In the Peacock original series Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin, Bumper Allen (Adam Devine) is back and in Berlin. Several years after we last saw him in the first two installments of the film franchise, Bumper is stuck in a rut and looking to revive his music career when he gets a phone call from Pieter Krämer (Flula Borg), convincing him to get on a plane and go all in, so far from home. But once there, he learns that you really can have a riff-off anywhere, as he digs deep to see if he has it in him to write original songs that people will want to hear.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Devine (who’s also an executive producer on the series) and Sarah Hyland (who plays Heidi, Pieter’s assistant and a talent singer, in her own right) talked about what happened to Bumper’s cat, how they came to reunite on this project, after working together on Modern Family, getting to see Bumper grow as a character, why working with Borg gave Hyland neck issues, the moments they shared at the piano, singing in a dumpster, and getting to shoot at a carnival.

Collider: Adam, I have to ask, what happened to Bumper’s cat? He keeps forgetting to have someone feed his cat, throughout this entire season, so how many days have actually passed? Can the cat have survived?

ADAM DEVINE: Well, he also had a fish tank. He didn’t have any fish when he went home.

SARAH HYLAND: Just say you have a mouse problem or a rat problem in your house.

DEVINE: No, he ate all my fish.

That poor cat had a whole storyline going throughout the season.

DEVINE: That’s the whole deep plot of the series, what’s my cat’s doing at home?

You guys are reuniting on this project after having done Modern Family together. How did that happen? Did this happen because of that? Were you actively trying to find something to reunite on?

DEVINE: Yeah. As a producer, as soon as I found out that Sarah was available and interested, she shot right up to the top of my list because we obviously have such great chemistry together, and we’re friends outside of work. I was super excited to get to work with her again.

HYLAND: And as soon as it came to me, and they asked about my availability and everything, I immediately was like, “I’m not doing anything. Please let me do this.” I just love Adam. It’s just so fun to work together, and to be a part of the Pitch Perfect franchise is so iconic. I’m very, very happy that we’re back together.

DEVINE: We’re back.

Sarah, what did it mean to you that you made enough of an impression on Adam, that he immediately thought of you for this?

HYLAND: It tells me that I’m doing something right, and I’m not in the wrong profession, hopefully. We wrapped Modern Family two weeks before lockdown happened with COVID, so it was a lot of downtime for everybody. It was really nice to get back to work, and not just back to work, but back to work in a different country, which was amazing. It was a country I’ve never been to before, and I’ve always wanted to go, so I was very grateful for that.

Adam, when we first spoke about this series, you had said that you never would have thought, in a million years, that you’d find yourself doing a TV spinoff for this character. Once this opportunity did come about, what really sold you on it? Was there an aspect of it that ultimately got you excited about exploring this character in this way?

DEVINE: Yeah, it was seeing Bumper grow, and not just being the little talented psychopath that we met in the first movie. It’s been seven years since we saw him in the second movie. In the second movie, you saw the little crack in his facade that he does have a tender heart, and he loves Fat Amy. But now, seven years later, everyone else has moved on with their lives, and he’s literally stuck at Barden University as the security guard, and he can’t move past college. In this, I was excited to show him grow, as a person and as a performer, and hopefully the audience is excited to see that too.

Was it easier to find him again, jumping back into the character, because he was stuck in that same place, and you could experience that growth with him and didn’t have to figure all of that out first?

DEVINE: Yeah, admittedly, it was fun to show because the fun thing about Bumper is his ignorance about what a lunatic he is. He just thinks he’s being a cool, nice guy when he isn’t, a lot of the time. It was fun to show that progression. It would’ve felt awkward, if now he’s a pediatrician, he’s fully got his life together, and he’s helping little kids with their boo-boos. It would’ve been way weird. I think you had to show that progression.

After doing the films with a group, what was it like to really take him out on his own and have him form actual, real relationships with people?

DEVINE: I think it’s what we needed to do. If we would’ve tried to do the same thing that we did for the movies, we would’ve failed. Because people are so loyal to the movies, it needed to feel this different, in order for people to get on board with it. I think we did a great job with Megan Amram, who is our showrunner and who wrote every episode. She did an amazing job, building this world with Todd Strauss-Schulson, who directed the first two episodes. Even though this is a TV show in scope, it’s gonna feel huge, and it’s gonna feel like a movie.

Sarah, your character comes into this story because she works for Pieter. What was it like to work with Flula Borg? Is it hard to work with him without cracking up?

HYLAND: Yes. It’s also hard to work with him because it gave me a lot of neck issues from having to look up all the time. He’s a big boy.

DEVINE: That’s why we like working together. We can look eye to eye.

HYLAND: If I’m wearing heels, we’re really eye to eye. Flula is in the sky, up there with Jameela [Jamil], but he’s such a wonderful dude. He’s so talented, and it’s just really fun watching his brain work. He is a lot of fun. We have such an amazing cast. Successful shows have really good cast members, who get along outside of it and who enjoy each other’s companies. It was just a lot of fun filming with everyone – Jameela, Flula and Lera [Abova]. We just said, “Hey, let’s do something weird and crazy.”

There are so many fun, funny, wild, memorable moments in this, but my favorite moments are when the two of you are sitting at the piano together and singing with each other. Sarah, what were those moments like to shoot? Do you enjoy those quieter moments, or did you have more fun in the wild and crazy moments?

HYLAND: My favorite moments are definitely at the piano bench with Adam in the parks. It’s a bit away from the Pitch Perfect world, in the sense that it just feels super grounded. I love it so much because you really see Bumper feel human and vulnerable. It’s so beautiful to watch Adam portray that and take Bumper down a notch into just a restful, peaceful area. But then, one of my favorite scenes to shoot was also with Jameela in the bathroom. She was just this goddess standing above me, looking down while I was right there, chest level.

DEVINE: With just your forehead in the fame.

HYLAND: She’s just so much fun to work with, as well. We had a lot of fun doing that.

Adam, I particularly enjoyed the moment with Bumper and Pieter singing “Sweet Child O’ Mine” in a dumpster. I found that quite amusing and entertaining. What went through your head when you were in that moment?

DEVINE: There was a lot of that on this show, where you’re just doing this insane thing, and you look around, and you’re like, “What am I doing? This is the craziest. I’m in Berlin, it’s freezing outside, and I’m singing in a cold dumpster with my friend Flula, who I’ve known for years, doing ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses. In what world did I think this is gonna be my life?” It is a pinch me moment. That’s what’s so fun about this career. It’s the opportunity to do things that you never thought you were ever gonna get to do, or even thought that you would wanna do, or even knew that it was possible. For instance, we’re gonna be singing on a float in the Macy’s Day parade to promote Bumper in Berlin, on the Peacock float. Never in a million years did I think I was gonna be singing a German song, in German, on a float in the Macy’s Day parade, but here we are. This is my life.

How did you guys end up at a carnival in an episode? Was that built for the episode? Did that exist? Did you guys get to actually have some fun there?

DEVINE: That was a very fun day of shooting because we got to ride the slides and do some of the rides. Flula broke one of those little cars that he was sat on because he was too giant. He broke the weight limit. But we lucked out because we thought we were gonna have to build something little. We were like, “It might look kind of cheesy.” And then, last minute, this carnival came to town. It was the day before they opened, so they let us shoot there. We got the run of the place. It just so happened that it fell right into our laps, which movie magic, as they say.

Pitch Perfect: Bumper in Berlin is available to stream at Peacock.