‘Wynonna Earp: Vengeance’ Executive Producer And Stars Discuss What Happens After “Happily Ever After”

Reboot is an imprecise word. In television, it can mean anything from continuing a long-cancelled series with most of its principle cast coming back, like Twin Peaks: The Return. Or a complete creative overhaul with no continuity with what came before — a la the 2000s Battlestar Galactica. The slipperiness of the term fuels a joke in the trailer for Wynonna Earp: Vengeance released at Comic-Con International: San Diego back in July and Comicon.com has the chance to ask executive producer and writer Emily Andras, and stars Melanie Scrofano and Tim Rozon, about returning to the characters, the setting, the amorphous quality of “reboot,” and another piece of terminology regarding the 90-minute special: “special” itself.

“I think it’s good to say that because that’s what this feels like,” Rozon said. “It’s like its own thing.”

Set some time after the Wynonna Earp series finale, it sees Wynonna (Scrofano) and Doc Holliday (Rozon) return to Purgatory after a new threat emerges and seeks out Wynonna’s sister, Waverly (Dom Provost-Chalkley) and her wife, Sheriff Nicole Haught (Katherine Barrell). While the special is a definitely reunion of the characters, it is also special as it aims to bring new viewers to what fans (known as Earpers) affectionately call “the shitshow.”

With Wynonna Earp, there are a lot of terms flying round.

Returning to the notion of a Vengeance status as a reboot, Andras said, “If you are a hardcore fan: first of all, I love you and I will make out with you a little bit.”

More seriously, she added, “Honestly, there’s so much fun in the movie. There’s so many Easter eggs, so many inside jokes, so many references, maybe a lot of fun cameos of your favorites. But Tubi really wants your sexy aunts and your dog and your dog’s dog and your dad to be able to tune in if they’d never seen it before and hit the ground running.”

For those new audiences, Andras laid out the key aspects of the program: “you just have to know that she is a sexy demon hunter who’s a little bit out of control. These are the dysfunctional people in her life, and that’s all you need to know, really. You don’t have to have a chart of the first four seasons.” She said she was proud of “that tight rope walk”  between honoring what came before and setting up a potential new home for Wynonna and her family. “I think you can get your friends to watch it, they’ll understand it.”

“If you’re an Earper, you’re going to get everything you wanted,” Rozon added. “But if it’s your first time tuning in, also you’re like, ‘what’s this [show] with this super hot, sexy girl on the cover poster with this fiery gun?’ … I think new people will also just be like, ‘oh, this is cool.'”

So, perhaps, both “reunion” and “reboot” fail to complete reflect what Vengeance really is. Nevertheless, getting the opportunity to come back to the characters was, according to Andras, “a gift.” Although, she admitted to some trepidation.

“I’ve been with them for 10 years, but it had been a minute. You know what I mean?” she said. “And also it was sort of a new forum. It was 90 minutes. It was a contained story. I was intimidated, to be honest.” As this is a 90-minute special, no writers room was established this time, so it was really on her, although as she explained, “I did have some help from some of my favorites, of course.”

“I think it worked out,” she continued. That is another facet of Wynonna Earp. As Andras put it, “The mess becomes the beauty.”

Despite — or because of — the beautiful mess, the original series made its way to a happy ending: Wynonna and Doc leave town after watching Waverly and Nicole get married. But when Tubi offered the chance to bring the team back together, it set off a question in Andras’s mind: “What does happen after ‘happily ever after?'”

“These characters are older [now],” she continued. “As you grow in your relationship, you maybe want the same things or you don’t. And demons aside, just dealing with cat barf in the middle of the night and paying taxes is its own adventure. But there can still be romance, I think, in building a life right after the wedding, after you ride off into the sunset.”

For Wynonna, who rode into the sunset with Doc at the end of the series, choosing love is only the beginning of a new journey. “It doesn’t get easier just because [she’s] chosen it,” Scrofano explained. “I think then the fruits of that choice bring their own set of complications.”

Rozon agreed, adding that Doc faces a similar challenge. He loves Wynonna, but still needs to own up to who he is and find how to best “show up” for her.

Speaking more broadly about what happens after happily ever after, Scrofano added, “You have the wedding day and it’s the perfect day … and then you’re still the same people with the same problems. So now you’re moving forward together and whatever was going on to make you the beautiful person you are — with all the problems that you have that kept getting you into trouble in relationships — you still have them.”

Specially for Wynonna and Doc, this means “they’re facing those issues head on,” as Scrofano explained.

“I think they both know and [have] always known that ‘the sunset’ isn’t just going to happen,” Rozon said. “They keep trying to make the sun where it isn’t there, and Purgatory is a tough place to do that, where you’re busy kicking demon ass.”

Oh, yeah. As mentioned a few times, this show is about a group of demon hunters, even if the key relationships occupy the thoughts of the fans, writer, and actors. And the demon aspect of Vengeance is the most secretive. But seeing Wynonna and Doc succeed — Waves and Nicole definitely have the sunset and the happy ending — is one of the Earpers’ great wishes even if the couple’s conflicts fuel story.

While there’s still plenty to learn when the special airs, Andras was happy to come home to Wynonna. “I’m so proud that we let these characters grow up and become who they are now,” she said.

Wynonna Earp: Vengeance airs Friday night on Tubi.