Netflix brought their new post-apocalyptic series, Daybreak, to New York Comic Con, and Screen Rant talked to the executive producers about what fans can expect from this latest zombie comic adaptation. Daybreak, which premiered on October 24 on the streaming service, promises something new for apocalypse fans: a look at a world where teens are the only survivors, and have created their own world, gangs, and styles. Expect warrior cheerleaders, zombie ‘reality shows’, comedy, kills… and of course, a love story to tie it all together.
Colin Ford stars as Josh, a teen outsider who teams up with Samurai-obsessed Wesley (Austin Crute), and the uber-violent pre-teen Angelica (Alyvia Alyn Lind) to try and navigate this new Mad Max version of high school to find Josh’s girlfriend. This is a colorful, comedic take on the idea of the apocalypse, and it promises to be a whole lot of fun (with plenty of zombie gore thrown in for good measure). Executive producers Aron Eli Coleite, Brad Peyton, and Jeff Fierson talk about the journey to get Daybreak from comic to series, and how this could be the next Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Screen Rant: So, Daybreak is based on a comic, but I get the feeling kind of loosely based. What elements did you take, and which did you decide to leave behind?
Brad Peyton: Basically, this whole thing started, like, 7 years ago, I optioned it with my own money. And the thing that stood out to me about the graphic novel was the fact that the lead character was talking directly to you as a reader, and a lot of people will see the show and think: Ferris Bueller. But it actually came from the book. The second thing is just the tone. It was about a kid having fun in the apocalypse. And then it really took on a whole life of its own when we had to turn it into a really expansive story. So a lot, a lot of new stuff.
Aron Eli Coleite: So, you know, Brad had written this feature version of it. And we were supposed to talk about a different comic book altogether, but they sent me this, and I was like, look, I know, I’m here to talk about this comic book. But can we please talk about Daybreak? This feature was something that I hadn’t seen before, which was a kid who looked at the apocalypse as the best thing that ever happened to him. And I was like, that is such a refreshing point of view, because we’ve seen dystopias, and we’ve seen zombie apocalypses where it’s survival. And it’s terrible. But here was this kid who was like “I came alive when the world ended”. And that was me in high school. That’s what I wanted to happen. I wanted the world to end, so that I could reinvent myself. So I wouldn’t be the nerd that I was. And I had a chance to remake myself and be somebody badass and get a sword. And then the conversation really just took off from there. Really, we started reinventing the world and started to show how if we take that core of that positive attitude towards the apocalypse, which all kids would have, how you could build a really unique and incredible world around that.
SR: It sounds like there’s a lot of kind of wish fulfillment going on with this in terms of the audience is going to relate, like you did, to that feeling of being in high school and wanting to break out of something.
SR: I also get the feeling that unlike other sorts of zombie apocalypse, or apocalypse shows, the zombies aren’t that big a threat, or are they still terrifying?
AEC: Completely. It’s something that we talked about a lot, especially in the first episode in the creation of the series was, you know, everybody, in every dystopia, in every Walking Dead, in every zombie apocalypse, you hunker down, and you’re smelly and you’re stinky. But that’s not what a kid would do.
So this was an opportunity to really talk to talk to this generation, and you would live your best life, you would go get a Ferrari, you would get the best kicks, you would get a samurai sword or a flame thrower, you would get whatever you wanted. Because there’s no rules. And it wouldn’t get awful, it wouldn’t get savage, they would make something even better, they would make something really wonderful in a world that we would want to stay in and be a part of.
SR: And what were your biggest wish-fulfillment moments or scenes that you were like, yep, that is exactly what I would do?
AEC: It’s both, we like to do everything.
BP: You know, we want to differentiate from zombie shows for a bunch of reasons, you know, mostly because those shows are generally about survival. And this is not necessarily about survival, but more about finding yourself, finding your tribe, you know, finding how you belong in the world, reinventing yourself. And so we came up with a brilliant concept where it was the last stupid thought that person had is what they now repeat. So, for example…
Jeff Fierson: “I hear the new David Chang’s restaurant is awesomesauce…”
BP: Just over and over and over. Somebody says, “Is it pronounced LaCroix or LaCroy?”
AEC: Somebody says, “I really have to standard my mileage for my lease.”
JF: “20 bucks is enough to give the ACLU”
BP: So some of the things that adults stress about that are ultimately incredibly stupid. Right? As this kind of very subversive, very smart but also very funny take on a zombie, but at the same time, they’ll f*ck your ass up.
JF: You do see them eating kids. It really depends on the character. Like there is one character our youngest character who f*cking loves killing them. Like, and she’s really good at it. She enjoys it.
BP: But there’s some that just run, some of the tactics are you just run. Now, Josh’s tactic is: you see that you run the other way. Like they are vicious. But we wanted to undercut that with sort of what our show is about.
