Summary

The Studio producers talk about what it was like to pitch this project to the very people it pokes fun at.

The Studio producers discuss getting those wild cameos, from Charlize Theron to Martin Scorsese.

The Studio producers reveal whether there are plans for a Season 2.

Apple TV+ is dominating the conversation right now, with the sci-fi thrills of Severance Season 2 concluding with a bang and the wholesome dramedy of Ted Lasso Season 4 recently being announced, and if there’s any justice in this world, hilarious satire The Studio will continue the trend. As its title suggests, The Studio centers around a fictional movie studio called Continental and the people who work there, including newly minted head Matt (Seth Rogen), marking guru Maya (Kathryn Hahn), young creative executive Quinn (Chase Sui Wonders), and more seasoned executive Sal (Ike Barinholtz). There’s also Patty (Catherine O’Hara), Matt’s mentor, who has recently been ousted by the company.
Co-creator and executive producer Evan Goldberg and EP James Weaver are no strangers to working with the studio system, which makes the two of them perfect people to bring this show to life. With over 100 combined producing credits, Goldberg and Weaver are perhaps best known for their other collaborations with Rogen, including Neighbors, This is the End, and Sausage Party. Goldberg is also a writer and director, having co-written everything from Superbad to Pineapple Express and directed episodes of Preacher and Black Monday. Weaver also serves as the president of Point Grey Pictures, the production company founded by Rogen and Goldberg.
Collider got the chance to speak to Goldberg and Weaver about the show being well-received by the very people it pokes fun at, landing that meaty Martin Scorsese cameo, whether there are plans for a Season 2, and more.
‘The Studio’ Producers Discuss Pitching the Show to the Executives It Satirizes and Casting Kathryn Hahn

Congratulations on the show — it’s so funny and feels so timely and also really meta in a lot of ways. I’m curious, what is it like to pitch a show to people who are actually in some of these positions that you depict in it?
EVAN GOLDBERG: Not only did we pitch it to people who live those situations, but the people we pitched, we had already made movies with before, so many of them were in these situations with us living the experiences and then having us pitch them the experiences they themselves were part of. But for all of them — and for us — it’s cathartic and fun and just a delight to be able to play with our real lives and to take the fun and the tragedy and all of it and make something cool out of it.
JAMES WEAVER: When one of the pitch meetings, we got someone laughing so hard they fell out of their chair, I think there was definitely a knowing going on during the pitch process that that particular executive took all the way to the floor. They really went all the way.
I love that. Best reception you could possibly have — chair falling. Your main ensemble works so well together in this, but I did want to specifically ask about Maya’s character because I feel like it would have been very easy to either make her a Gen Z and have that be the route or have her character not be able to keep up with the slang. Can you talk about crafting her personality and making the decision to cast Kathryn Hahn in that role?
GOLDBERG: A big thing we always have to deal with and that we’re constantly talking about is, in a studio, there are the filmmaking people, and there are the marketing people, and they are two very different worlds. Really, at the end of the day, the marketing people are much cooler and far less concerned about themselves, and they just have this confidence that the rest of us don’t. Because the creative execs on the film side and us, we’ll work on a project for four years that’s 125 minutes long. They knock out 125 minutes of material every freaking day. They’re just banging stuff out, and they operate at a speed; they dress cooler than us; they’re just from a cooler world. But they do have this sad little element where they’re trying to hold on to youth in a way that is kind of pathetic. And so that kind of became the character. And once we discussed who that character was, we realized that Kathryn Hahn could just destroy this. And not only would she destroy at it, but no one’s ever seen her do quite— she’s done a lot, but no one’s seen her do exactly this. And when she agreed to do it, it was like the ultimate—
WEAVER: Dream. She’s a dream person to have in the show.
Absolutely. I absolutely loved her character.
‘The Studio’ Producers Talk Landing Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, and More Wild Cameos

