[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Me.]

The Big Picture

‘Me’ is a sci-fi coming-of-age story about 12-year-old Ben discovering his shapeshifting superpowers.
The series is inspired by creator Levy’s own kids; Ben is named after his son.
Showrunner Levy plans future seasons with questions about identity and a grounded villain.

From creator Barry L. Levy, the Apple TV+ series Me follows 12-year-old Ben (Lucian-River Chauhan), a kid in middle school who thought his biggest challenge was learning to adjust to a newly blended family. When he suddenly realizes that he has the ability to transform into anyone he meets but has no idea what to do with his new superpower, he gets some help from his stepsister Max (Abigail Pniowsky). At a time when they’re just trying to stay off the radar of bullies and mean girls and get through school dances without a complete disaster happening, Ben and Max form a real friendship as they try to figure out what comes next.

The inspiration for the story being told in Me is a very personal one for Levy, having been inspired by his own kids, twin daughters and a younger son. His eldest was so hands-on with every aspect of the production that she was even sending him notes from camp about what he should and shouldn’t be doing. And his lead character is actually named after his son, Ben.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, showrunner/series writer Levy talked being inspired by the movie Boyhood, wanting to support and challenge his young cast, the heart that it takes to become super heroic, the red hoodie, figuring out how they were going to make the shapeshifting work, whether we might ever see super suits, what they wanted their villain to represent, and knowing what comes next, if he gets to keep telling this story.

Me (2024) Me is a sci-fi coming-of-age story that follows 12-year-old Ben as he navigates the challenges of middle school and a newly blended family while discovering he has shape-shifting superpowers. With the help of his stepsister Max, Ben learns to harness his abilities and uncovers secrets about his community.Release Date July 12, 2024 Cast Dilshad Vadsaria , Lucian-River Chauhan , Abigail Pniowsky , Sierra Hawkins , Jessy Yates Seasons 1 Writers Barry L. Levy Expand

‘Me’s Creator Has a Very Clear Plan for Future Seasons
Image via Apple TV+

Collider: At the end of the season, we’re left with this moment that sets things up for what the future could be. When you leave on a moment like that, do you know what the next moment would be, or do you have different possibilities that could happen?

BARRY L. LEVY: I absolutely knew. Much to the chagrin of some of the writers that were in the room with me, I wanted to know ahead of time, where we were leaving Ben for Season 1, if we’re fortunate enough to have a Season 2 and beyond. To me, the comp was always Boyhood, the Richard Linklater movie, and it was the idea that we’re gonna check in on this boy every year and watch him grow up. It just so happens that Ben is gonna grow up to be a superhero, which means the moments that are pivotal, if we know what each of those are, we can start each season with a question. So, Season 1 is, who do I wanna be, or who am I on a broader level? That encompasses Carter, and that encompasses Max. And then, the questions of Season 2 are equally as clean and clear, and that’s what we’ll be driven by, in success.

I was always moved by interviews that were given about Breaking Bad and how Jesse Pinkman was supposed to be a one-season character, and he proved to be so vital. For us, when we did our table reads before production, it was so clear that River [Chauhan] and Abby [Pniowsky] were so alive and so vital that we owed it to them to really build out more. So, there are scenes from the first episode on that were not what we wrote to get the green light. They were deeper and more layered. That opening dinner scene in the first episode and the dressing room in episode seven, we gave more to Abby because she could do it. It was just exciting, so we wanted to go deeper.

It feels like one of the biggest challenges in centering a TV series around someone who’s not actually even a young adult yet is casting. Did you have a very clear idea for who you wanted Ben and even Max to be, or were you very open, depending on who was cast? Were there other changes in those roles or unexpected things that happened when you did cast those actors?

LEVY: It sounds weird to say of a superhero show, but the show is so autobiographical. I have identical twin daughters, and then I have a son who’s two years younger, but he was tall, so he kept getting mistaken for a triplet. The conversation with him when he was super young was, “You’ve gotta figure it out. You’re not gonna be a triplet, so who are you gonna be? You don’t have to try to be someone you’re not.” That question evolved at bedtime. My son’s name is Ben and we’d come up with stories about, “Who are you gonna be? Who do you wanna be?” That really led to this, organically. My daughters, or his big sisters, are Max. There was something that Abby said recently that one of them picked up on and was like, “I love that line.” And I was like, “Yeah, because it sounds like something you would have said to Ben. Of course, you love that line.” That authenticity and that groundedness was always there, from the start.

And then, having worked in the feature side before the TV side, the understanding that characters and actors are gonna bring so much of themselves, for us, it was really about trying to support them. As they found the voice, it was about, what can we do to help them bring that voice to life? Once we knew that those two were the leads, it was very clear that we had to go give them more to do. It just was so evident that they were above and beyond, and that credit goes to our casting director, as well. For six months, there were at least two continents that we scoured trying to find who would be Ben, and then when we saw River, we knew it was him. And then, the way Abby bounced off of him, and pushed him but challenged him and supported him, just with the look in her eye, it was those two, for sure.

