Hazbin Hotel Cast on Their Lucifer, Alastor, and Niffty Characters
Jan 21, 2024
Lucifer may not be what you expect him to be in Hazbin Hotel, the hot new series spawned by creator Vivienne Medrano, whose ridiculously popular animated YouTube hit had fans worldwide begging for more. For starters, the D-man doesn’t show up until episode five of Prime Video’s raunchy R-rated animated comedy, which is filled with great humor and musical numbers. Jeremy Jordan plays Devil Papa with deadbeat dad delight in a series that finds Lucifer’s daughter, Charlie (Erika Henningsen), running a one-of-a-kind hotel geared to redeemable misfits that may get a shot in Heaven.
Packed with celebrated Broadway stars, irreverent humor, and at least one major musical number every episode, fans of offbeat, animated comedies will appreciate Hazbin Hotel. MovieWeb called it a “devilishly delightful animated musical series.” The Broadway and TV stars filtering in and out are a big plus: From Darren Criss and Stephanie Beatriz to Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer and Keith David. Jeremy Jordan joins Amir Talai (American Dad) and Kimiko Glenn (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Orange is the New Black), who play Alastor and Niffty, respectively, to unpack some of the fun fans can expect in excerpts from this exclusive MovieWeb interview. Dive in.
Jeremy Jordan Is Having a Devil of a Time
Hazbin Hotel Release Date January 19, 2024 Creator Vivienne Medrano
Singer/actor Jeremy Jordan turned heads playing Jamie in the film version of The Last Five Years, which chronicled one couple’s five-year relationship as they fell in and out of love. Jordan also made memorable turns in Supergirl and Spinning Gold. When Hazbin Hotel came across his radar and he came on board as Lucifer Morningstar, he said:
I had no real clue that it was already this big thing on YouTube. So, it was just fun to go in and do this version of Lucifer that’s sort of spun on its heels. Listen — in this climate, I’m grateful for any kind of work, and especially where they just let you play, which is what they really did, at least for me. And those are always the most fun jobs, and I had a blast getting to do it
Amazon Studios
In voicing Lucifer, Jordan contemplated on how to capture the character in a memorable way. He wanted to be on board with Vivienne Medrano’s original idea but also offer his unique take. “I was trying to channel a little bit of Robin Williams, like Genie from Aladdin, constantly going on,” Jordan noted, adding:
“Everything [Lucifer] says is trying to be a joke, trying to be funny. But also, very much insecure. I got to just rattle on a million different lines and line readings, and it was probably very exhausting on the other side of the table, but I was having a great time with it. Then you leave it for two years and they make something really cool out of it.”
Related: These Are Robin Williams’ Best Performances, Ranked
Amir Talai Becomes a Popular Overlord
Amazon Studios
Amir Talai has long been a voice actor, having lent his talent on animated shows like American Dad and Family Guy. As Alastor/Radio Demon, he captures one of Hell’s overlords with wicked glee. Look for the character to be a big part of the lives of Charlie and girlfriend Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz).
“I thought the concept was so interesting,” he said of the series. “First of all, a show that takes place in Hell is great because everyone is inherently flawed, right? So, nobody’s going to be perfect. And the idea of redemption and rehabilitation is timeless, and a lot of people grapple with it, both in a funny and serious way, right? Like the idea of, who is redeemable? Is everyone redeemable? What is the value of an apology or of doing the work? Do you know what I mean? I think it’s a really cool thing to explore in a wacky, f***ed up animated show, you know?”
Related: 30 All-Time Best Cartoon Characters Ever Created, Ranked
Out of all the voices in the series, Alastor’s is one of the most unique. “It was fun for me to do that old-timey radio voice. And [putting] a filter on top of it, too,” he added, “allowed me to really play and know that Viv and the gang would sort of modulate it as they wanted. I love the character because he keeps things close to the chest, right? He has a lot bubbling underneath, but who also plasters a smile on the top of that, so you never quite know what’s going on with him.”
From Peni Parker to Niffty
Amazon Studios
Kimiko Glenn voiced Peni Parker in the box office hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. She also played Brook in Orange is the New Black and has voiced many characters in animated series. The character of Niffty works as both the maid and cook at the Hazbin Hotel. Glenn said the character stretched some of her creative limits:
“I do a lot of children’s programming, so this is such a departure from that. It’s going to be so interesting to see who actually does graduate to Heaven [in the show]. How do they get there and what is that going to look like? Because everyone is just dealing with shortcomings. I can only imagine how interestingly that’s going to play out and how different everyone’s issues are going to look like.”
She went on to say that Niffty is a, “Quirky, evil, small thing. She exists in the fabric of the world. She has much less meat to her dialogue. She pops in just kind of when you need her. It’s not to say she’s not an important or interesting part of the hotel, but she’s not very present. To see the end product, I saw how she fit into the world and her presence was very known. That filled in the blanks for me and was helpful to bring into season two.”
What Type of Hotel Would They Open?
Amazon Studios
There will be a second season of Hazbin Hotel, in fact. That decision was made months before the series debuted, proving that Prime Video is confident about the animated comedy. In the meantime, MovieWeb had fun asking the stars to ponder what type of hotel they would open if they had the chance.
“I want to do the first hotel on Mars,” Jordan quipped. “Or something like that. Something so crazy and cool, and super futuristic and weird. Where everything would just be completely different than you would expect from a normal hotel.”
Amir Talai shared: “There’s this hotel that I go to in Mexico fairly often that if I stopped acting, I would just work here. Because it’s the perfect hotel. It’s not too big, it’s not too small, it’s not too busy, it’s not too dead. They take care of you, but they’re not up in your business.” Meanwhile, Kimiko Glenn went all spa day on us:
I want an all-spa experience hotel where you’re just like sleeping in paraffin wax. You know, just gooey, ooey, and feeling so relaxed.
Sounds heavenly. But that’s a bad word in Hazbin Hotel’s devilishly hell-tastic environment. Tune into the series on Prime Video beginning January 19. Watch a clip below.
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