Image via Apple TV+

Obviously, this cast extends beyond the core ensemble with so many of these fun cameos that we get. I’m curious if there was one that you were most excited to land or to work with.
GOLDBERG: The answer is so obvious — it’s just Martin Scorsese.
WEAVER: It has to be Martin Scorsese.
GOLDBERG: To this day, I’m just like, “Did that happen?”
WEAVER: Yeah, he read the script, and he really liked it and really wanted to do it. And that was amazing because we needed a filmmaker who could signal this like, “Oh, I’m gonna make a really fancy movie, and then I can turn it into Kool-Aid.” And so he was really the only one who could sort of deliver all those things. He was incredibly funny, and then, when getting him, we were able to get Charlize — who’s a friend — to come and give one line. To me, she gets the MVP from that standpoint. She literally came for a whole afternoon, did hair and makeup, came to the Roosevelt, she said, “Get the fuck out of here,” and she’s like, “Bye, guys.” That was amazing.
GOLDBERG: But she’ll play a card. We owe her something.
WEAVER: We’re gonna owe her something.
GOLDBERG: One day.
WEAVER: We don’t know when.
GOLDBERG: We’re waiting for that shoe to drop.
WEAVER: But when we got Marty to do that — or Mr. Scorsese — we were then able to be like, “Well, is there any other thing?” I was like, “What if we get Steve Buscemi to come?” And that was really fun because we called his agent, and we said, “Listen, we have this idea. This is what the joke is.” And he was really so open and game to do it. He flew from New Zealand to LA, stopped for that one scene, and then went on the next day to New York. I think he did it for no other reason than Martin Scorsese — had nothing to do with us — but he knew Marty would be there, so it all comes back to Mr. Scorsese.
It’s so good. I would watch that movie — the Jonestown movie. Is there a fake movie in this show that you would be most interested to watch?
GOLDBERG: That is the number one thing we talk about. We’ve got to make one of these movies. We legitimately talked about a Jonestown one but just heard Bill Hader’s doing some Jonestown.
WEAVER: Bill Hader already stole our thunder.
GOLDBERG: We might have done a Jonestown if not for Bill Hader. Ahh, Bill. I like Alphabet City. I think Alphabet City by Ron Howard, starring Anthony Mackie and Dave Franco, would be an incredible movie. We have three scenes from it, and they’re great.
Yeah, you already have the footage to get started, so might as well just complete the project.
Will There Be a Season 2 of ‘The Studio’?

Image via Apple TV+

All of the episodes are so funny, but I think the one that got the biggest laughs for me is when they’re trying to figure out the most inclusive, least offensive way to cast the Kool-Aid movie. I feel like that sort of proves that you can actually joke about everything without punching down or being very horribly offensive — I know that’s a huge conversation today. Can you talk a little bit about how you approached that episode and that storyline?
GOLDBERG: The core thing that we were playing with in the casting episode is that a lot of the time in Hollywood, people do not care if they are being appropriate in what they’re saying or doing — they care if they are perceived as being appropriate. And that is like a real, fundamental, funny element to Hollywood. They don’t really care if they’re being racist or sexist or offensive — they care if you think that. And as long as you don’t think that, they don’t care what’s actually happening. And we’ve seen that happen so many times. And then there are people— obviously, most people care greatly and put a lot of thought into it. And it’s just crazy to watch these conversations because you cast humans in these roles, and you have to be like, “Well, do we have the right ratio of these people? Is it okay to even have this conversation about ratio?”
Yeah, absolutely — it played so, so funny. I would love to see more of these characters in this world. I’m curious if you have talked about potentially doing a second season, and if so, what direction you could envision it sort of going in.
WEAVER: We don’t get to decide. There’s a giant corporation in Cupertino called Apple that gets to decide if we get to make a second season. We’d love to. It was really, really a fun show to make. Seth, Evan, and I hadn’t made something —- the three of us — where they were directing and I was producing that we were really focused on in a long time. It’d be great to get a chance to do that. I think the way that the guys conceived of the show, where it’s very episodic and each episode has its own story — kind of beginning, middle, and end — does leave room for us to keep going and do more, so we definitely have a lot of ideas for what those episodes could be.
GOLDBERG: I guess it comes down to the ratings on Apple TV+. Give us five stars.
WEAVER: Yeah, give us five stars. Two thumbs up on Apple TV+ — that helps us out. We got to find out what happened with the Kool-Aid movie. We don’t know.
I’m on pins and needles.
‘The Studio’ Producers Reveal the Unique Challenges of Shooting in Vegas

Image via Apple TV+

There are so many intricate scenes with the blocking and the choreography and even stunts integrated into that. I’m sure there were days going in that you knew were going to be very challenging — I mean, the second episode with the long shot feels very obvious — but was there one scene that presented some surprising challenges for you that you didn’t quite anticipate?
GOLDBERG: Yes, not one scene — two episodes. Vegas. Vegas was a real situation. The fact that we finished is absolutely mindblowing to all of us because we had scenes with Bryan Cranston eating an ice cream cone by the Venetian River where we were told, “You guys have 45 minutes, and then you’re out.” And it’s a casino — there’s no haggling.
WEAVER: They don’t care about what we’re doing. They just need to gamble.
GOLDBERG: They’re like, “These craps tables will make us more money in the next two hours than what you’ve paid us to film in this room, so you have 45 minutes — the end.” And we have people in the background we don’t control walking around — drunk Vegas people — and we have to do a stunt with a boat, and all the actors are in high heels, which I highly regret.
WEAVER: “There’s Kathryn Hahn!” No, no, no, no, no, no.
GOLDBERG: And they’re just running — everyone’s running nonstop. So the whole Vegas thing was a wild, manic experience that I am shocked worked out.
WEAVER: And that’s just the production. We also lived in a casino for 10 days. That has its own stories.
GOLDBERG: 11 days. Don’t cut it short.
WEAVER: 11 days. One of those days bleeds into the other. I don’t think I slept, so that’s why I say 10. [Laughs]
New episodes of The Studio premiere on Apple TV+ every Wednesday.

The Studio

Release Date

March 25, 2025

Network

Apple TV+

Writers

Peter Huck

Watch on Apple TV+