iCarly showrunner on guest stars, the future of Creddie, and that season 2 finale cliffhanger
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Warning: Spoilers ahead for the season 2 finale of iCarly.
With two seasons of the iCarly revival in the books, the antics that go down in Bushwell Plaza have only escalated. Of course, Miranda Cosgrove's Carly Shay winds up in kooky situations, partaking in an underground fight club and defending herself in court against Lewbert. But the 20-something mega-influencer also deals with adult issues, facing sexist media backlash, learning not to overstep in her friends' relationships, and *actually cussing a little.*
As showrunner Ali Schouten tells EW, "We understand what the show is a lot better, and we're able to deal with things that are a little bit more mature than some of what we were tackling."
The June 3 season 2 finale left the fate of Creddie (Carly and Freddie's 15-year-old ship name) unknown after Freddie's girlfriend Pearl (Mia Serafino) accused the duo of being in love... and neither party denied it.
Below, Schouten shares her perspective on the will-they-won't-they pair and spills all about references to the original series, working with capuchins vs. ostriches, Lewbert and Mrs. Benson's unexpected whirlwind romance, and more.
Lisa Rose/Paramount+ Jerry Trainor, Laci Mosley, Miranda Cosgrove, Mia Serafino, Nathan Kress
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This season, we got to see Guppy [Ethan Munck] and Chuck [Ryan Ochoa] at Lewbert's trial. How was it bringing all of these iconic characters back to life?
ALI SCHOUTEN: Well, I know you'll be shocked to hear this, it was an absolute blast. So much fun. It was also just such a delight to see all these old friends getting to work together again. The cast was having the best time as well. We all got to sit back and watch them play, so it was great. And then the fan response, obviously, was the best part. It was incredible.
You also had some cool guest stars like Josh Peck, Rachel Bloom, and some queens from RuPaul's Drag Race. Who else is on your bucket list of guest stars or people that you wanted to bring back but didn't have the chance to the season?
Rachel Bloom, honestly, was one of the people I really wanted to have on the show. I was lucky enough to be a writer's assistant for her and Aline [Brosh McKenna] when they were initially developing the pitch of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. I always wanted to work with her again because from the moment I met her, I was so blown away by her talent. I think anybody from the original show, it's great to have that. We love bringing people back on, and it's the most fun thing for our writers room to do, to imagine where these people would be now. When Danny brought up the idea that Lewbert was suing Carly, it was just a unanimous "Yes." But you know, I would have to say, I know this might be surprising to hear, I'm gonna go [with] Michelle Obama as the iCarly guest star I would most like to bring back.
Were there any references to the original series in this season that viewers might have missed?
Oh, they don't miss anything. People have noticed the parallels, and I think even the iCarly account posted something about this, but the episode that just aired last week, "iHit Something," had a lot of allusions, even just in the set and everything, to the Shelby Marx episode from the original series. And we tried to just put in a lot of Easter eggs to for the eagle-eyed fans. Even in the look of it, the costumes, the set, just those parallels. And also Carly's evolution, you know, she's not running away. She's dealing with her anger.
After seeing how fans responded to season 1, was there anything going into season 2 that you learned or changed?
I feel that season 2 is a much more confident show. I think that we understand what the show is a lot better, and we're able to deal with things that are a little bit more mature than some of what we were tackling. I'm really proud that we were able to get into [what it's like] being a woman on the internet and things like that in this season.
The revival has had a lot of fun, it seems, with the PG-13 of it all. How do you toe the line of staying to the tone of iCarly and still letting the characters embrace their ages and experiences?
Luckily, the show has always been a little bit edgy, even when it was a kids' show. So it doesn't feel disingenuous to us to say, "Okay, what are these people in their 20s doing now? They're dating, they're having roommate problems, they're dealing with family in more complicated ways because they're not a little kid anymore." And so we can kind of get into those stories that would just be the natural extension of these characters' lives.
Are there any favorite scenes or moments from the season now that the show can talk about some of those more mature topics?
I have a soft spot for the USA Bae episode ["i'M a USA Bae"]. That was something that was established in season 1, and then we built out this whole world for it in season 2. Clay Lapari did an amazing job writing that script, and the room just had a blast pitching and sort of the idea of what a content creator doll would be, what a likeable presentation of Carly would be. I think it gets into the meta of what Miranda [Cosgrove] has to deal with sometimes in portraying Carly, so we had a lot of fun with that one.
Between USA Bae, the Kevin app and Shay What, there are ton of fun companies and startups from this season. Were there any business ideas that the writers' room had that didn't make the cut?
