Killing Eve: Phoebe Waller-Bridge on handing over the showrunner reins

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Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the creator of Fleabag and Killing Eve, has been chatting about handing the showrunner reins for Killing Eve over to a different writer for the show’s second season. Here’s what she said…

Chatting to Collider, Waller-Bridge discussed handing the top job on Killing Eve to Emerald Fennell for the second run of the hit assassination series:

“It was [weird], but there was a feeling of passing it on that felt very empowering and exciting. [Emerald Fennell] is a friend of mine, but she’s also a writer that I love, and a woman that I love and really respect. There was something beautiful about that, and about passing those characters on. But yeah, of course, it was also hard because you get so close to not just the actors, but the characters. It’s a unique experience, when you then can’t wait to see it because you get to watch it with the audience. That’s something that hardly ever happens, for the creator of a show, and it’s very exciting.”

While Killing Eve’s second run was being produced, Waller-Bridge was pretty busy writing and starring in the second series of Fleabag.

Waller-Bridge was then asked about Killing Eve becoming a massive hit, and whether she had any expectations for that to happen:

“I know! And no, I didn’t. When I was in the middle of it all, I could just see all of the things I thought were wrong with it. I thought the characters were extraordinary, but sometimes when you’re that deep in it, you can’t see it. And then, it comes out and you suddenly realize what you, as a team, have created. When the first couple of episodes went out and people started responding to Villanelle and Eve so well, I was just like, “Yeah, they are bad-ass, in a cool, dysfunctional, weird way.” I was so proud of them, seeing them rocket off, with Sandra Oh’s success, and Jodie Comer just being the new iconic actress of our time. I was so proud of it. I love when you can feel an actor really starting to own it, and as the series went on, particularly Jodie was just flying with this character, and the character became hers. And in working so closely with Sandra, we would just endlessly talk about the script and the character. It’s a very fulfilling experience, working like that.”

We don’t have the exact UK premiere date for Killing Eve season 2 just yet, but we’ll let you know when it’s announced.