[Editor’s note: The following contains major spoilers for Season 3 of Sweet Tooth.]

The Big Picture

‘Sweet Tooth’ wraps up its story in Season 3, featuring a journey of survival and hope in a post-apocalyptic world.
The series explores themes of found family, redemption, and second chances through the characters’ arcs.
Christian Convery’s growth as a child actor parallels Gus’s evolution, showcasing emotional depth and nuance.

From showrunner Jim Mickle and based on the DC comic books, the Netflix series Sweet Tooth wraps up its story with its third season, as it continues to follow Gus (Christian Convery) on his journey from timid deer boy to a more confident Stagg, with Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), Becky (Stefania LaVie Owen) and Wendy (Naledi Murray) by his side. Their search for both Gus’s mother and the mysterious origins of the deadly Sick lead them to Alaska, as they face new and ever dangerous threats, every step of the way. And every time things seem impossible, it’s Gus’s pure heart that holds everything together.

Team Downey, producers on the three-season series, are always on the lookout for interesting characters in worlds we haven’t seen before, and a show about human-animal hybrids being born into a post-apocalyptic world certainly fits that description. Its story about surviving a pandemic and learning to be open-hearted to that which is not familiar has very clear parallels to the last few years, exploring the magical moments, heartbreak and hope that can come with rebuilding after tragedy.

Producers Susan Downey and Amanda Burrell spoke to Collider for this interview about providing the appropriate conclusion for a series they’re sad to say goodbye to, telling a story about found family and the importance of feeling less alone in the world, the duo of Gus and Jepp, getting Jepperd to a place where he can feel worthy of redemption, watching Convery grow up on the series, Dr. Singh’s role in Season 3, and the cast member from the pilot that asked to return for the finale. They also talked about upcoming projects, and why they’re bad at letting things go.

Sweet Tooth
A boy who is half human and half deer survives in a post-apocalyptic world with other hybrids.Release Date June 4, 2022 Seasons 3 Studio Netflix

Collider: Sweet Tooth has been one of the most surprisingly lovely shows to watch since it started, and it’s had a beautiful conclusion. It’s always sad to say goodbye to something that’s so great.

SUSAN DOWNEY: We feel the same. It felt like it had a very appropriate conclusion that was really from Jim Mickle’s mind and how he wanted to tell it in three parts, in terms of the three seasons. It’s complete, but we are sad to not be spending more time with Gus and Jepp.

At Its Core, ‘Sweet Tooth’ is About the Family You Form, Not the Family You’re Born Into
Image via Netflix

There truly is something so beautiful about the relationship between Gus and Jepp. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like it, and I can’t imagine we ever will again. What have you guys most enjoyed about that journey? What has most surprised you about watching that play out over the seasons?

AMANDA BURRELL: For us, this show has always been about found family, that you’re not alone in the world, that you connect with those that maybe you wouldn’t ordinarily, and that there’s opportunity, even in loss, to find hope and connection. The beauty of their relationship is so well told narratively, but also the connection and chemistry between Nonso [Anozie] and Christian [Convery] was instant magic. We saw them together and they just had such a strong connection that we were so excited that we got to tell this complete story.

DOWNEY: Also, because it took place over the course of three seasons, and we see it a lot in this last season, they learned so much from each other. You had a very world-weary Jepp who’d seen it all and has done horrible things, and then you had the naivete of a very sheltered Gus. Some of those early lessons they learned from each other worked incredibly well but were more obvious. As Gus matured, it became far more nuanced. It really does parallel relationships that we all have with our parents, where we’re learning from them and they’re seeing things through a child’s eyes. And then, there’s this middle ground where you’re pushing and testing each other. And then, you get to a place where you’re truly learning new things from your kids as a parent and vice versa. We got to follow that trajectory with these two characters.

Related ‘Sweet Tooth’: What To Expect From the Show’s Final Season Gus and the hybrids will return one last time!

One of the really interesting things about Jepp is that, from who he was, to who he becomes, to where he’s at when the series ends, he really has had a redemption arc. Did you feel that it was important to get that character to a place where he actually feels worthy of that redemption?

BURRELL: It’s an excellent question. I think the answer is yes. Second chances is a really big theme in a lot of our work and he had this relationship, but he also has his stuff that he had to overcome and that we watched him overcome, with all these other characters that come into his life and test him. So, yeah, we really wanted this final moment with him to feel redemptive and to feel like he had completed a journey on his own.

