‘Wynonna Earp’ Showrunner Talks Waverly’s Future and Teases Season two

Because we’re talking about the finale of Wynonna Earp, there are obviously serious spoilers in this interview. 

Wynonna Earp’s first season just came to a close and it was a doozy of a finale. I’m talking major character deaths, bar fights, uprisings, explosions, and tentacle demons. Obviously, I have some serious feelings when it comes to this show so I talked to Wynonna’s showrunner Emily Andras (Lost Girl, Killjoys) about the finale and the possibility of a second season.

I’ll just go ahead and say this now but Wynonna Earp, as a show, has meant a lot to me over the past few months. For a show I knew next to nothing about going in, I’ve fallen in love pretty hard. It ticks every box. Melanie Scrofano is absolute perfection as Wynonna and it’s not like the rest of the cast are slouches. Now that it’s over, I’m genuinely saddened it won’t be on my TV every week.

But let’s get into the hopeful discussion for the future, yes?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN WAVERLY IS NOT AN EARP?

After that preview interview I totally thought you were going to say, “Wynonna didn’t kiss anyone in the finale!”

Yea, I was pretty bummed about that, but we got a WayHaught kiss, so I’m okay. But don’t skirt the issue! What is this about Waverly maybe not being an Earp?!

Well, Bobo says she’s not an Earp. Bobo doesn’t have a history of always telling the truth but it is a tantalizing tidbit considering Waverly most embodies the values of being a descendant of Wyatt Earp. She’s probably the best person we have on the show as far as her moral compass, so how can she possibly not be an Earp? The saddest thing for Waverly is that if she does prove to not be an Earp, after all the life changes she’s gone through this season and discovering herself, the one thing that was her anchor was the fact that she was an Earp. It’s how she defines herself. It’s what keeps her motivated. That’s a pretty crazy thing to explore. Although Waverly has her hands full with a few other issues at the moment.

That scene really got to me in the finale, more so than anything else that was revealed. I can see Bobo throwing that lie at Waverly as a way to stop her the same way throwing the town at Wynonna slowed her down, but in that moment it felt like such a truth, like it explained so much with Waverly’s character, that it never crossed my mind it might be a lie. From a storytelling perspective, it’s amazing, but from a human perspective, that possibility breaks my heart for Waverly.

I feel the exact same way. And that scene, between Michael and Dominque, was the last scene we shot of the whole season. It was such a heartbreaking moment. I’m so happy to hear you gush about that scene because there are a lot of crazy cliffhangers in the finale but that was the one that felt the most emotionally devastating. Maybe it’s because it happens to Waverly and we all love her so much.

Also a thing to note about Waverly is that she’s not 27 yet. She’s around 21. So god forbid if Wynonna died we wouldn’t know for some time if Waverly actually could use Peacemaker. There are other clues throughout the season. Waverly is such a warm and caring person but she didn’t exactly have a happy childhood. No one bothered to mark her down on the family growth chart; she had a really contentious relationship with dad; Willa was kind of cruel to her. It wasn’t difficult for Bobo to coerce this lonely child into believing he was her imaginary friend. I think that does match some of the layers of Waverly.

As always with this show, things aren’t always what they seem, but for Waverly, that revelation is definitely going to be difficult going forward. Whether it’s true or not, it affects her, and who knows what it does for her relationship with Wynonna. 

The finale could have ended, by my count, in at least 3 other places than it did. Why did you continue to push forward, to close the Bobo arc, and then choose to leave it on a cliffhanger with Waverly being possessed?

I agree with you that there were so many moments where we could have ended the show satisfyingly. Personally, I love the moment where Wynonna mercy-kills Bobo. It just goes back to the defiance in her character. Ending this curse is her primary purpose so no one is going to tell her what to do. “I’m Wynonna goddamn Earp and I’m the heir. Get out of my way.” She and Bobo, despite everything, have this connection, so her shooting him felt very personal. In a way, it was complicated but it was also a righteous death. She wasn’t going to let the government take him.

The odd thing about cliffhangers is that some audience members love them and some hate them, but it’s good to set up stakes for the second season and it’s good to get that push for a second season, to be completely honest. Ending on a cliffhanger is a way to get an audience excited in the off-season, give them something to talk about, something to speculate over what might happen in the future. Hopefully, if we’re lucky enough to come back for a second season, we come back with all that energy.

The show has always prided itself on being fast-paced as far as the story goes, but our audience is really sophisticated, able to keep up with all those twists and turns, so that ending just felt true to the show’s pace. Plus, I like getting angry letters so I don’t get bored while I’m off from work.

I know this answer is probably pretty obvious but Wynonna Earp IS a sci-fi show so I have to ask, are Willa and Bobo DEAD dead?

Hm. Define “dead.” The Oxford dictionary–no, not that joke again. Look, I’m gonna be honest, they could be alive. Willa kind of got tentacled and then shot in the head, so that’s kind of nasty.

