The HBO Max dark comedy series The Flight Attendant continues to follow Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco, who is also an executive producer on the project), who thinks she has her life more together than ever, only to end up witnessing a murder committed by someone impersonating her that leads to a string of bodies dropped on a path that points directly her way. At the same time, Cassie keeps getting drawn into her own mind palace where she’s battling internally with all the different sides of herself, and while that may sound crazy, it’s all in a day’s work when you’re a flight attendant who works as a civilian asset for the CIA.
During this interview with Collider, co-showrunners/executive producers Steve Yockey (who developed the series from the novel of the same name by best-selling author Chris Bohjalian) and Natalie Chaidez talked about having such a successful first season, partnering up for the second season, how close the finished product is to their original vision for Season 2, the wild idea that didn’t make it into the show, what makes Cuoco such a great creative partner, and laying the groundwork for a possible third season.
Collider: Steve, Season 1 was critically acclaimed, it was loved by viewers, and it got Emmy attention. What’s it like to not only make a great show that you can be proud of, but to then hear reactions from fans and critics and to know that it’s received the way you would hope it would be, but then also figure out how to do that all again for a second season?
STEVE YOCKEY: I was completely blown away by the response to Season 1. It boggles my mind that people enjoy the show as much as they do, and that’s fantastic. When we were asked to do it again, we knew what worked, so we wanted to do that again, but bend some things and twist some things and give some people some additional surprises. I wanted them to feel like it’s an extension of Season 1, but I also wanted them to be able to enjoy the unexpectedness that the show brings to the table.
The first season was your first time as a showrunner. What did you learn from that, that you carried over into Season 2, and how was it to pair up with Natalie Chaidez for Season 2?
YOCKEY: I’d like to say that I learned to have less anxiety about it, but that didn’t happen. And then, I met Natalie when she came in for Season 2, and she helped me develop a much calmer energy surrounding the show. I feel like I don’t ever get angry, but I do get stressed, so that was a big thing. My number two on the show, Jess Meyer, and I produced the second half of Season 1 during the pandemic, and the stress of, “I really hope someone doesn’t get sick today and end up in the hospital,” really changed the way I think of showrunning in general. This that I thought last year were a big deal, didn’t seem like as big a deal this year.
Natalie, how do you come to run the show for the second season and be so zen about it?
NATALIE CHAIDEZ: It was like coming onto a luxury airliner. You’re coming onto a show with a world-class cast, with Kaley [Cuoco], you’ve got world-class writing talent, and you’ve got a big vehicle with HBO, so it was really a pleasure. I was on one of the greatest first seasons of all time with Heroes, and how do you do that again for a second season. I feel really, really proud of what we did with this second season, picking up Cassie’s journey and doing something that was very much taking the story forward, but with also giving the fans and the audience some unexpected stuff as well.
You had a book as source material for the first season, but for the second season, you really are creating new story. Is that more exciting? Is that more terrifying? Is it equal parts exciting and terrifying? How does it work when the possibilities are wide open?
YOCKEY: For Season 1, adapting Chris [Bohjalian]’s book, he was very generous in saying, “Do whatever you want to it,” so it did travel far afield from the book. That said, Season 2 felt trickier, in that we needed to come up with a new mystery, but also a lot easier because we were starting at the beginning, to tie the mystery to this theme of acceptance and this thematic of devils that we were using through the season. We could create and build something that also went along with our emotional journey. So, in that respect, it was a boon to get to come up with something.
Were there a lot of conversations about possible ideas? Did you have a list of possible mysteries before you settled on the one that you ended up telling, or was it pretty clear from the beginning?
YOCKEY: Natalie and I kicked around a lot of ideas. Natalie and I were working on this for about a month before the writers’ room started and we had all kinds of crazy stuff that didn’t make it into the show.
CHAIDEZ: I would say it actually stayed pretty close to our initial vision because we started from this really strong character place of examining. The end of Season 1 is Cassie realizing that she has this dark part of herself. At the top of Season 2, it’s about, “What do I do with that dark part of myself, which is a double?” That led very naturally into, what blows up things? Bombs. And then, it just unfolded from there. Steve came up with this idea of the multiple Cassies. But we stayed really close to that emotional spine, even if the pieces of whodunit and how-done-it moved around under that umbrella.
Has there been like a really wild idea where you were like, “I love this idea, but we just can’t do this”?
YOCKEY: There was one, but I didn’t say we can’t do it. I said we could do it, and then the producers said no, the studio said no, and the network said no, so then we had to let it go. That idea was that the Diazes were actually brother and sister, but we didn’t find that out until episode five. Our writers’ room was really excited about this idea that we were gonna find out that they were incest twins, but that did not make it to air, and I think the show is ultimately better for it. It was still really fun. We just got carried away.
Now that you’ve completed a second season, how much of a bigger ongoing plan is there? Do you know what a Season 3 would be? Have you had any conversations about how this would keep going and if it would keep going?
YOCKEY: I would say that Natalie and I have had the beginnings of conversations. I know that we laid the groundwork, much like we did with Season 1. There are things that we can pick up and pull into a Season 3, but we all wanna see what happens with Season 2 first.
