Season 2 of the hit Hulu detective series The Hardy Boys develops a brand new mystery for the teen sleuths. With the mystical artifact buried and their family's mysteries revealed, Frank and Joe Hardy seem poised to take on regular teenage lives. The disappearance of a fellow student draws the Hardy Boys back into the detective business, where they soon discover that the Eye and the Circle may not be done with them yet. Season 2 takes the Hardy Boys and viewers deeper into the mysteries with a heavy dose of '80s tech, suburban nostalgia, and compelling puzzle solving.
Ahead of the premiere of the new season, lead actors Rohan Campbell and Alexander Elliot gave an exclusive interview with CBR about bringing the Hardy Boys to life. The pair spoke about the changing stakes of the new season and how their characters have grown since Season 1. They also dived into how they relate to the series' '80s setting and supernatural turn.
CBR: I'm curious how your relationships to your characters, to Frank and Joe, have changed for this second season.
Rohan Campbell: It was fun getting into the shoes of Frank being in a normal teenage state. The season starts six months after the events of Season 1, and Frank is sort of in a normal place. He's in a healthy relationship, he's happy, and he's doing everything he can to be content. It was funny having a relationship to a character that way. It's almost like working in reverse, meeting a character with trauma and then getting back into it in a place of happiness and joy.
Alexander Elliot: It was something to see Joe in a new light this season because later in the season, without spoiling much, it's pretty hectic. To see Joe dealing with that and the way he manages it was really fun because we didn't really get the chance to explore that last season.
How has your characters' relationship as brothers changed? Have you noticed any difference in their brotherly relationship this season?
Elliot: Yeah, definitely. The way the relationships has evolved is really, really cool to see because, in Season 1, it was more... They're put into this crazy situation. Frank felt the need to lead the charge, and Joe was just kind of trailing along. Then, towards the end of Season 1, they started to become more equals, and now it's really prevalent in season 2 where they're both equal in their mystery-solving abilities. We see that evolve in the crazy situation that Frank finds himself in, and now Joe needs to be his own detective in order to help them through it... So the way they've evolved is they still need each other, they still need to work together, but they've both gotten smarter in a way where they don't necessarily have to solve certain small things in order for the big mystery to work.
Campbell: I think that as a brother, the brother relationship this season is... I mean, it starts out just so fun and hilarious in the sense of Frank couldn't be more happy with the normality of life, and Alex's character Joe does everything in his power to create any sort of mystery, any sort of chaos, anything like that. So it's fun to start up the story that way and watch Joe pull Frank. As much as he tries, as much as Frank fights it, Joe pulled him right into a bunch of trouble again, and the relationship just gets closer from that point out.
I think we also see a changing family dynamic with the broader Hardy family in this season. Their dad has a couple of things to say about their crime-solving, and they're still living in the house in Bridgeport with Aunt Trudy. So how's the larger Hardy family this season? What are they up to?
Rohan Campbell: So, dad's on his own mission. He's taking a lead that they left off at the end of Season 1. He's off trying to do that, but he's also trying to be a dad and be around for us. Something really beautiful happens this season where there's a lot of transparency between the boys and the dad and Trudy as well, who we just love in the show. Trudy's relationship with Biff's mom is blossoming, and everybody's kind of in a happy place. That all changes pretty fast.
So can you talk a little bit about that changing stakes, then, for Season 2? Season 1 was focused on the mystery of their mom's death, what's changing this time around?
Campbell: This time around, there's a bit of a sci-fi, supernatural edge to this season. We left the Eye under a bunch of rubble in Season 1, and we think it's gone forever. As you'll find out very fast in Episode 1 of Season 2, that's not the case. It's displaced itself somewhere rather frightening and disrupting. I think the mystery this season will be, in a weird way, Frank versus himself and Joe versus what he thinks is just a regular disappearance of a kid, [which] turns out to be a web of political corruption and [questioning] who in town is trustworthy. He goes that route, and they sort of meet in the middle as Frank's dealing with this undeniable force that's overwhelming him and making him think a certain way.
Elliot: I think what Rohan said was really true. It's a lot more happening this season. It's a lot crazier a lot quicker. It's really interesting to see because it starts off sort of this half-innocent mystery of this disappearance. There's the juxtaposition of Joe wanting to jump on it versus Frank wanting to stay behind. Eventually, with Joe and with this new, crazy circumstance, Frank gets dragged into this mystery, whether he likes it or not. Then it all derails, and all goes downhill where Joe goes off on his own because he needs to help Frank, and then Frank goes off on his own because, once again, this crazy sci-fi thing that's happening to him. Then it all builds up and builds up and builds up throughout the season and climaxes eventually and gets wild.
How do you feel about the supernatural shift this season? The Eye's always had a little bit of a magical tinge to it, but I think things lean a little more deeply into the supernatural this time around.
