Running from 2012 until 2016, Alex Hirsch's Gravity Falls, which followed the paranormal experiences of Dipper and Mabel Pines in the titular town, is one of the most beloved animated series of the last decade. Hirsch worked on the series with then-storyboard artist Dana Terrace, who has her a new show of her own on Disney Channel: The Owl House.

The Owl House begins with Luz Noceda (Sarah Nicola Robles) being pulled into the demon world of the Boiling Isle, where she befriends a witch named Eda (Wendie Malick) and a demon named King (Hirsch) on her quest to herself become a witch. However, there's one problem: Luz doesn't have any magic powers. Although King is initially hostile towards Luz, their relationship softens by the end of the first episode.

CBR caught up with Robles and Hirsch at New York Comic-Con 2019 to discuss their characters, what fans can expect from the show and a big revelation about Gravity Falls.

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CBR: Who are your characters? Describe them for me.

Sarah Nicole Robles: Luz is a 14-year-old girl. She is super, super, marching to the beat of her own drum, to everyone else's dismay. And one day she's getting sent off to learn how to be regular, like fit in and balance checkbooks. And Owlbert comes in and steals the book. And one thing leads to another, and she finds a place where she fits in even less, and maybe fits in way more. I don't know, I don't want to spoil anything.

That's all you need to know. There's magic. She steps in and she ends up in the demon world!

Her hobbies include taxidermy, fantasy, fan fiction and talking to the dead.

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Dana was just telling me about how she used to draw dead animals. So I'm seeing where that one might be the actual inspiration.

Alex Hirsch: There's no used to about it. She still does!

King, he's a scruffy little trash demon. What you see is what you get with King. He thinks he's the most important guy in the world. But in reality, he comes up to your ankle and will stop bossing you around for tummy rubs. I think everybody knows what it's like to sometimes have feelings of importance that are outsized to your actual reality. And that's definitely what we see in King.

He's a lot of fun to play because he can kind of be a jerk sometimes. And everybody likes playing the jerk. I think there's a freedom afforded when you're a literal demon to do whatever you want because you're a demon. I think King's probably a character where there's a little bit more than meets the eye. But it will be a while before we have anything to say about that in the series. But yeah, fun character to play.

Would you describe him more as a cat or a dog?

Hirsch: I'd say he's a demon. And he would be very offended by the question.

Robles: Not that he knows what a cat or a dog is.

Hirsch: I would say he's like CatDog. In that he is terrifying and baffling.

What, who, when did you draw from in creating these characters?

Hirsch: Dana and I worked together on Gravity Falls. And I was just a sort of casual, creative sounding board as she was creating the series. So I think she heard a lot of my voice in her ear, thinking I was more important than I was. So it's no surprise that a character like that appeared in the series. So all I have to do is just access my most inner, annoying self and King's pretty easy to play.

Robles: I met the real life Luz. Luz is based on Dana's best friend.

Hirsch: Inspired by, yeah.

Robles: Inspired by. She's definitely no one, and everyone. I've met Dana and those are a lot of answers. And there's a lot of things I identify with from my teenage self and my current self.

Hirsch: Yeah. Sitting here listening to you, you just sound like Luz.

Robles: Luz is a weirdo. She's a creep. I don't know, those are things I strongly identify with.

Hirsch: Luz is sweet and sociable and earnest ...

Robles: Ironically...

Hirsch: And full of kindness and love.

Robles: Yeah. And just loves demons. I don't know, I just try to identify with that very strongly.

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There is a theme going through that first episode, that tension between weirdness and conformity. And we've kind of touched on it. But just talk to me about that theme. You can talk about it in your own lives, on the show if you're very shy and you want to have an air of mystery.

Robles: Oh, wait, in real life?

In either. Real life or the show if you don't want to be too specific for yourself. Don't worry.

Hirsch: Yeah. I think I've always found myself chafing up against rules and structures since I was a kid. I was called into the principal's office for drawings that ticked people off. And the same thing happened when I worked at the Disney Channel. I think being creative and following your own creative spirit where it leads can sometimes rub people in control the wrong way. And that can take any number of forms.

Robles: Oh, preach.

Hirsch: So I think Dana definitely channeled her own experience with sometimes having an imagination that's bigger than the room into this series. I think any kid who's been told by a teacher, "Don't draw that there," can relate to what Luz appreciates about the demon realm.

I got yelled at a lot about daydreaming.

Robles: I got yelled at a lot for talking if you can't talk... I would say it's just not super intentional. For me, my biggest fault is I'm wildly unaware. Really, and I-

Hirsch: But if you're aware that you're unaware.

Robles: I just figured this out. This is like a this-month thing. I talked to my fiance, and I was like, "Babe... I think I'm like a teenage level of resistant to being told what to do. Even if I wanted to do it, I feel like, 'You made me do this,' I'm like, 'Wow. I hate that.' I'm bristling." So, I don't think Luz is quite like that at all. She's never, ever, ever malicious or spiteful but I think she's just genuinely unaware of how much she's not doing things normally or how different she is. I think she's aware that she doesn't fit in and-

Hirsch: But she thinks... She thinks surely if she follows her inspiration everyone will catch up with her and is surprised when they don't.