BP: For me, [as a kid], I couldn’t afford fancy sneakers and I lived a block away from this place, I used to walk over there and just look at Jordan Ones original Chicago colors, and I was like, man, if the world went to sht I would steal a Ferrari, drive it a block and smash the window and get those sneakers. And that was also coupled with that idea of, why do all apocalypse shows look brown? Like, why isn’t there anybody getting cool swords and sht like that?
JF: I think mine is when this group of disparate kids finds each other, and finds their own tribe. That really is.
BP: And I was like: Ferrari! (laughs)
JF: It’s when they find each other, and they believe they find each other and start to believe in themselves.
AEC: My… Well, it’s one of the things that I think this show is is able to do really well that Netflix has actually allowed us to do, which is to have these moments of really deep humor, but really deep emotion and get to be able to balance those things out. And so we really got to paint with all the colors of the palette.
SR: I thought it was really interesting that the press materials said that each of the characters felt like they were in a different movie. Was that something that you wanted to do kind of visually with Easter Eggs? Or was that more about how you think kids process the world through pop culture?
SR: That actually kind of leads me into what I was gonna ask, in a very strange way. (all laugh) Because obviously, this is sort of a zombie show, but it’s not something that compares to any of the existing ones. So what other shows would you compare it to?
AEC: It’s a lot deeper than the Easter Eggs. You know, we went from this ethos of really, if you’re going to tell a character’s point of view, you need to tell their point of view. And we believe that everybody’s the star of their own movie. And everybody’s movie is different. We have a character Angelica, who is a huge Martin Scorsese fan. So hers takes on the form of a Goodfellas episode. Wesley’s our Samurai so he gets a kung fu episode. And it allowed us to really keep a tonal consistency for the whole series, but do these standalone episodes that really start to feel like they individuate themselves. So you have this kind of optimistic, entertaining feel.
JF: It doesn’t stay in the same device. Like it switches up the storytelling device. So nothing ever feels stale or procedural.
BP: For a couple different reasons, you have no idea where the show’s going, which I, as an ADHD sufferer, I really love. I’m just like, this is amazing, because every episode is just like, nope, we’re going over here.
AEC: Yeah, as a fan. as an audience member, what I want most from any show that I watch is to be surprised. The shows that I binge, I have no idea where this going, I’m fully on board. I’m so ready for whatever you’re gonna throw my way. And we want to take that ethos into this so that the audience can feel like, I have no idea what you guys are going to do next.
BP: You know, this might be obvious, but keeping an emotional honesty is really essential when you do something like that, I don’t necessarily love things that are just weird for weird sake. And so for us, we spend just as much time making the characters feel emotionally honest, so that the audience can just go into that and go with the ride so that you don’t feel abruptly turned in a different direction. It’s, it’s meant to be very emotionally accessible.
JF: It’s a lot like The Crown. (laughs)
JF: I think what’s great about this show is there is a there’s a North Star touchpoint for each of us that was brought to the table. Right? You know, I think Buffy was talked about a lot. We’re all huge fans of that show.
BP: I mean, the thing that we said earlier was we’d love this to occupy a similar space that Buffy did, you know, I’m not a Buffy expert, so I don’t want to like talk too much about it. But I remember what Buffy brought to the table, I remember the tone and the fun and the inventiveness, you know, and a lot of times when you’re going to make something you’re just like, you know, where is this going to fit?
AEC: The reason why we talked about Buffy was it was able to blend a horror show a coming of age story. You know, really subversive humor and had this deep emotion at the same time. And you could get that all in one hour. And there’s very few shows that are capable of doing that. And we also were like, where is that show right now? Where’s the show that is ultimately, yes, it’s dangerous, but it’s ultimately optimistic. Where’s the show is going to terrify us or freak us out, and at the same time is going to make us laugh in the next second, that can also at the very end hit you with this emotion that you weren’t expecting. How can you accomplish that, and why aren’t more people doing that right now, especially the world itself is so dark. It’s just relentless. And, here we are coming to do an apocalypse show. So we wanted to make the most entertaining apocalypse show that we could.
SR: I’m just going to squeeze in one more quick question if I can, which is assuming that this takes off and does well have you planned out like several seasons in your head?
BP: I can give them 25 seasons if they just give me two weeks to think about it.
AEC: We are working on Season Two right now. The scripts!
JF: No official order, Netflix, we did not spill the beans of an official order for the record! (laughs) Aaron put it best when he pitched the second season to Brad and I, which is I think in season one, you’re looking through a keyhole and Alice opens the door and Wonderland is opened up, hopefully in season two. So you’re just getting a wider view.
Daybreak is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.