Is it hard, as a showrunner, to not fully dive into what could come next, but at the same time still work in some of those threads?
YOCKEY: Our goal is to have threads that we can pull through, like we did in Season 1, but much like Season 1, the story has a beginning, middle and an end that hopefully will be really satisfying for people. So, if this is the last one we do, then I think people will be happy with it. But if we get to do another one, people will be excited about that.
Natalie, does it feel like there is a limit to how much shit Cassie can get herself into, or does it feel endless with someone like that, who is always a work in progress?
CHAIDEZ: Oh, it’s endless. How much shit Cassie Bowden can step in is completely endless. Professionally, she’s bumbling along as a CIA asset, having no idea what she’s doing. And personally, she can have the perfect boyfriend in Santiago Cabrera and still fuck that up, as well as sleep with her boss and all the other things she does wrong. Interestingly, sobriety doesn’t seem to be fixing all of that because alcohol, when you peel that away, is not the underlying problem. As she works through the chaos that’s underneath, maybe she’ll straighten that up, but I don’t think for long because she’s Cassie Bowden.
How has it been to have a collaborative partnership with Kaley Cuoco throughout this? What does she bring to the show, both as the lead of the team on set, who sets the tone as the number one on the call sheet, but as an actress who also brings this material to life? What’s it like to have somebody like that?
YOCKEY: I think it’s great because Kaley makes decisions from the gut. There’s no hemming and hawing. It’s just like, “Yes, that,” or “No, I don’t think so.” You get used to that flow. It helps everything move quickly. She’s also not shy about her opinion, which is good, because then you don’t end up in situations where we’ve gone down a road that isn’t gonna be viable. It ends up ultimately being really great for the writers and the other producers.
As showrunners, how do you guys decide what battles to pick? If there’s something you really want to do that she needs to be convinced about, how do you figure that out?
YOCKEY: I feel like she’s pretty open. If we were to go to her and say, “This is very important for the story we’re telling, for this reason,” then she would say, “Okay, great.” It’s not as if she’s walking around vetoing things, left and right.
CHAIDEZ: I would say she is extremely respectful, when it comes to Steve and I’s expertise, as far as storytelling and writing. She will get a little finicky about the bangs, the hair, and the shoes. There are some strong opinions, but Steve and I aren’t wearing those bangs or those shoes, so fair enough.
What’s it like as storytellers to have a story where you not only have Cassie, who has this big personality, at the center of it, but you have all these versions of Cassie and they all have to be distinct, but all pieces of the same larger part?
YOCKEY: For us, it was great because you just write these different versions of Cassie, and then Kaley really brings them to life, in a very specific way. My concern was always with differentiating them enough, but the minute that Kaley inhabits the character, it’s obviously completely separate from the other versions of Cassie that exist. It was really fun, on our end. I know it’s an extremely technical process and it takes a long time and it’s tedious, so I don’t know if it was fun on Kaley’s end, but we’re all proud of the end result.
Is there a version of Cassie that each of you feel the closest to?
YOCKEY: Gold dress Cassie is my favorite. I think nihilist Cassie is the most fun to watch, but gold dress Cassie is my favorite.
CHAIDEZ: I think I like future perfect Cassie. She’s so fun and annoying, and I just love her.
I love how they’re each the best and the worst. They’re each fun in some way, but also annoying in some way.
YOCKEY: I do think that black sweater Cassie became our go-to scene capper. At the end of a scene, she just says something depressing, or sings that Dolly Parton song from Season 1. She’s fun like that.
Cassie may be more aware of her issues and her and the triggers for her issues, but it seems like those issues certainly aren’t resolved or gone. Does it feel like, by the end of this season, Cassie is at least being more honest with herself and about herself than she was before?
YOCKEY: Yeah, I think by the time we get to the end of Season 2, Cassie is in a place where she understands the decisions that she was making and how those were not the right path, and she’s more cognizant of the work that’s needed, to really be living a sober lifestyle. At the very end of Season 1, we pulled up a little bit and gave hope. I feel like we do that again, when we get to the end of Season 2, in a really lovely way.
There are so many fantastically colorful characters on this show. I feel like I could watch spinoff shows about any number of them, whether it’s Annie and Max, or Miranda and Cecilia, or Megan, or whatever Shane does when we don’t see him. Is there a character that you would love to just have a one off episode for, where you just follow them, so that we can see more of them?
CHAIDEZ: I would love to do a little Diazes’ adventure just because I’m super fond of them. I think they’re super funny, and they would have a lot of violent shit going on. A little Diaz adventure would be fun.
YOCKEY: I would choose Cassie’s nemesis flight attendant, Carol. I would love to do an entire episode of just a day in the life of Carol.
CHAIDEZ: That’s a good idea.
YOCKEY: Alanna Ubach is an actress that we looked at for something in Season 1, and we all just fell in love with her so much. And so, when the opportunity came to cast her in Season 2, we were like, “Oh, we have to go for it, and this Carol character is perfect.” She showed up on set and it was so hard, even for Kaley and T.R. Knight, to stay in character when she was improvising this insane comedic stuff. She was so mean, and it was just delightful. I think she’s a blast.
The Flight Attendant is available to stream at HBO Max.