DOWNEY: He had things that he’d done in the past that he wasn’t proud of and that he had a lot of guilt and remorse over. And then, he also had his own personal stuff with his wife and child. He just had so much to overcome. What’s wonderful is that he would never have thought that going on an adventure with the little deer boy is what was gonna give him a reason to live again because that’s really what he was struggling with, was figuring out whether he worthy to live and why he should keep going. He really found that willingness in Gus.

‘Sweet Tooth’ Star Christian Convery Grew Up Alongside His Deer Boy Character

When you make a series like this, that has a child actor at the center of it, not only is that character going to grow, but that actor is going to grow alongside the character. What has it been like to watch Christian Convery grow up during his time in the series and to see him become who he’d become by the end of Season 3 compared to who he was in the first episode?

BURRELL: Even thinking back to the first audition we had with him, he was just a little nine-year-old, sweet, innocent boy, who was always a pro and always incredibly hard-working. Over the course of the series, it was so interesting to see how, in Season 1, he started to be ready for more challenges. It really mirrored Gus in a lot of ways. And then, in Season 2, when he got all those other hybrids to be with and with the deepening of those friendships, he evolved even further. And then, this season, he was really ready to go to dark places and be emotional. He floored us in his performance this season. We felt like the nuance was just right there. He also could finally understand the writing in a deeper way. It’s different when you’re younger, and he really understood the weight of the journey this season. It was incredible to watch, and now he’s a teenager. It’s crazy.

DOWNEY: I will say that we were holding our breath as it was going. We were like, “I hope his voice doesn’t change too much. I hope he’s not so noticeably older.” Our timeline goes straight through. We didn’t have a jump forward in time at all, from Season 2 to 3. We did do those back-to-back, which was helpful.

BURRELL: The costumes were very instrumental. We really had to pay attention to making sure that it felt credible that this was the story and the timeline that we had constructed.

DOWNEY: And we had that with Wendy too because she was growing up before our eyes, as well. Fortunately, it mirrored the journey that they were going on, but physically from a production standpoint, you’re like, “No, don’t get too old, too fast.”

The access he has to his own emotions is really remarkable.

BURRELL: Honestly, he floored us. But also, as a leader on set, he really took that seriously. He and Nonso were such a pair. Him growing up and really owning that space, as number one on the call sheet, was also fun to watch.

Related The ‘Sweet Tooth’ Family Says Goodbye in a Bittersweet Season 3 Sneak Peek [Exclusive] Gus’s journey, like all good things, comes to an end today on Netflix.

There’s something really interesting about Dr. Singh and his villain arc this season. He’s someone who’s done very bad things and neither Jepp nor Becky trust him, but he’s back under the guise of helping, and he works at getting Gus and the audience to fall for that, before he betrays everyone again. How is the experience of bringing a familiar character back in, but having him there in a different capacity, and then figuring out how that would affect the dynamic?

BURRELL: The fun of it is that humans are messy and their motivations shift and change. While obviously this is a fantastical world, we really love to tell stories and ground them in an actual human, or hybrid, experience. Jim always had a very clear sense of Dr. Singh. Adeel [Ashktar] has such a deep humanity as an actor that we never were worried that an audience or characters knowing that he did bad things could still fall in love with him, so we loved playing with that. We wanted the audience to constantly be questioning it, but he accessed so many ways for us to be connected to him.

DOWNEY: The thing with Dr. Singh is that we saw the birth of a villain, and the best villains have rationale and purpose, even if we don’t agree with their tactics.

BURRELL: They’re the hero of their own story.

DOWNEY: We can understand what is motivating them and where it was born out of, and with this, we experienced it with him. At the end of Season 2, he’s lost everything. So, Season 3 is about finding meaning, which is a theme that runs throughout for all our characters. That takes him into some villainous territory, in terms of assigning meaning to what happened to his wife, his relationship, and all the terrible things he had to do to hybrids, and he just needs it to be for something. That just makes a great villain.

Back on the ‘Sweet Tooth’ Pilot, Will Forte Asked to Return for the Series Finale
Image via Netflix

It was so great to see Will Forte back for such a great full circle moment. Was that something you’d hoped to do from the beginning? Was there ever any concern that wouldn’t work out? What was it like to actually get him back for that moment?

