‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 2 Ending: Suspects Weren’t Actually in the Killer Reveal Scene Together
The Hulu mystery Only Murders in the Building brought the whole cast together for the season finale. Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short), and Mabel (Selena Gomez) invited their Arconian neighbors to a killer reveal party. The real mystery is how they got every actor together for the Only Murders in the Building Season 2 ending. The answer is: they didn’t.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the Only Murders in the Building Season 2 finale.]
Co-creator John Hoffman and co-star Adina Verson were guests on the Only Murders in the Pod podcast on Aug. 24, the day after the season finale aired. They explained how they made it look like everyone was together for the killer reveal party.
Many actors filmed the ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 2 ending scene separately
Through the magic of editing, Only Murders in the Building created the illusion that everyone who lived in the Arconia attended the party. Now, Hoffman can reveal they did whatever it took to film the actors they needed.
“There were times when many of those actors were not in the same room together,” Hoffman said on Only Murders in the Pod. “From day to day while shooting that same scene.”
The schedule conflicted with many actors
Hoffman explained that many actors moved on to other projects after their Only Murders in the Building stint, which was a good problem to have.
“We knew certain characters just had to be in that scene,” Hoffman said. “But you have to understand, we’re making a television show where we’re asking people to be there in month 1 to shoot this little bit of here and there, keep characters that we love in the Arconia alive. And then, lo and behold, everyone’s working, happily. I want them all to work and continue working. So pulling everyone back together as much as we could for this big group scene in the Arconia was a challenge.”
Hoffman cited Jackie Hoffman, who is now filming Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies and Tina Fey, who has countless other projects to coordinate.
“You have Tina Fey, you have Jackie Hoffman who’s in Vancouver doing a show now,” Hoffman said. “Tina Fey has a life bigger than all of us and she’s all over the place. How do you get them all for this huge scene you know you need? That was a real ballet and then a real orchestration of planning from Jamie Babbitt. You’d never know it.”
There were two Tina Feys in the ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 2 ending
Verson played Cinda Canning (Fey)’s assistant Poppy and recalled her two scene partners. The Only Murders in the Building Season 2 ending scene took multiple days to film, so they worked around Fey.
“Tina could only be there for one of those four days,” Verson said. “So there was this stand-in who was this sweet young actress who happened to look like her from the back. She did the scene a million times with these legends and she’s like I’m just a background actor. She got tapped the day before to do this. So we shot everybody’s coverage with this sweet standing. The last day, they turned and Tina was there.”
