Hulu’s drama-mystery series The Hardy Boys is set to wrap up its three-season run this summer, bringing the adventures of the Bridgeport crew to what will undoubtedly be a dramatic close. When Season 2 left off, the teenage gang was facing new complications, both supernatural and far more grounded. For Elizabeth “Biff” Hooper (Riley O’Donnell), this means a phone call from an unexpected source, while Phil Cohen (Cristian Perri), the techie of the group, finds his friendship with Biff growing and changing.

In this on-set interview from December 2022 with Collider’s Arezou Amin, O’Donnell and Perri sat down to tease what Season 3 will bring for Biff and Phil and how their relationship changes over the course of the season. They also talk about the biggest challenges of making the final season, what it was like getting into an ’80s mindset, and what the soundtrack for their characters would be.

COLLIDER: All right, so jumping right into Hardy Boys Season 3. What can you two tease about Biff and Phil’s journey?

CRISTIAN PERRI: You’re gonna be questioning what Phil and Biff are for a while. You’re gonna think one thing, and then the next episode it might be different because there’s ups and downs in our relationship. You want to add to that?

RILEY O’DONNELL: Yeah, Cristian pretty much said it all. I think at the end of Season 2, we’re left on kind of a cliffhanger with them because they’ve developed this new friendship, and we get to explore that a little more in Season 3 and how it strengthens, how it changes, and all of that fun stuff.

Alright, so going into a bit of Biff’s story with the phone call she got at the end of Season 2. I imagine we’re gonna see that play out, but is there anything you can tease about that, about where that goes?

O’DONNELL: How do I say this without spoiling anything?

Yes, definitely no spoilers.

O’DONNELL: Okay, yeah, at the end of Season 2, she gets a phone call, and it isn’t who she’s expecting.

PERRI: Safe.

Does it play out in a way that maybe we would expect? Or is it like everything else in the show? You think it’s going one way, and it just takes a hard left into another direction?

O’DONNELL: I would say it’s a little bit unexpected. Yeah.

Image via Hulu

All right, I’m going to stop making you two try to dance around spoilers. Instead, let’s look at the show as a whole. So, what would you say has been the biggest challenge for you with the Hardy Boys?

PERRI: The biggest challenge? Wording, honestly, like some words that I, well, at least for me personally–

Like the ‘80s lingo?

PERRI: Yeah, some of that stuff I had to refresh my memory on.

O’DONNELL: Yes, Phil’s character also talks about–

PERRI: …random things.

O’DONNELL: Random things all the time. So that’s understandable. Do you have anything else?

PERRI: Challenging? Not laughing, honestly.

O’DONNELL: One of the challenges, I think, was making sure that we had characters that were a little bit different from the books and stuff like that. And mine is one of those. So making sure to add that diversity to the group in a way that is engaging, in a way that people want to watch and resonate with the characters. That was just challenging because I wanted to make sure I was doing it right.

Right.

PERRI: Yeah, I pretty much agree with that. We definitely did have to, you know, do our homework. Make sure that we put something out that’s kind of similar, but with a new twist, in a way.

O’DONNELL: Yeah.

So obviously, the books have been out since the ‘20s, but this is set firmly in the ‘80s. In doing your homework for the ‘80s, was there an aspect of pop culture, or the way things used to be done, that really jumped out at you that you kind of wished you’d been around for?

PERRI: For me, it’s clothing. Yeah. If I had to choose, I definitely would go back and just enjoy the style that there was in the ‘80s. Because, I don’t know, Phil wears anything relatively normal to the ‘80s

O’DONNELL: Some of it.

PERRI: Yeah, some of it. Yeah, just different clothes, music.

O’DONNELL: Yeah, yeah, I agree with both of those. Clothes and music are a big one. What else? I would love to live in a world where technology is not as prevalent in our lives. It seems so much fun to solve these problems without–

PERRI: …with our brains.

O’DONNELL: Yeah. I think that’s it. And then, as far as getting used to doing all the ‘80s stuff in the show, using some of the lingo was a little bit strange. Trying to make it sound natural for us was a little tricky.

Image via Hulu

What was the strangest phrase you had to let get used to saying?

O’DONNELL: I don’t even remember I can’t even think of one specifically. I feel like Joe and Frank had more ‘80s stuff, and I think there was a lot of it in Season 1.

Alright, so you both mentioned music as part of your ‘80s thing. So I’m going to ask, for your characters, if you had to pick a theme song for them – doesn’t have to be ‘80s necessarily – if you have to pick a theme song for your character, what do you think it would be? I see your faces. They don’t have to be ‘80s songs.

