TWISTED METAL Showrunner MJ Smith Talks Season 2 Music, Set Pieces, and Nerd Inspirations Tai Gooden | amznusa.com

It’s time to rev up your engines and get ready for the ride of Twisted Metal season two. The Peacock series is returning on July 31 and setting the stage for the game’s infamous and very deadly tournament. We cannot wait to see what John, Quiet, Sweet Tooth, and other faves are up to as well as meet some diabolical new characters. Back in August 2024, Nerdist went on an incredibly fun visit to Twisted Metal’s set alongside several other outlets. It was a total blast to learn about the series’ cars and costumes, and an even bigger honor to hang out with its showrunner Michael Jonathan “MJ” Smith. 

He’s truly “one of us” in all the best ways. Smith is a true gaming and music nerd living his dream by bringing Twisted Metal’s bizarre universe to live-action. Despite trekking back and forth between many areas of active filming, Smith was kind enough to spend extensive time with journalists. From personally taking us to see the show’s fleet of vehicles and costumes, to chatting about his many geeky inspirations, Smith is a total vibe. 

Smith leaned into some pretty heavy pop culture hits to help build the season’s sounds. Last season famously included a fun soundtrack, most notably John Doe’s jam “Thong Song” by Sisqo. Thankfully, that song dropped just a couple of years before the apocalypse hit. Just imagine a world without Sisqo’s ode to skimpy underwear…

Anyway, there’s not going to be more Sisqo this season. But MJ promises that the soundtrack to Calypso’s chaotic event will be fire. “We did want to have Rage Against the Machine, but that didn’t clear,” Smith told us. “But for the most part, we just started editing. So we have a playlist of songs we’re going to include this year, and they range a wide variety. Some have been approved already. We’re going to have Ruff Ryders’ Anthem in this season for sure. But yeah, it’s going to be a wide range of great ‘90s, early 2000s songs. I’m very excited about what we’re getting.” 

He continued, “I’m really involved in the music stuff, and a lot of it is stuff we script… I’m very particular about what I want it to be, but I wanted to get all the genres from that era. More hip-hop, a little more pop, too. Less of the pop bands like Hansen from last season, we’re trying to get different kinds of pop… it has to walk that balance of nostalgia, but in a way that you’re like, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t heard that song in so long!’ But then it also ties into the story or ties into what’s going on. That’s always super important.” 

His seven hour playlist aside, Smith finally felt ready to tackle the game’s tournament in season two. When asked why it didn’t happen earlier, he said the series needed to flesh out its characters and world. Twisted Metal games aren’t necessarily narrative heavy, nor do they have to be. But a bunch of randos whom we don’t know and care about getting into a vehicle battle does not make for quality television. Also, all those explosions and such are very expensive. That’s the kind of money that a network doesn’t want to cough up for a brand-new series. But, just because there’s even more action doesn’t mean the show will lose its emotional core.

“…We start with ‘What is each episode about from the emotional point of view of John and Quiet? What are they dealing with, what are they agreeing about? What are they disagreeing about?’ And that’s what so much of the season is about… Season two is really asking questions for John. Okay, now that you’ve found family, what does it mean to have a family, is it about sacrifice? Is it about fighting for something? Is it about supporting, not taking center stage?… I think [Quiet’s] biggest struggle this season is like, I have a mission and how do I balance that with fighting for something? Like she says in the first episode, ‘I’ve been fighting against stuff my entire life. Now I want to fight for something.’

This season certainly feels like one of new adjustments, questions, and changes, down to its filming location. After filming season one in New Orleans, production moved to the Toronto area. Smith admitted that the weather was tough to tame in Louisiana, with lots of storm delays due to lightning. If you’ve never been to the American South or aren’t from there, you truly don’t understand how thunderstorms are a part of everyday life for a couple of months out of the year. And, it is hot as fish grease outside. Toronto offered not only a cooler and less temperamental climate, but also the space to make the tournament a reality. 

“We have to be in a place where we can shoot cars outside consistently,” he noted. “I think Toronto has been amazing in terms of just changing the look a little bit, getting us a little bit more elevation, getting us some more looks and some more detail. We’ve been shooting in some amazing places that we’ve been able to find. I mean this place is a huge boon to us. We are using every part of this space.” 

The locale further helped to bring MJ’s vision of this Twisted Metal tournament to life. But, long before hitting the streets of Drake’s home city, Smith looked beyond the show’s source material for inspiration. He mentions Mortal Kombat’s elimination style as a reference and digs into others, saying “A little bit of Blood Sport for sure, a little bit of Squid Game in terms of the way that the structure of the tournament goes, and I really loved how that show did that… I wrote on Cobra Kai for a long time, so obviously I’m very involved in how tournaments work, having written some tournament episodes…”

Smith teases that fans can expect some wild, colorful explosions as well as some familiar locations from the games like Diesel City, where a heist will take place. There are going to be five to seven big set pieces in Twisted Metal season two, which makes sense considering that ⅔ of the season revolves around tournament action. That’s a ton to look forward to without even factoring in Sweet Tooth’s wrecking ball behavior. MJ Smith is amped up and cannot wait for game fans, series watchers, and curious newbies alike to see what twisted things come to their TV screens. 

The post TWISTED METAL Showrunner MJ Smith Talks Season 2 Music, Set Pieces, and Nerd Inspirations appeared first on Nerdist.

 

This articles is written by : Fady Askharoun Samy Askharoun

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