After countless months of eager anticipation,The Hunting Partyfinally made its debut on NBC with an explosive pilot that introducedMelissa Roxburgh as FBI Special Agent Rebecca “Bex” Henderson. Fans still have a long way to go with the series, as it’s expected to end its first chapter later in April with Episode 10. In the meantime, you’re able to get a look behind the scenes of the procedural thanks to co-showrunnersJJ BaileyandJake Coburn’s insightful chat with Collider’sSamantha Coleyand other journalists during a visit to the set.
If you’ve been wondering how the showrunners came up with such a brilliant idea forThe Hunting Party, it all stemmed from their interest inserial killers, according to Bailey, who shared:
“We’re both fascinated with serial killers. I really feel like I watch a lot of true crime, probably more than is healthy, but wanting to do something in that space and trying to explore, ‘OK, well if there was this big explosion…’ and I think we even started with a missile silo, what could have been down there and just married those two things together initially.”
Besides their fascination with serial killers, Bailey and Coburn wanted to develop a unique idea in that space which included thesemurderers coming from a “secret locationthat was either under attack or an accident that led to this.” The gist was to make the premise look like one thing when, in reality, it’s actually about something else entirely, which fans will learn as the series progresses.
‘The Hunting Party’ Came Out of a 2-Hour Zoom Meeting
The series creator further elaborated on how he and Coburn teamed up forThe Hunting Party, which initially began with “a phone call or a Zoom” that took about two hours. This happened because of a mutual party who set the duo up after reading one of the scripts, and in no time, they were in a discussion of how to create a procedural in “an interesting way,” which they accomplished with that huge explosion in the pilot. Bailey said:
“We were sort of talking about just the image of a big explosion and just how fun that would be, to kick off an episode that way, and what could we do with that, and I think we were both looking for an interesting way to do a procedural, and wanting to find something in that space that felt bigger and elevated.”
The Hunting Partyairs on Mondays on NBC at 10 PM ET.
The Hunting Party