In talking to them, I was impressed with how well they’re able to articulate who their characters are and how their characters felt. Having that sort of room to find your character is not something that young actors are always given.

LEVY: It’s true. From the start, it really was about empowering them, as a leadership style, and then they took it the rest of the way. Everyone came to set because they did, prepared and emotionally ready and had the lines down cold. It set such a tone that we got throughout with this series.

The Coming-of-Age Story at the Heart of ‘Me’ Was Always Going To Be a Superhero Origin Tale
Image via Apple TV+

Was this always going to be a superhero story? It feels like it would also have been a great show if it was just a family story about relationships, so was it always the two things combined?

LEVY: Always. That opening scene was always the discussion, from the very first day. This was going to feel grounded, but we were going to be talking about something that was supernatural in the very truest sense of that word. It always was the two. My son said to me once, years ago, “The difference between a superhero and having superpowers …..” and then he just pointed to his heart and his head. To me, that encapsulates what all the seasons would build towards. These are those moments that inform the man he will become, and those are not always super heroic, but they’re always moments of character.

Did your kids always know how much of an influence they were on the show? Did they know how much of them would be in this, or did you want to let them see if they saw themselves in it?

LEVY: They knew from the start. There’s a bit of backstory there because Tara Sorensen, who runs Apple Family and Kids, I’ve known forever. She bought a show of mine when she was at a different streamer and, at the time of that show, I had said I wanted to do a family show, not a kids’ show, and where I drew the line was the movie E.T. When you watch E.T. as an adult, you hear about how Elliott’s father ran off with a flight attendant. As a kid, I had no idea what that meant, but watching it as an adult, I wasn’t just seeing it through my kids’ eyes, I was seeing it through my own experience and going, “Wow, this is really remarkable on layers and levels.” So, from that earlier project to this one, it was always a conversation in our house, just like with our movie nights, that this is what we wanted to do collectively. I would take walks with my kids in the neighborhood and say, “Here’s what I think the first episode is gonna look like.”

And then, it got to a point where my oldest of the three would come down when she was done with her school work, read every single draft of every single script, write notes on the scripts, watch every single casting session, and she did her own spreadsheet of who was good and bad. She wrote me letters when she was at camp about costumes and lecturing me about what was wrong with some of my ideas which I loved. She was so passionate about it. During the editing phase, it was so clear. She became an associate producer on the show because she really was such a sounding board throughout. They were instrumental at every turn.

How old was she when all of that was going on?

LEVY: It’s crazy. When we were on set, she must have been 15. There was a costume that Leonard was supposed to wear, and I thought it was hilarious and sent it to her in an email at camp. She reacted so strongly that she had the camp send a text back with a photo of the letter she wrote, that said, “The fact that I have to explain this to you is really concerning,” which was amazing. I showed that to everybody on set. I was like, “Okay, so that costume is gone.” She became that sounding board that I always needed for authenticity, and it was great. I could not have had more fun doing that.

It’s just amazing that she has that kind of confidence in her own voice.

LEVY: Compliment her mother. The two of us both have such confidence and spirit that it’s pretty clear.

Ben’s Red Hoodie Gives ‘Me’ an ’80s Movie Vibe
Image via Apple TV+

How did the red hoodie come into play? It becomes something that Ben is so identified with that it can even be used as a distraction and disguise. What were the conversations like, when you’re deciding on something that’s so visually important?

LEVY: The draft did say, “red hoodie.” There’s an eighties vibe and homage to those pivotal movies like E.T. that (director) Michael Dowse, as well as myself, knew from the start that we wanted. But what happened with the costume designer, who was wonderful, is that we wanted to make it our own. We didn’t want to borrow, we wanted to be inspired by. She also brought up that he needed his own hoodie beforehand. It was in the script in the fourth episode, when they’re going to the mall, to retire the old one. We have this whole backstory that will come up if we ever get a Season 2, but the old one was his father’s sweatshirt, and that’s why it’s oversized. There’s an emblem on it that is one of three or four dozen Easter eggs that exist throughout the episodes. If you ever go back and rewatch, you’ll notice things that will pay off and be meaningful later.

I love the moment when Ben is fighting himself, as well as the moment with Max talking to herself in the dressing room while she’s surrounded by mirrors. How did those moments come about? Did you always know that you wanted to work moments like that into the show?

