Royal Crackers Creative Team Talks Returning for Season 2, Future Hopes and More

Reaction to Season One Reactions

It's so awesome to be talking to you again because season two of Royal Crackers got picked up before season one, and then Royal Crackers went on to be the most watched Adult Swim original in 2023. So I wanted to know from you all, how do you feel about the response to the show so far?

JASON RUIZ: Great. I really feel I can go on a tangent about why people were immediately filled with venom from just watching the trailer of the show on the onset. People were really wanting to rip us apart and we felt that for the first few months or whatever, of people just trashing the show blindly. And it really feels like we've started the process, or at least we're in the middle of squashing that and going, "No, we're very proud of this show. We're very confident with it." And so it felt like a bit of a hill to climb, but it's all the more rewarding and we're so appreciative, believe me, of we're finding our audience and that feels great. It's amazing.

EVAN MANN: I think you said it perfectly. I think you're right. We're super excited about developing an audience and when people do, it did feel like there was a hill to climb, but we know that there's a lot of people out there who really love the show, and there's some people who really passionately love the show. And I think that just, it means the world to us.

RUIZ: And there's two people who passionately hate it. We know their names, we know them by name.

Planning Out a Story

One of the things I like about Royal Crackers is while all this wacky stuff happens, there's an actual story moving forward. The Hornsbys are growing as characters, and there are changes set within this universe. So was it easier to plan out a two season story to see where each character was going to end up at the end of season one compared to where they are in season two?

RUIZ: I think you can attest to this, Evan, when we started season two, I had these flagpoles put in, of just like, here's where I think we should be in the middle of the season. Here's where we are at the beginning, middle... And so that was the goal is to hide a serialized element in it. When I pitched the show back in 2019, I think, I was very adamant and still am. I don't want this show to be serialized, I think, not a knock on the genre, but I feel like serialized television is a little bit easier than episodic.

I like the challenge of episodic, of just like, no, when you start this episode and you end the episode, you have all the information you need. It never should feel like you've missed an episode to set up this one. So that's a great compliment and thank you. Because it does have serialized elements, but I want to disguise those as best we can because it should feel like, when you're watching an episode, you have all the information you need.

More Theo Sr.?

It feels that way because in season two, one of the episodes we got was Zeebos returning, who was a big factor in season one, but then if you watched how his ending happened there and then his ending happened here in season two, it's like, "Oh, I wouldn't be surprised to see him again later." That kind of thing. Speaking on that, season one had that big Theo Sr. flashback episode where we got to see a little more of what makes him tick and we got to see a version of him in the finale. So I do want to ask, are we getting more of Theo Sr. in season two?

RUIZ: The aforementioned flagpoles that I was putting in, that's all about Senior. So, for sure.

MANN: We spent a lot more time in this season. We definitely spent more time in the past with young Senior, and we learned more about the Royal Crackers Company and really how all the things that Senior did as a young man, how that informed Stebe and Theo and made them the men they are today.

Finding Stebe's Voice

Oh, man. Speaking of Stebe. Jason, where do you go for Stebe? Stebe is so endearingly dweedy, which I hate to say, but he's also a very compelling lead. I love the guy. So where do you go to bring Stebe to life? What aspects of yourself are in this Stebe character?

RUIZ: All the embarrassing things I know about myself. I'm not a traditionally masculine man and I don't take any issue with that, but I love leaning into that as a joke of just, especially in the face of all this male toxicity that exists. Obviously some of it's becoming a little more marginalized, but Stebe is the embodiment of that and I love that and I love leaning into that as a joke and still making fun of that, even though I know that's in me, that's in all of us.

I'm very method, so I live my life as Stebe just to make sure I have the character. So I'll go to Denny's and get humiliated by a waitress just to... I got berated by a Grubhub driver the other day. It was like... I don't want to go into it. She yelled at me for no reason at all whatsoever.

SETH COHEN: That's Stebe. There you go. There's the storyline for next season. Stebe gets owned.

Royal Crackers Season 3?

So just as a final question, unfortunately, I'm still waiting to find out if season three is getting announced, so I do have to ask the obvious. Would you be interested in coming back for a season three of Royal Crackers?

RUIZ: Three, four, five, 10, a hundred? I'll do it until the day I die. I'll do it until I feel like, okay, we're-

COHEN: Until I die.

RUIZ: Until you die. That's it. I know I speak for all of us when I say we love the show, we want to keep going. We definitely have more ideas as to where we want to take it.

COHEN: It's very cliche to say we are just scratching the surface, but I think Evan and Jason always are expanding this universe, and so now that we know our characters more and can go further, we really are just at the start of this. So Nick call up Zaz, tell him... None of us have his direct number.

RUIZ: I'm always seeing you court side at the Lakers with him and I'm like, come on Nick.

Oh man, now I'm at a loss for words here.

RUIZ: I just want to go on the record and say, what Zaslav's doing, great. Greatest executive that ever lived. Love you, Zaz. Keep going, brother. Don't listen to the haters.

Royal Crackers Season 2 premieres on Adult Swim on Thursday, February 29th at midnight PT/ ET.