Will Forte doesn't want 'Clone High' to end on cliffhanger like 'Last Man'

NEW YORK, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Actor and comedian Will Forte says he hopes his adult animated comedy, Clone High, doesn't end in shock and suspense the way his live-action series, The Last Man on Earth, did in 2018.

"I definitely would love to get the cliffhanger resolved. I have a lot of experience with ending a show on an unresolved cliffhanger through The Last Man on Earth," Forte told UPI in a Zoom interview.

"It was a bummer. I would love to have 10 episodes to come back and finish that show off. But, hopefully, that doesn't happen to us here."

Both series were collaborations between Forte and Oscar-winning writer-producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, whose other works include Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie, The Afterparty and the Spider-Verse franchise.

Clone High, which is about a contemporary school for the genetically copied doppelgangers of historical figures such as Abe Lincoln (Forte) and Joan of Arc (King of Queens and MadTV alum Nicole Sullivan), was canceled after one season in 2003, but then revived in 2023, with a third season that debuted all at once on Max.

Also featuring the voices of Lord (Principal Scudworth), Miller (John F. Kennedy), Ayo Edebiri (Harriet Tubman), Kelvin Yu (Confucius), Richard Kind (Nostradamus), Neil Casey (Topher Bus) and Vicci Martinez (Frida Kahlo), the last episode ended with a missile heading toward the theme park at which all of the clones work.

It also shows Abe apparently just about to declare his love for Joan.

The final shot reads, "To be continued ...?" But the show has not officially been renewed for a fourth season.

"I'm not OK with them 'almost' [together]. I want to know what's going to happen with the missile. I'm just as terrified as the viewers," Sullivan said with a laugh.

"I don't know what's going to happen. I've not heard anything about a new season and I need to know."

The latest run of episodes show the clones finally realizing what they had been created for and it's not what they'd always dreamed about.

"The underbelly of the characters started showing more. What they are about, who they really are started showing more," Sullivan said. "But they're in the moment. They're teenagers. They're not thinking about too much else."

Forte -- also known for his work on Saturday Night Live and MacGruber -- said the show has always had a rocky history, but the passion of the people involved in making it, along with its fans have made it a cult classic over the past two decades.

"Who would have ever known that this show would come back? For me, it was my very first job acting," Forte said.

"I'd been a writer. I was friends with Chris and Phil and -- just out of nowhere -- they asked me to be one of the main guys in the show, getting to work with Nicole and Michael McDonald and Christa Miller. It was a terrifying dream come true back then because I was very in my head about it."

Forte said the voice cast had heard "little rumblings" about a possible revival after the initial cancellation, but didn't take the rumors too seriously since Lord and Miller were so busy with other high-profile projects.

Forte was doubly thrilled when the show was not only renewed, but Lord and Miller kept their promise to bring him back as Abe.

"They made a promise way back in the day: 'You're our Abe Lincoln, no matter whatever we do. You will always be Abe Lincoln,'" Forte said.

"Back then, that was a very sweet thing to say, but now Chris and Phil are these Hollywood powerhouses."

Sullivan said she met Lord and Miller when they were "baby writers" and didn't quite understand their specific brand of absurd comedy at first.

"By the end of the [first] season, I was like: 'OK! I think this might be brilliant!'" she added.

While it took a minute for her to catch on to the irreverent tone and story, Sullivan immediately enjoyed and appreciated the character of Joan of Arc as she was described here.

"She's confused and scared and loves too hard and pushes away too hard and I got all of that," she said. "That came to me quite easily."

As naughty as the material often is, Forte takes his animation work seriously and tries to stave off the giggles when he is recording.

"You just get used to that process," Forte said. "It's funny, but you get it out because you realize, 'We'll be here forever if we don't just buckle down,'" he added. "You've got this whole booth of techs and engineers."

Sullivan said her experience was a bit different than Forte's.

"I'm the worst in the booth," she joked.

"It's like mini-therapy," she added. "They are being paid to be there, so they are forced to listen to me rant and do my own bits and then we get going. Once I'm on a run, it's, 'Go, go, go!' But then I like to stop and tell stories."

The stars said they are able to watch the show and enjoy it as viewers because so much visual humor is added in the production process after they have recorded their lines.

"When I watch the show, I'm like: 'Oh, that was in the background?' I had no idea!'" Sullivan said.

Forte added that the animation process is so long, it is easy for actors to forget what they said or where the plot goes, making it easy to chuckle at the action anew when they view the show.

"These are not people who rest. They keep searching for more and more layers," Forte said of the animators and writers.

"By the time it does come out, there's just another layer of things that you didn't know was going to be in there. All of a sudden, there are just these hilarious little details and jokes," he added. "It's really fun."