind of see where it wants to go.

Are there more flashbacks to life on Earth as in the first season?

In this season, you’ll see a bit more flashing back in terms of life on Kepler 22b. Kind of the history of that place. The story moves to the other side of the planet, the tropical zone, they call it. And this area used to be this big technological city thousands of years ago and all that’s left of it now are these ruins and just barest remnants of what used to be there. But they start to put together who these people were and what they believed in. What was their relationship to this voice that people keep hearing and that some of the characters believe is the voice of Sol, the voice of God? And how does that how does it relate to the future of this planet and human beings?

One of the key arcs of the first season was the relationship between Mother and Father. What did you want to explore with that relationship in this season?

Well, we kind of end the season with those two, and when they get back together at end of season two, their relationship has really kind of gone through quite a bit of trauma. And Mother had this child which was not Father’s doing. He kind of saw it as a betrayal, her serpent child and her whole kind of secret affair. And so now in season two, he’s trying to figure out what to do with these feelings he has. He still cares about the family. He doesn’t want to leave the family, but he has this kind of resentment and he’s trying to work through it. And what he actually ends up doing is he starts working on a creation of his own. He finds these ancient Android bones, as it were, and figures out if he adds his own fuel blood to them, he can regenerate them slowly. And slowly, he begins to regenerate this Android that used to be amongst this ancient population. And through this Android, we start to learn quite a bit. But it brings with it its own set of problems, the same as Mother’s serpent child. So it’s kind of an interesting sort of thing with the creators and their creations and sort of their power over their creations and then their kind of creations power over them as well.

The first season was stunning in many respects in terms of its visual look and the production design, very unconventional, even for Prestige television in some ways. Did you feel like you guys had been given like the green light to push it further in season two?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, and Ridley especially is so encouraging of that. Really just trying to just keep pushing it and keep pushing it, trying to do stuff that we haven’t seen before. This is such a great genre and I think we’re also kind of playing with dual genre. You have horror and science fiction kind of happening at the same time. And to me, they go together so well, because, to me, space is terrifying more so than almost anything. So yeah, we really try to push with, with everything. With the vehicles, the tech, the Androids, the mythology, everything really just try and create something new.

Ridley has been insanely busy. He directed and edited two movies over the past year. How involved was he in season two?

Given his schedule, he was surprisingly very involved. He looks at the cuts. A lot of the design stuff goes through him. He gives notes on basically everything at some point. I don’t know how he does it, but he does.

I don’t think I could have done that at 30 let alone at 84.

I know he’s a force of nature. So, yeah, we’re blessed. He’s, he’s still involved in the show and it’s great because when you’re designing like a new monster or something, You can ask Ridley Scott what he thinks. That’s always a great thing.

If there was one thing that you could tease for the season that you would tell viewers or fans, what would it be?

I would say it is this new Android that we’re adding into the mix, this ancient Android, that Father generates who comes to be named Grandmother is her name. And she’s fascinating. These Androids from the old world wear veils over their faces, which turns out to be these sensory filters. So they can’t get attached to humans. It allows them to basically get around all of those messy emotions and do things that you might not otherwise be able to do if you are feeling things like remorse or whatever it might be.

Do we find out more about what culture civilization made these?

We will get some revelations along those lines, for sure. We already know from last season that they were humans or at least some of them were humans. But we’re also starting to understand that they had this so sort of very deep relationship with this voice that everyone’s hearing and then out there was a sort of this kind of religious framework on this planet that they’re only starting to kind scratch the surface of as they’re trying to figure out what’s going on.

In terms of the religious aspect of the show, what do you want people to take away from it?

I think it’s important. I think faith is a huge part of the show. What are you going to choose to put your faith in? Are you going to put it in, because you can put it in technology, you could put it in a deity that may or may not exist. You could put it in human beings. Definitely, the show is not really trying to pick a winner. It’s just kind of exploring all of those different sorts of ways that we put our faith in as we try to figure out what our purpose is as a species. Why are we here? It’s definitely a hugely important piece of it all. But not so much, I think, in the sense of Earthbound religion and that it’s going to equate to these sets of rules or ideas or whatever it might be. It’s really more generally about faith and where do we come from? And where do we go from here?

“Raised By Wolves” debuts new episodes starting this Thursday on HBO Max.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.