‘Los Espookys’ Was Something Fred Armisen Had to Make

One of the silliest and spookiest shows to grace HBO is also one of its most groundbreaking. Los Espookys, which debuts tonight on HBO, is the first time the network has created a Spanish-language program under its main umbrella, instead of through its sister programming block HBO Latin. At a press day for the series that included other journalists, Decider spoke to Los Espookys’ creators and stars about how this delightful horror comedy came to be, and the challenges of creating a show in a foreign language for an American audience.

“It was just like something that was nagging at me,” executive producer, co-creator, and star Fred Armisen said. “Something in Spanish, I wanted it to be done with. It’s almost like I just needed it off my chest. It was the loudest voice in my head.”

That need to create a Spanish-language series eventually blossomed into the cheery Los Espookys. The comedy follows a group of friends who turn their love of horror and scaring people into a business. Filled with a plethora of cartoonish characters and deadpan one-liners, this ode to horror is surprisingly one of the most light-hearted shows of the year.

That was intentional. According to Armisen, he wanted the series to focus on the love of horror rather than just horror itself. The creator likened Los Espookys to PSY’s “Gangnam Style” or the South Korean boy band BTS. Just because most U.S. audiences don’t understand what they’re saying that doesn’t stop them from having a loyal stateside audience. “The idea that you don’t have to fully understand a language to enjoy something, I really like that.”

Once the idea was formed, Armisen started pitching it around. “I wanted to pitch to some Spanish channels and then someone at the production company explained to me they don’t invest in the same way with new shows. They sort of buy other shows that already exist,” Armisen explained. “Maybe I heard it wrong but anyway that narrowed it down to only a couple of places and HBO was really receptive and they had no issue with it being in Spanish.”

“I feel like Fred, because he has such a track record of making such incredible shows, that it’s really not a risk to do a different show on TV,” co-creator and star Julio Torres said. “Especially with him in it and co-creating it. I feels nice that his presence is ushering in something new.”

“I think any hesitations about it being in Spanish were completely outweighed by the fact that it was him wanting to do it,” co-creator and star Ana Fabrega added.

Both Torres and Fabrega have been on the rise for quite some time. Torres is likely best known for his award-nominated work writing for Saturday Night Live, and Fabrega wrote for The Chris Gethard Show and has made appearances on High Maintenance and At Home with Amy Sedaris. However their collaboration with Armisen marks the first time their uniquely bizarre comedy has been brought to mainstream attention. In addition to writing every episode of this season, Torres and Fabrega also star in the series as the ethereal and over-it Andres and the vaguely clueless Tati, respectively.

“It was his idea, and he was very quickly and eagerly embracing our voices as well, which is great,” Torres said. “It was never ‘Well actually the show should be this.’ It was ‘Let’s do something together.'”

“I felt a spiritual connection with her, comedy-wise. Same thing with Julio,” Armisen said about his co-creators. “It’s almost like in comedy when you find someone who has the same sense of humor it’s almost like a war… This is what we should fight for. We should fight for this kind of voice. It’s just rare to find someone who has the same sensibility.”

Once Los Espookys had its creative team, it needed its two other leads. Bernardo Velasco was cast as the optimistic leader of this spooky business, Renaldo, and Cassandra Ciangherotti was cast as the hilariously deadpan technician Ursula. Transitioning to Los Espookys was a change for both of them as they were used to playing more serious roles.

“The hard thing was to realize that it was easy. That was the hard thing, to realize it’s okay to be happy, it’s okay to be at peace, it’s okay to be light,” Ciangherotti said.

“Once we get more into it with Julio and Anna it was more fluid, everything,” Velasco said. “I am not fun in my life. I am boring in my life. I watch comedies, but I mostly watch deep drama movies. So how am I gonna do this with these guys? But no, once we started working and we started getting more into each other it was painless.”

Velasco and Ciangherotti were never concerned with translating the material for American audiences. Their priority was making sure the jokes and their characters worked. “What’s very lovable about The Spookys is that they’re not cliche about anything. We’re not talking about Mexico being something specific, a whole thing,” Ciangherotti said. “So I feel like a lot of people can feel represented in the series because it doesn’t have one specific ‘We’re gonna talk about this issue or this issue or this problem.’ There’s no problem. There’s no drama. We’re all there, and it’s okay.”

Los Espookys premieres on HBO Friday, June 14 at 11/10c with new episodes every Friday.

Watch Los Espookys on HBO Go and HBO NOW