LEVY: It’s such a credit to Michael. For us, as writers and as a staff, we always knew that was exactly the thing. Max is a character who has always had an internal conflict and needed to face herself, so from a literary point of view, it was always in the script. So many of the things that resonated with Michael, he was like, “I don’t know how to do this, but we’re gonna figure out how to do this.” It was such a great, challenging ethos to all the crew. The production designer, the D.P. and everyone got involved to say, “You know what we could do? Here’s how we could make this work. I just figured this out.” There were a number of those types of moments that came up, that were just like, “This is gonna be a challenge. What do we do?” That was exciting. It was always going to be a challenge. We saved it for the end, mostly just for Abby because it was such a challenging scene to do. I can’t even tell you how many different times we wanted that during the editing and how many different takes, but you always knew when she was Ben and when she was herself. It was such a remarkable thing that was such a credit to her and to Mike, as the director, to get it there.

‘Me’s Showrunner Always Wants To Keep the Story Character-Based

As the audience, we get little reminders, here and there, that it’s Ben. Even though he’s shifted into someone else, we still see glimpses of him, at times. What was it like to figure out how and how often you would let the audience see him in some of those moments?

LEVY: We definitely had questions, depending on the scene, how we were gonna make that work. Each scene has its own challenges. Michael had his own approach where, every day before the pre-production days started, there was an hour and a half to two hour shot list meeting with the D.P. and the producers. He was there with the first A.D. going, “Here’s how we’re gonna accomplish this.” For each scene, he went shot by shot, so that before we ever stepped on set, he not only knew the shots he wanted, but he also knew how to accomplish all of them, and everybody in the crew knew the order of events and the sequencing of getting it done. And we always had options. There were even things that we tried, that we saw in post and went, “You know what? That’s not where we’re gonna lean into.” What I hope is the case when people watch it is that it’s important to him as a character more than it’s important to our story. That distinction is really important because we are doing something that’s so character-driven that it could almost exist without superpowers. The storylines all hinge upon his choices, as opposed to plot mechanics.

What were you looking for with your season villain? Did you want somebody that would show how someone with powers could end up on a very different path?

LEVY: Yes, and that goes back to my son Ben and the distinction between being a superhero and having superpowers. The mirror opposite of someone who is on his way to being a superhero is to discover that twist upon it. And then, when we were casting Tyriq Withers, who plays that character, what was so important to us was to bring that same grounded, earthbound style and personality to the role and not make us think that he’s too larger than life and that this can’t be. That was the call for everyone. This is real, so what does that mean? We lucked out. What a great bit of casting that was.

During the casting process, we saw a few episodes of Atlanta, where Tyriq had brought such a personality and a choice, but we knew he could do it without the dialogue. One of the things that Mike and I talked about, early on, was how we could take a cinematic approach to the visuals, but also linger on our character’s eyes and let the characters play it, as opposed to having to say it all the time. It was really evident from River, from the first time we saw him, that those eyes were so soulful. We also got the same thing with Yates. He could be an expressive person who could do so much with so little, that we didn’t need him to say more than he had to say because we already understood all of it from just reading him. If we were to have given him all of that, I’m not sure what we would have gotten from any of it. We got it from him. We just got it from his body language and his intentions. It was great.

There’s a bit of physical work in this series, so what’s that like to figure out with such young actors? How much can they actually do themselves?

LEVY: We knew that in Season 1, he is not a superhero, which means that the superheroic actions are not really going to involve him directly, for the most part. Being thrown through the window, yes. There were a few of those moments, but most of them were in the storm, and the storm took place two years before he was ever in that town. So, that wasn’t something that was a constant question to ask ourselves. In those moments, it was very clear, and there are some great images that we got in the making of it, to see how we brought a stunt double to do some of the really extraordinary stunt work to make that image work, but how we also were able to work with the digital effects to get River there and to get Ben to do it. It really is a nuanced thing that we probably lucked as much as we nuanced our way into, steering clear of some real challenges for our kids.

Will Audiences Ever See a Superhero Suit in ‘Me’?
Image via Apple TV+

Is this the type of superhero series where, if you’re on long enough, we’ll see superhero suits, or are you trying to avoid that?

LEVY: That’s a great question. Center East is where he would head when he’s ready to become a full supe, and I don’t think you get your suit until after that experience. For him, it’s very organic and natural that he’s not going to, in his coming-of-age journey, ever have a suit. If ever he did, it would be like the early days of Peter Parker where he’s cutting with scissors and scotch tape and putting the elements of it together.

If having a power doesn’t change who you are and instead it just reveals who you are, what does having powers teach Ben about himself? What does he learn about who he is with this thing that’s happening to him?

LEVY: It’s such an interesting question you just asked. Realizing that he is more than those powers and realizing that those powers are an extension of themselves, but they’re not his identity, for us and to our collaborators at Apple TV+, it was always important for this to be a show about identity. In a world today versus when we grew up, identity was pretty straightforward. Now, there’s so much complexity and nuance to one’s identity. What it really reveals is that there’s more to him than what exists with that power. That power is the manifestation of his empathy and his care for other people, but it doesn’t define him. He has to be defined as a brother, a friend, a son, and so on and so forth.

Me is available to stream on Apple TV+. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Apple TV+