The FXX animated series sees DeVito portray Satan while his real-life daughter Lucy takes on the role of Chrissy (Satan’s daughter), and his son Jake is an executive producer on the show. Even DeVito’s wife, Rhea Perlman, is a guest star for the show’s first season.
Little Demon centers on 13-year-old Chrissy, who discovers her real father after she comes into her own powers as Satan’s child, a.k.a. the Antichrist. But even though Satan is keen for her to join the family business, her mother Laura (Aubrey Plaza) will protect her at all costs.
For Fowler, Kirschner and Valla, the DeVitos were such a key part in getting the show made that they felt like family by the end of production—an “insane, crazy family,” Valla joked.
Little Demon Creators on Joining DeVito Family and Show’s Guests Stars
Fowler, Kirschner and Valla created the show because they were keen to make a “Rosemary’s Baby subversion” and write a story in which a woman had a cursed womb. Then it evolved into the show as it is today, with a focus on a mother (Laura) giving birth to the Antichrist (Chrissy) and then skipping to her teenage years when she discovers her powers.
Valla said: “At first, when we came up with it, the girl started even younger, she was five years old, and then we kept at it. We’re like, ‘Okay 13,’ right in the center of junior high [and] middle school, is the perfect age because it’s the most thematically rich area to explore.
“And then we kind of clocked onto the core of the show from there, which was the mother-daughter relationship, and then this custody battle triangle that kind of exists [between Laura, Chrissy and Satan].”
“We’re all big horror nerds,” Fowler added. “So we knew we wanted to do a show that was horror-based and also comedic. And just to go off what Kieran said, 13 years old is a horrific time. With the mother-daughter relationship, also, you know, as a 13-year-old girl and her mother, there’s so much horror only from that.”
Kirschner explained that he and his fellow creators always had Plaza in mind to play Laura because they’d worked together with the Parks and Recreation star in the past, as they had also done with Lucy DeVito.
“We’ve known [Aubrey] for many, many years, and then there this moment of like, ‘Oh, obviously getting Lucy involved with this would be such a really smart idea,’ and she just made so much sense to voice Chrissy,” Kirschner said.
“Once they started getting involved luckily Danny was very much on board because he loved the idea of he gets to play the devil, and he gets to work with his daughter and that’s just such an incredible relationship.
“The two of them are just really, really wonderful together, and recording them together has been a dream. I mean, they really do have that perfect father-daughter dynamic. It hopefully is resonant in the show as well.
“But the whole DeVito group, they’re just such sweet, wonderful, smart people that immediately latched onto the idea and then helped us develop the show, and then eventually got [Little Demon executive producer] Dan Harmon involved. They [were] just such a gift along the way.”
He continued: “Jake has really been so incredibly helpful as a producer and having this great outside view and perspective.
“I mean they all have such great perspectives on the show, but Jake has really also been pushing this along so strongly. He’s been such a great force in this. I guess now it’s like a weird family that we’ve all formed. So maybe we’re part of the DeVito family, I don’t know.”
“They make us feel that way, they really do,” Valla added. And of DeVito, he said: “[Danny’s] brilliant, he’s amazing. He’s the sweetest person too, he’s just a great person and he’s been just wonderful to work with.
“It’s been a crazy dream. It’s been crazy working with Danny DeVito. It’s outstanding, we’re always pinching ourselves. He’s just the sweetest guy.”
On Pushing the Boundaries With Animation
Little Demon is not afraid to push the boundaries by featuring violence, nudity, and also frank depictions of Chrissy having her first period.
Of this, Valla said: “I think, for us, anytime we go to make something we just set out to make the show that we want to make, and not really shying away from what we want to do and what is the best way we can create what we want to create.
“And I think the animated space, what we found is that it does allow us to maybe push more boundaries and show more and do more than we’d be able to in the live-action space. But yeah, that was never really a thought for us as we went through it, I suppose because we just wrote the show that we feel like, ‘Okay, this is the best version of this show.’
“But in retrospect, I think working within the animated space it has definitely allowed that in terms of what we’ve been able to do and put on television.”
Reflecting on a scene in which Laura gets nude to travel to Satan’s realm, Fowler added: “We did not set up to be like, ‘We have this strong woman character and we’re gonna make sure she gets nude in a scene.’
“I remember us and Dan Harmon all brainstorming together, this character has to go into the metaphysical realm, how? Just checking the rules of how you get into the metaphysical realm, and there’s no way you can bring any clothes with you.
“It was like, ‘Oh, I guess she will have to get naked’ and it was really cool. She has a billion awesome tattoos, all that mean something specific. So we got excited about that, too.”
One thing the trio were keen to do was to make sure Laura was a character who could hold her own not only as a demon slayer but also as a single parent.
Fowler shared: “I think something that we often don’t see, definitely non-animation, is a mother of any kind struggling with the role of motherhood and what she’s supposed to be, and also just exploring a woman who has a lot of darkness in her.
“I think we also got really excited about just exploring a woman who was so badass like John Wick is. Like Sarah Connor, who can just kill like John killed three men with whatever her form of the pencil would be.
“So we just got really excited that we kind of molded her into this very complex, strong, funny woman and watching a woman who has been on the run for 13 years and for the first time has to really settle into suburbia with her daughter, and navigate this world that she’s so foreign to. We have so many seasons that we can mine from her character.”
Valla added: “One thing we really want to do is not shy away from exploring the messiness of all that, the messiness to that mother-daughter relationship. Laura has so many strengths and she’s a deeply flawed character. I feel like a lot of times with female characters I feel like they don’t get that opportunity in the same way that male characters do, to like really do those explorations into their flaws.
“What we love about her is she is such a strong, loving mom despite all of her flaws and it’s kind of that battle every day within herself to be the best mom she can be while also navigating the insanity of the world around her.”
Kirschner explained that Plaza added a lot to her character and was “really helpful” to the trio during the process of creating the show.
“Aubrey has been really, really helpful with pushing forward this character, this type of character, and also she has been really wanting to lean into the blue steel of her character so much.
“She’s so smart and so funny, she has such a good perspective on the show and the character and also just in general, but we pulled some stuff from her, her as herself, because we want to just find those interesting nuances of someone that would be like an Aubrey character within this world that we’ve created, so she’s been just a terrific help.”
On the Show’s ‘Amazing’ Guest Stars
As well as its stellar main cast, Little Demon has some very famous faces lending their voices to the show.
“You’ll see some amazing stars, like you’ll get Sam Richardson, Dave Bautista, Shangela, Lamorne Morris, and if you stay long enough you might just get to hear Mel Brooks,” Kirschner teased.
DeVito ensured he was on hand to help with several of the episodes that feature guest stars, with Fowler naming Sam Richardson’s episode as the most interesting recording session for the cast and crew.
“The Sam Richardson one was so funny because none of us, including Sam Richardson, knew that Danny was coming on. And so we were recording with him, and suddenly out of nowhere Danny’s face just appears on Zoom.
“He’s like, ‘Hey Sam,’ and Sam Richardson was like, ‘Oh, hey Danny.’ You never when Danny is going to surprise [you].”
Valla added: “One other really funny combination is we had Eugene Cordero and Danny together, which was very funny to watch that dynamic.
“They have a plot together in a [later] episode that was great, and then we’ve also had Aubrey and Lennon Parham [who voices Laura’s neighbor Darlene], and they did improv together back at UCB. So seeing them be able to work together again in that format was great.”
Little Demon airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FXX and streams the next day on Hulu.