Yes, in the USA Bae episode, they talked about stuff that Carly sold on Italian QVC. And there are some great alts that we have for that. The one I'm thinking of is the Bambina GPS, which got really dark. Apparently there are a lot of little Italian traffic acts that involve children, so that was one of them. We definitely do have takes [of] Josh Peck describing the Bambina GPS.
Shifting gears, do you think Lewbert [Jeremy Rowley] and Mrs. Benson [Mary Scheer] are endgame?
Yeah, absolutely. I think they're still shacking up. I think they have enough respect for Freddie not to rub it in his face, but I think she goes to a cleaning product conference every six months, but what she's really doing is shacking up with Lewbert, 100 percent.
And now, let's talk about that finale. First of all, the wet crow party theme. How did that come up as an option?
Oh, my gosh, I wish I could remember who pitched it. It was one of these pitches that's like "Okay, this is crazy, this would never work, but what if?" And I just said, yeah, absolutely, 100 percent, it's this insane pitch right here. The idea of a murder mystery party was something that, from the beginning, the writers room and Miranda were all really excited about. So when someone suggested the parallel of a murder of crows, I was like, that's so iCarly.
It's been almost 15 years in the making of Creddie. So with that cliffhanger, are Carly and Freddie [Nathan Kress] in love? Do you think that they're meant to be?
I don't want to get in trouble. I know people have very strong opinions. I will weigh in on why Pearl thinks that they are in love. Looking at the season as a whole through Pearl's eyes, we start out and she meets Carly, who's got these two men and she's been in this fake relationship with Freddie, but Pearl believed it was real. It seemed real enough to her when she met Carly that they were boyfriend and girlfriend, and then Carly doesn't date anybody the whole season. She's really focused on herself, she gets a new manager, she's dealing with her anger, she's furthering her business, she's reconnecting with her grandfather. She's doing a lot of other things. Whereas in season 1, she was doing a lot of dating. From Pearl's point of view, it's like, "Why did that stop?" Well, the last person she was even fake dating was Freddie. Maybe there's something that really stuck there. Maybe the reason that Carly hasn't dated is that she's hung up on Freddie. Now, the flip side could argue that Carly was just working on herself and isn't that great, and she wasn't focused on dating. So there's two ways to see it. And I don't know that either one is entirely wrong.
Of course, you know what they say about animals and kids on set. This season did not shy away from either. Can you share a little bit about how it was working with Sully the monkey?
We originally wanted to do an ostrich as a nod to the original show's ostrich motif, but ostriches can't do s---. They can't do stunts or tricks. They don't really do anything you tell them to do, so capuchins are great in contrast. So once the script came, and an ostrich was doing all sorts of things, Max, our line producer, recommended we we sub the ostrich for a capuchin. Funny enough, he loves working with animals. He loves animals, Miranda loves animals, so we're always trying to work in an animal if we can and if there's a reason for it. Spencer having a good friend/drinking buddy/monkey brothel friend felt natural.
With Miranda Cosgrove and Nathan Kress taking on roles as executive producer and director, respectively, how is it having them involved in more of the show's processes?
It's great. Their knowledge is, they lived it, it's beyond encyclopedic. So we'll put something in and they'll say, "Oh, is that a reference to this? Wouldn't it be this exact wording?" And we're like, "Yes, it was. And yes, it should be." They keep us on track for sure. I think Nathan talked about this when he did his live tweets, but Carly being claustrophobic is well documented, and we have that in there. But he was the one who really pushed for her to do her "nyeh" noise, and we didn't want to make Miranda do it. He was like, "We have to make Miranda." [The original cast] is really involved as producers and weighing in on story ideas and editing and casting. It's a lot of fun. It's really collaborative.
In season 1, we were reintroduced to these characters and got to know where they've been since we last saw them. In season 2, we dove into their stories a little more. What can we expect next?
I don't think we can ignore the cliffhanger that we did set up. We've got to have Freddie and Carly deal with their feelings, or lack thereof, now that it's out there. Which I'm sure they'd be great at doing, she said sarcastically. It won't be uncomfortable at all. I think just continuing to delve into the possibility or not of that relationship will have to be the focus at least coming back. I also think we've seen a lot of development in Harper's [Laci Mosley] career. She's really doing her own stuff now. She's not just working for people, she's finding her own creative projects on the design side, not just on the styling side, so I think that'll be something, and then I think Spencer [Jerry Trainor] will keep being Spencer. Oh, and Millicent [Jaidyn Triplett] has a boyfriend, which I think will continue to be fun. We really love our Derek Fox-Lubiner [Finn Carr]. Hopefully we'll be able to bring him back.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
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