Campbell: What I love about the way we're handling it is the supernatural that we're approaching is all... What I love about Jason Stone and the writers and the producers on this and Chris Pozzebon, who just joined us for Season 2 and wrote this story, they base all the supernatural stuff off of science. They justify it in a very real way. So what I find interesting is if you look at The Hardy Boys, even when you read the books and stuff, there's some books that have a touch of magic, a touch of supernatural to it.
So I was really excited when I read Episodes 1 and 2, and I saw what was gonna happen halfway through Episode 1. I just remember going, "I absolutely love this. I have no idea how they're going to handle this." The way it panned out and the way Episode 10 goes, I'm so incredibly excited for people to see what we do with it. Again, we're not reaching into anything super-mystical or unrealistic. It's all stuff that we believe isn't too far from what science can prove.
Elliot: I think what was done for this season was so unique. I've never seen something like this done before. To be part of it was really, really cool. To see it evolve throughout the season with the frankly amazing writing that we had, it was just... The memory on set is that we didn't get all the scripts at once. They were being written as we were shooting. Every few weeks we would get the next episode, and all the cast would sit around and read it together and talk about it afterward. It all built up in such a crazy way, and how everybody connects to this supernatural, sci-fi element of the show is such a big part of it. We have our fingers crossed for Season 3, but the way it ends, I really hope... If we go forward, I'm really excited to see what happens.
You've also welcomed some new faces into the cast this season. How was it to expand the Hardy gang and the group of actors that you get to work with?
Elliot: I loved it. I think those Hardy Boys... I mean, yes, they're really good at solving mysteries, but they need the rest of the gang, and they need the kind of family dynamic that they have with all of their friends and their actual family. It is really a key element. To get these new characters makes everything so much more connected and so much bigger. I think it was one of the main catalysts of why this season is so much larger.
Campbell: We are so incredibly blessed to have everybody that we do joining us this season. Krista [Nazaire], she's amazing. Sadie [Munroe], incredible. They've just both brought something brand new, really unique, and super fun. There's a lot of humor this season because you get all these characters in one room. We really had some fun putting those polar-opposite personalities in one space and seeing how that works when you ride it out.
It must have been nice to return to some familiar faces after the first season, too. So when the cameras weren't rolling, was set just as fun?
Campbell: Oh, yeah, for sure. It's like returning to summer camp every year. It's incredible. You get to go to your adopted family, so to speak. Like I said, when you have all that ensemble cast in one room or up in the Hardy Boys attic together -- which happens this season a lot, which is so fun -- trying to shoot a scene is very difficult because we're all having such a good time. We're all laughing and trying really hard to focus, but we're all really close friends so it can get pretty silly or distracted.
Elliot: Having this whole cast this season... I mean, we got really close over Season 1, and we've gotten even closer over Season 2. It was really fun to just hang out with them while you're there. I mean, yes, you're shooting, and you're working with them, but say, on lunch, we would go to some restaurant nearby and just hang out. To be able to do that was a really great morale boost for the season. It really helped us get through it because it got tough. It's a complicated show, and it's a lot of work. So to have all these people on the inside, it was really, really cool.
The Hardy Boys is a bit of a period piece. What’s your experience with the '80s tech of the series? Are you up on the VHS technology and arcade games that are featured in Season 2?
Elliot: I wouldn't say... Not necessarily familiar as in I've used it, but I personally love the '80s. I love the style, the music, [and] the technology. Also, with Season 1 kind of introducing me to all of it, I'm not totally unfamiliar. I did one or two new [things]. There's one scene where I have to develop a photo, which I had no clue how to do that. They taught me how to do that. I do love '80s tech. I think it is that perfect Goldilocks zone of eras because we have a little technology to play around with but not too much that it does the work for us.
Campbell: I just love existing in this world. What I find unique about the show is a lot of shows are doing the '80s, but we seem to have this subtle version of it that feels really authentic and feels really suburban, in a way, or not overstated. What I love about it is in this season, when you meet the super '80s characters, it's really fun to see how big, how animated certain types... You get the punks [and] that sort of stuff or the disco people in the '80s, and it stands out like crazy in our small town in this [show]. That's really fun to see.
Were you fans of the Hardy Boys books or characters before you joined the show? What drew you to these teen sleuth detectives?
Campbell: I used to read these books when I was little. They were my cabin books, which I'm basically trying to say every time I was up in the mountains and didn't have internet or there was nothing to do, I would pick up a Hardy Boys book. I fell in love with them and their adventures and the idea of going out your front door and finding something to get in trouble with. Everything was a mystery to me after I read those books, so they meant a lot to me.
Elliot: Honestly, it was a different generation for me. All my teachers and my parents kind of grew up with these books, but I had never heard of them, which sucked because once I got this audition and got the role, I read them, and I was like, "Where were these all my life?" I would have loved these when I was little. I would have done the same thing as Rohan. I would read them and go outside and get in trouble. I mean, I did a fair amount of that anyway, but I think reading those books when I was little would have been fantastic.
The Hardy Boys Season 2 premieres April 6 on Hulu.