BURRELL: On the pilot, he was like, “So, I’m definitely coming back for the end of this. Bring me back.” As much as he loved being in our world, we loved having him. His experience in the pilot of the show still resonated so deeply with our characters that we had to bring him back. He was busy, but he came in. It was our last week of shooting, and it really felt full circle when we got him.

Related ‘Sweet Tooth’s Christian Convery & Nonso Anozie Reveal What They Took Home from the Set Co-Stars Convery and Anozie say goodbye to their beloved characters after three seasons and share their favorite moments together.

With this business, there are the projects you get done, the projects that you have that you’re hoping will get done at some point, and there are the projects that you have to let go because you realize they’re not going to get done. How hard is it to let go of projects that you clearly loved when they first came your way and maybe stayed with you for a while, but then somewhere along the way, they just got stalled and you have to face the fact that they’re never going to happen? What is that like to deal with?

DOWNEY: We’re pretty terrible at doing that.

BURRELL: We don’t give up.

DOWNEY: We fall deeply in love with our projects and we don’t take on a ton of stuff, so when we do, it’s because we truly believe in it. But you’re not wrong, the marketplace is very fickle and there are changing regimes at a lot of these streamers and networks. So, when you start something, even a fast turnaround is a couple of years from when you’re starting a project, from pitching it to putting it on the air. We feel like nothing ever dies. Maybe it gets put on a shelf until something swings back around. The only thing that can really kill something, and then, even then, I don’t think we believe it’s fully dead, is if something else comes out that’s way too similar. But then, if it’s great, and there’s a great story, and there are things to talk about, and there are themes and a world that you can build, it can just maybe be put on pause until its moment.

BURRELL: Sweet Tooth found its moment. Who would have ever thought a deer boy show adapted from a comic book that was 10 years old would work, but it found its moment. There was a pandemic that happened and there were a lot of conversations that we were able to engage in and lock into. Sometimes you’re developing things for a while, and you just put it down and it has to find its time.

What’s next for you guys on the film side and on the TV side?

DOWNEY: We continue to look for really interesting characters in worlds that we haven’t seen before and finding that balance between doing things that are very elevated, but also can find an audience. We have a couple of things that unfortunately haven’t been announced yet, so we can’t mention them, but they play in a space with really fun characters coming in that are entertaining. They should be really smart as well, but more accessible. We just finished bringing The Sympathizer into the world, and we’re deeply proud of that show. Between that and Sweet Tooth, which are very difficult, very ambitious shows, it’s about what’s going to raise the bar even more. That’s always what we’re looking for.

BURRELL: We’re excited for the next thing. There’s a lot of great stuff, but we have to fall in love deeply, and then we have to get it out there. Hopefully, you’ll hear a lot more soon.

Related Will There Be a ‘The Sympathizer’ Season 2? “You just have to get the first one right,” said EP Susan Downey.

For fans of Shane Black, what can they expect from Play Dirty?

DOWNEY: Play Dirty is a perfect Shane Black heist movie. It’s got all the humor, the spectacle, and the weirdo characters. Shane really, really delivered, and it’s a fun story. Mark [Wahlberg] has done an excellent job bringing the character to life.

For Team Downey, Protecting the Vision is Always the Priority for the Film and TV Projects they Produce
Image via Netflix

Susan, you did a lot of work as a film producer before moving into television. How does the experience of working with a director on a film compare to working with a showrunner and director, and sometimes a variety of directors, on TV?

DOWNEY: Because [Amanda and I] both started in the feature space, we probably handle it a bit more like a feature. For The Sympathizer and Sweet Tooth, we had writer-directors involved, with Park Chan-wook and Jim Mickle. In many ways, it’s the same responsibility, which is creating a bubble for the creatives via the director, the showrunner, and the actors to do their best work. Sometimes that’s handling logistics and budgets, but oftentimes from a creative standpoint, it’s allowing them to do their work, us to be fresh eyes on it, and also to make sure that, with all the outside voices and influences, whether that’s just a new department head or a studio note, and to be that true north and go, “Is that a good different, new idea, or is that just a different, new idea?” We want to protect the vision. For both features and television, it’s that same set of responsibilities.

Sweet Tooth is available to stream on Netflix. Check out the Season 3 trailer:

Watch on Netflix