PERRI: Theme song for Phil…

O’DONNELL: I think Phil’s easier.

PERRI: Yeah, a little bit. I just pictured it, like, you know, fun. What’s a fun song?

O’DONNELL: Pharrell.

PERRI: Yeah. Yeah, no, actually, that’d be good. Yeah, yeah. “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.

O’DONNELL: Okay. Oh, that’s a good one. I don’t know for Biff.

PERRI: Something mysterious.

O’DONNELL: Yeah, something a little more mysterious. Darker. “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak.

So we talked about the challenges, but now the most fun part of making the show. What would you say that is?

PERRI: Spending time with each other. Building the chemistry that we have now was definitely, for me, the funnest part, and like getting close with these people and just building relationships that will last a lifetime.

O’DONNELL: Yeah, it’s definitely getting to work with and be with these people, and new friends we’ve made throughout this experience. I think I’ve said before, it makes such a difference when you’re working with people, and seeing people every day, who are so kind and so supportive of each other. And I’m just so happy that we’ve gotten the opportunity to get so close and get to know each other.

Is that what you’re going to miss the most about this?

O’DONNELL: For sure.

PERRI: Yeah.

All right. If you could take anything home from set, what would you take home?

O’DONNELL: There are so many things that I would take with me. There’s so much cool furniture.

PERRI: Yeah, I was going to say the furniture.

O’DONNELL: There’s lots of cool lamps on the set, which is kind of random.

PERRI: Wallpaper, I would say.

Image via Hulu

The 80s design aesthetic is something else.

O’DONNELL: I don’t know if you can take wallpaper.

PERRI: Okay, well, I could just ask. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

O’DONNELL: Anything from the Hardy house really. Yeah. Or from the attic. There’s lots of cool little trinkets in there.

PERRI: There’s golf clubs in the attic that I would take, rollerblades.

O’DONNELL: What else?

PERRI: Well, you know I did research. I researched.

You’re just going to start emptying out the attic.

PERRI: Yeah, there’s nothing in there.

Is there a scene that stands out over the last three seasons, either as the most fun or the most challenging to shoot. I know it’s kind of like trying to pick a favorite child or something.

PERRI: Yeah. My favorite scene was when we were in Wilt’s diner, and Jason [Stone] had that speaker setup. Someone put a speaker there, I didn’t know the speaker was there until after. It was hot, we were tired, it was late. We’re all sitting there laughing. It just wasn’t going well to begin with. And we’re all just cracking up. And then Jason’s voice pops out of the speaker because he was in a different room. And it took us like 20 minutes just to get back on track and do everything properly because we were just dying. That was, to me, the funniest

O’DONNELL: Yeah. That was really funny. Um, I think all of our stuff this season has been really fun to film. I mean, Cristian always makes me laugh. I’m always trying to hold back laughter when filming which is, which is always fun. I also, I love the group scenes. I think one of my favorites was the drive-in, the drive-in was lots of fun, we got to watch a movie, got to eat popcorn just like we did in the show.

Was that the drive-in from Season 2? The Demon Day Drive-In?

O’DONNELL: Yeah, yeah.

Cool. So what was Jason saying on the speaker? Was it like instructions? Or was he just messing with you?

PERRI: At first. The first line that he said was, “I’m in your head.” And then that’s when everyone’s head turned. It’s like, “Where’s this coming from?” And then it was instructions. But yeah, it wasn’t a wicked great way to start off.

O’DONNELL: And we started laughing after that. And then we all got it together. But then as soon as we heard him [keep going] it was over. We were just laughing so hard, and the camera was only on Cristian, actually, and he was the only one who wasn’t laughing. So we felt bad for messing up his take.

PERRI: It was great.

Image via Hulu

So are you the more serious one then? Or are you just such a jokester that nothing can crack you up?

PERRI: I think so. I don’t know. I can hold back my laugh. It’s just sometimes I will. I will laugh and won’t stop laughing. I just feel bad for the crew, because they have to put up with us. Like, that’s the first thing that pops into my head, and then I’m like, “Okay.”

O’DONNELL: I think there’s only been one scene I filmed with Cristian where he’s laughed, and I laughed, so maybe that was my fault. It’s contagious.

Alright, so as we wrap up, what is something that the two of you hope the fans take from this new season?

PERRI: I think our chemistry is really good off-camera, and I think that translates on screen, and I’m hoping that that’s something that the fans can see and appreciate. Maybe.

O’DONNELL: Yeah, totally. I think also, at the end of Season 2, we’re left with a lot of cliffhangers. So it’s gonna be nice to see how everything closes up.

The Hardy Boys begins streaming on Hulu on July 26.