Sweet Tooth Series

About Shooting Season 3

Sweet Tooth, filmed its third season concurrently with the second season in New Zealand. This  allowed the production team to maximize resources and maintain continuity in the show's captivating storyline and unique aesthetic.

In order to achieve the Alaska setting, an aerial unit shot hours of glacier photography during pre-production in the South Island and the snowmobile chase was filmed on location.

Our picturesque landscapes provided an ideal backdrop, enhancing the show's whimsical and post-apocalyptic atmosphere. Fans eagerly anticipated the continuation of Gus's adventures, assured that the show's high production values and compelling narrative remained consistent.

"The crew and cast bring so much depth and point of view to who the characters are and where they’ve come from and where they’re going.”

Sweet Tooth. (L to R) Nonso Anozie as Jepperd, Naledi Murray as Wendy, Stefania LaVie Owen as Becky, Christian Convery as Gus, Adeel Akhtar as Singh in episode 303 of Sweet Tooth. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024

About Shooting Season 2

The opening sequence for Sweet Tooth Season 2 was achieved by flying a small film crew to the Tasman Glacier. Episode 203’s Factory Town was inspired by the comic book and built around a defunct cement plant in Warkworth. The art department repurposed salvaged pieces of Season 1 sets including the train cars from episode 106 to build parts of the town. And Gus’s cabin was rebuilt from scratch in exactly the same location as in the pilot 3 years earlier.

FracturedFX rebuilt and upgraded their Season 1 Bobby puppet to pull off his increased role in Season 2. New Zealand make-up FX designer Jane O’Kane was brought in to create a whole new hybrid department for Season 2, sometimes requiring a dozen puppeteers on set at one time to pull off all the animatronics and puppet elements in sync.

New Zealand actress Amie Donald (M3GAN) played three different hybrids in Season 1 and was so good she was brought back in the featured role of Maya Monkey for Season 2.

New Zealander Marlon William’s day job as a rockstar musician led the writers to work in the music background for the Abbot family, including his acappella rendition of Paul Simon’s “The Boxer” in episode 208. 

Sweet Tooth. (L to R) Naledi Murray as Wendy, Ravi Narayan as Earl Elephant, Christian Convery as Gus, Amie Donald as Maya Monkey in episode 201 of Sweet Tooth. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2023

Season 1 Fast Facts

"New Zealand offered the perfect setting. We came here and shot the pilot and immediately fell in love. We knew what Sweet Tooth was, but being in New Zealand made us fully understand it. The magical beauty of New Zealand is otherworldly.”

About Shooting Season 1

The pilot for Sweet Tooth was written and shot well before the coronavirus pandemic, but the team suddenly found themselves making a show that felt unexpectedly timely. Executive Producer/Writer/Director/Co-Showrunner Jim Mickle and Executive Producer/Writer/Co-Showrunner Beth Schwartz, and the writers were about two months into writing the season’s scripts in March 2020 when COVID-19 began shutting down parts of the US. The team returned to New Zealand in 2020 to shoot the remainder of the season and adhered to strict COVID-19 safety protocols.

Mickle says of the story’s real-life similarities, “Making television is such a labour and time intensive process, and sometimes when you jump into a story that has big themes and big messages, the world ends up mirroring and echoing the story. Crazily enough, the real world chased so much of what we address in this show — and what the comics addressed more than 10 years ago. Life keeps mirroring art, and vice versa.”

Despite its prescient parallels to the real world, Mickle believes Sweet Tooth will offer the whole family a fun escape. “We want people to come into this world where there’s beauty and hope and adventure. This is a sweeping story — we ride on trains, climb mountaintops, run through forests. This is a show about what makes a family, what home really means, and why it’s important to keep faith in humanity.”

SWEET TOOTH (L to R) NONSO ANOZIE as TOMMY JEPPERD and CHRISTIAN CONVERY as GUS in episode 103 of SWEET TOOTH Cr. KIRSTY GRIFFIN/NETFLIX © 2021

“Filming in New Zealand gave us a really beautiful and exaggerated landscape that played perfectly into the look we were going for, because unlike many post-apocalyptic stories where everything’s kind of gray and dusty with crumbling buildings, the central idea for Sweet Tooth was that nature was reclaiming everything. We created this idea of “storybook dystopia,”meaning everything had to be lush and green and heightened. The setting was absolutely perfect for the storytelling.”

SWEET TOOTH, GUS of SWEET TOOTH Cr. KIRSTY GRIFFIN/NETFLIX © 2021

“We had the benefit of not only assembling this incredible group of craftsmen behind the scenes, but we have these super talented actors in front of the camera and this lush, like crazy, production value that New Zealand offers. So I think all of those things are very appealing. And I think that there is a sense of adventure and a bit of mystery that I think an audience is craving right now. A little bit of an escapism.”­

 

About Sweet Tooth

Ten years ago “The Great Crumble” wreaked havoc on the world and led to the mysterious emergence of hybrids — babies born part human, part animal. Unsure if hybrids are the cause or result of the virus, many humans fear and hunt them. After a decade of living safely in his secluded forest home, a sheltered hybrid deer-boy named Gus (Christian Convery) unexpectedly befriends a wandering loner named Jepperd (Nonso Anozie). Together they set out on an extraordinary adventure across what’s left of America in search of answers— about Gus' origins, Jepperd's past, and the true meaning of home. But their story is full of unexpected allies and enemies, and Gus quickly learns the lush, dangerous world outside the forest is more complex than he ever could have imagined. Based on the DC comic book series by Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth is executive produced by Jim Mickle, Beth Schwartz, Susan Downey, Robert Downey, Jr., Amanda Burrell, and Linda Moran. It was produced in New Zealand by Mel Turner.

Sweet Tooth utilised the New Zealand Screen Production Rebate (NZSPR).

The NZSPR for International Productions is part of the New Zealand Government’s screen incentives scheme, which includes the Post, Digital and Visual Effects (PDV) Rebate. Eligible productions can access a cash rebate on Qualifying New Zealand Production Expenditure (QNZPE).

Find out more here

Sweet Tooth Season 1, 2 & 3 are avaliable on Netflix