Jon Hoffman, the co-creator of Hulu’s most successful comedy series Only Murders in the Building, explains the casting of singer and actor Selena Gomez as a lead character in the series. Only Murders in the Building premiered on the streamer in August and it follows three eccentric strangers who team up to investigate a mysterious murder in their apartment building while discussing their findings over a true-crime podcast. The series also stars Martin Short and Steve Martin in lead roles.
Only Murders in the Building consists of 10 half-hour episodes, and it was expected to be successful because of the talent, which was involved in the series behind the camera, but after the premiere of the series people loved it because of its three leads, and how all of them played off of each other dialogues and also because of the amazing chemistry they had with each, which was already expected to be the case with Martin and Short as they have worked for a long time together, but the audience also really loved Gomez, who played the character of Mabel Mora.
While speaking with Vanity Fair, showrunner Hoffman and casting director Tiffany Little Canfield explained how they cast the ensemble for the Hulu series. Hoffman said that when it came to Mabel, they really wanted to put a spotlight on the clash between different generations of New Yorkers. He also praised Gomez’s work on the Disney Channel series Wizard of Waverly Place as the lead star and added that it became quite clear that she was the person for the role. Read Hoffman’s quote below:
“The whole show is built on classic meets modern in our minds. And just theoretically, we were thinking that way just across the board: How do we take these two legendary, classic comedians and then put them up against the clash of something New York, being modern now and finding that classic-meets-modern all around New York? Once Selena Gomez was brought up, it was just like, oh. That really was the light bulb moment … I had watched her on Wizards of Waverly Place and I immediately recognized: She’s got her own little vibe, with a sort of laser-like, dry, underneath wit to her.”
Only Murders in the Building has been renewed for a second season at Hulu, and it has already produced with Gomez, Martin, and Short returning to reprise their respective roles and Cara Delevigne has also joined the series in the second season as Alice, a sophisticated art world insider, who gets involved in the mystery.
The release date for Only Murders in the Building Season 2 has not been announced yet.