(Kind of, she says. Kind of.)

But we never see what happens to her body, so maybe? And Bobo clearly got shot between the eyes by Peacemaker and was sent back to Hell. On the other hand, he was outside the Ghost River Triangle, so what does that mean? “But of course they’re DEAD dead,” she said smirking. I don’t know yet. I think we can assume they’re dead until they’re not. How about that?

(Tease.) Speaking of maybe/maybe not dead, what is the deal with Dolls? His eyes and the medication, there is so much more going on there. 

Oh, his eyes. I thought were asking about how many push-ups a day does Shamier do, because it’s all of them. If you want to talk about something that’s unreal, it’s how fit Shamier is.

Welllllllllllll, we got a lot more hints about Dolls in the finale. Obviously, we went to the crazy eyes again and he got injected by one particular type of drug. It’s an ongoing mystery but he did tell Doc that, “it’s just medicine. I’ve taken it since I was a kid. It helps keep some parts of me alive and some parts of me dead.” I think there’s some interesting speculation in that riddle, so there you go. But I will say, he’s in a lot of trouble right now with the Black Badge Division. He’s being carted off to like, Siberia.

Would season two cover more with the Black Badge Division and all that beef between Lucado and Dolls?

Season two is a tantalizing unbaked muffin that could come in so many delicious flavors. The BBD is certainly interesting but during season one they were a little bit like neglectful landlords who weren’t paying attention. Given what happened in the finale, they are definitely going to be paying more attention to Purgatory. Whether that’s a curse or a blessing remains to be seen.

So we’ve kind of talked kissing, but since I didn’t get Wynonna kissing anyone in the finale, let’s talk about that subtle love triangle going on between Dolls, Doc, and Wynonna. During “House of Memories” it seemed like she had finally picked to be with Dolls. Is this the case or is there more inner turmoil there?

The most confused person in this matter is Wynonna. If you put a gun to both those boys’ heads right now, I don’t think Wynonna would know who she’d pick. But that’s what makes it compelling! I don’t know if there’s a definitive right answer yet. I just want her to keep kissing people.

And I love the kissing. At least we did get that amaaaaazing WayHaught kiss. Let’s gush about them. Wynonna Earp has made a giant splash with the LGBT community. Was this something the writers had planned in developing the first season or did it naturally occur as the season progressed?

Dom and Kat are that adorable in real life, just so you know. That’s not on us. That’s totally just them being that adorable. But you never plan it because that’s kind of cynical. You never know which parts will stick with the fans. Of course you always hope that people get this weird show you’ve put on the air.

Personally, the LGBT representation has been quite important to me in my writing and it has been ever since I started writing for a variety of reasons. I was lucky enough to have good results with the LGBT fandom on another show, Lost Girl. We had a very sophisticated and passionate lesbian fanbase on that show and it made me realize that the LGBT community craves better representation that is complicated and real and not just dumbed down.

I knew since conception that Waverly was going to be exploring her sexuality. If every character has their secret, I think Waverly’s secret, unknown even to herself, is that she’s probably not straight. I don’t want to put her on the spectrum yet because I think she is still exploring that as a character.

I have been so blown away by the response to WayHaught. In a million years, I did not expect it would be so embraced, so celebrated in the way it was. I saw the chemistry between Kat and Dom early on and we talked a lot about writing real female characters, depicting them in a way that wasn’t a caricature. But the second Nicole walked in that bar, the first time Nicole and Waverly met, she had a two minute scene in Shorty’s, and I could not believe the fan response. From that point on, I knew we were on to something special.

Have you heard anything about a second season and who do we have to bribe to make it happen?

Even if I had, I couldn’t say anything. Were up to me, I’d have heard we were getting 100 episodes. I just have to say: keep talking to Syfy. Keep tweeting about your love of the show. Email Syfy. Rewatch episodes. Spread the word if you love Wynonna Earp. All of this engagement does nothing but help us. If you want more Wynonna Earp, we are poised like jungle cats to give you more. We just need your help.

If renewed for a second season, is there anything you feel you would do differently or try to improve on? Would Nicole come on as a main character? Would you introduce more characters? Would you change locations?

When we were filming for the first season, we were kind of just doing it blind from our brains. I mean, if you want to give us Game of Thrones money, we’ll definitely take it and make the show bigger and badder. Personally, I want Wynonna on her motorcycle all the time. But the beauty of a second season is that now we’ve laid that lore and foundation down, we know who these characters are, so for a second season, we would want to put them in more situations where they’re all together. Whatever they’re fighting there’s more emotional juice behind it because we are really doing a character study of these guys. They all know who they are now so let’s have them love each other and then let’s have them fight; let’s have them go through stuff together and grow. I really hope we get that chance.

Wynonna Earp desperately needs to be renewed for a second season.