Robles: Can I talk about the thing that got cut? [...] So one of the first meetings I had with Luz is someone does something nice for her. And as a thank-you she starts drawing them a picture. And she starts bleeding and just finishes the picture in her own blood.

It's just like, "Well, I'm bleeding and I got this. Add some color to that." It's just so unaware, but so, so well intended and really trying.

Hirsch: An artistic spirit that isn't always appreciated in it's time.

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It feels like kids are always fundamentally an artistic person not appreciated in their time.

Hirsch: Did you see that article about that kid who snuck cheese into their class by sneaking it inside a Chapstick? And they're like, "Now I can eat cheese in class." I was like, "That's a very Luz idea."

Robles: Yeah. Respect.

Hirsch: Genius. Now I have a tube of cheese and no one knows. Secret cheese. I cracked the code.

Robles: Can I get one of those?

Cheese everywhere I walk. Lips are still chapped but I've got cheese who cares?

Hirsch: Lips are more chapped now.

Robles: For example, I have a real life one of those. In the third grade I wanted to be Buffy [the Vampire Slayer] for Halloween. You know, you have one of those school parades. So naturally, I asked my dad to help me cut a broom handle and I made my own stake.

He agreed it had to be blunted. This is my dad, so you know ma agrees, and let me bring a stake to school. It was promptly confiscated. But my dad was like, "Yeah, I'll help you cut that." Neither of my parents had any awareness that that was wildly inappropriate.

Hirsch: Bringing a vampire-slaying weapon into class.

Robles: And I was like, "Well now I just look like a hip '90s girl. I got failed."

Hirsch: I was always drawing on my clothes with a Sharpie when I was in high school. It was just like, if there's an object and I'm holding a pen, I'm going to draw on that object. Or I own my pants, I can draw on my pants. And whenever my knee would rip I'd always make a knee monster where I would draw eyes and then the hole in the knee would be like a mouth. And yeah, I've seen photos of those times. And I'm like, "Why didn't anyone tell me that you're not supposed to do that. I look insane."

Robles: Me, too. My parents were always like, "I don't know, you seemed happy."

Hirsch: Yeah. "We don't want to burst your bubble."

Robles: There's no hope for us. I mean, that was if they knew.

How do you guys view Luz and King's dynamic?

Hirsch: I think King is inherently skeptical of strangers and Luz is inherently loving of everyone, in particular if you are shaped like a dog. Luz loves King immediately. And I think King pretty quickly drops the front when he realizes he can get snacks and belly rubs out of Luz.

Robles: Yeah, and I don't know. I think they're a great balance. I think they need each other.

Hirsch: Well she's got a heart of gold and everyone with a heart of gold needs a demon on their shoulder whispering into their ear.

Robles : Like, "Chill. This is a bad idea." Well they definitely, most of the time need Eda, because-

Hirsch: They'd be lost without her.

Robles: ... they should not be left alone to make decisions.

Hirsch: I definitely think King and Luz are characters with big imaginations who follow their big imaginations and could definitely lead themselves in a circle and starve in the forest if no one's around to look after them.

Robles: Probably get eaten. Really promptly.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Hirsch: I would just say that The Owl House has been a really fun, original, unusual project to work on. And I would encourage anybody who's enjoyed fun, weird, unusual, imaginative shows to check this out. I think it's got something for everybody.

Robles: Every episode I get to see, I'm like, "This is so cool!"

Hirsch: I would also say that I think and I'm sure Dana will speak to this, but The Owl House is definitely a world that has plenty of hidden things to be unearthed over the series-

Robles: So much to happen.

Hirsch: So I think it's a really fun introduction that we get to see in this first episode. There's many layers to this onion. I encourage people to keep peeling.

Robles: One last thing, yeah. And it's like a show, really, if you love cartoons, if you love art, if you love fantasy you're going to love it.

Hirsch: If you love Satan, then you're going to love this show. There's your headline!

I was always praying that Gravity Falls would have some big evangelical clap back so that we could get press. This was the Bill O'Reilly days. I was like, "Please, can Bill O'Reilly [complain] about this show?" And they never did. It was like, "No. Teletubbies, they're gay. Spongebob, he's Satan. It's Harry Potter." But Gravity Falls, it never got that clap back.

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[You had] a demonic illuminati pyramid and no one [was calling you out].

Hirsch: I know! I was trying so hard! I was doing everything I could to get ... And it never happened. Hopefully someone gets pissed about this show. It'll be great publicity.

Robles: To trigger. You can't trigger people.

I always assumed you got pushback on the hat though, for Grunkle Stan, and that's why his hat changed.

Hirsch: I actually did. That is why it changed. I never said that in an interview. Grunkle Stan's got a Shriner's fez. The Shriners' symbol is a random amalgamation of what white dudes in the '30s thought Middle Eastern culture looked like. They're like, 'We'll slap a scimitar and an Islam thing and an Egyptian mask or whatever.' But it has no meaning. And then we just made a simplified version of that, and then halfway through the season, they were like 'What if the Shriners sue us? We need to change it to a more abstract [symbol]. ' ... We randomly changed Stan's fez symbol in the middle of the series and then just like never brought it up.

Created by former Gravity Falls story artist and DuckTales director Dana Terrace, The Owl House stars Sarah-Nicole Robles, Wendie Malick and Alex Hirsch. The series is slated to premiere on Disney Channel in January 10.

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