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Hazbin Hotel creator sometimes wishes the show "could go darker," but don’t expect anything on par with Invincible
Vivienne Medrano, the creator of Hazbin Hotel, has opened up about how the show's art style supports its darker themes

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Adult animation has been going strong in pop culture for at least a decade now, and with the popularity of shows like Hazbin Hotel, that isn't changing any time soon. And even though Hazbin Hotel has a colorful and zany look to its character designs, along with an upbeat musical soundtrack, the show doesn't hesitate to tackle some more mature themes like trauma and redemption. After all, this is a show about people trying to get into heaven.
Even among other adult animated shows like Invincible, Hazbin Hotel stands out because it isn't aiming for realism. And for Vivienne Medrano, who created the show, Hazbin Hotel's art style has shaped how the mature topics discussed in the story come off to the audience watching.
Speaking to Indiewire, Medrano said, "There are times where I’m like, ‘I wish we could go darker.’ I just don’t know if my style is effective with it, especially in the violence. Like, I would love to push that further. But I am mindful that my style is inherently a lighter look. Other shows like Invincible or even Rick and Morty have a style that serves that disturbance a lot more than mine [so] because of that, it’s fun finding the tone."
Looking ahead, Medrano noted that "the show tonally gets more and more serious." But even as the show dives deeper into seriousness, Medrano assures us that some lightness will still remain. "But also, I’m somebody who takes my world and my characters and my story obscenely seriously, but I don’t take myself that seriously. Like, ultimately, I know that just one person, with my edgy Tumblr OCs that I came up with when I was young, and at the end of the day, that this is a cartoon. That level of ‘we take ourselves seriously but we also don’t’ is baked into the DNA of tone and style of the show," Medrano said.
Hazbin Hotel season 2 is streaming now on Prime Video.
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