Thursday, June 15, 2023
It was almost six in the evening.
Owen was at Jenna's apartment working. He had spent the first part of the day at the Second Take Films offices, and around four in the afternoon he came here.
And why was he at her apartment?
Because he was taking care of Juan Antonio. Yes, the cat with a human name that Jenna had given completely seriously and that Owen still thought sounded more like a 40-year-old Mexican father of three than a pet.
Jenna had asked him to do it since lately she was barely at the apartment anymore, completely consumed by the pre-production of Wednesday's second season.
Her role within the series had changed a lot.
Now she wasn't just the lead actress anymore: she was also an executive producer. And not the kind who only held the title. She was genuinely involved creatively.
In fact, even during the first season she had already participated far more than what was normal for a young lead actress. She had talked about it in interviews and to Owen himself: discussing dialogue, questioning scenes that felt out of character, and pushing for a darker vision, one more focused on horror and mystery.
She would even change lines during filming because, according to her, "Wednesday would never say that."
Now, with official power inside the production, she had even more influence.
One of her first major decisions for season two had been reducing the romantic focus the writers originally wanted to push. Especially the love triangle from the first season.
That sparked a fair amount of controversy online. Some people saw it as arrogance or excessive control from a young actress getting too involved in the work of writers and producers.
Owen didn't see it that way. If anything, he respected it. As an actor, he understood perfectly how frustrating it could be to play a character for months and feel that certain lines or decisions simply didn't fit. When someone spent that much time living with a role, they eventually developed a very specific understanding of how that character thought, spoke, and reacted.
In some ways, even deeper than the writer's own understanding.
Not because the writer was bad, far from it. Simply because the writer had to think about the entire story: every character, every storyline, the pacing, and the overall structure.
The actor, meanwhile, could obsess over a single fictional person.
That was why Owen understood Jenna. Though he also knew that kind of creative involvement could probably make her intense to work with.
He himself had experienced firsthand just how intense and serious she was about her work, both as an actress and as a producer.
Which was why he was taking care of the cat.
Juan Antonio was curled up asleep on top of his legs, completely relaxed, using Owen as a couch.
Meanwhile, Owen typed away on his laptop.
It wasn't like he had no work to do. Quite the opposite.
But he also didn't need to do absolutely everything from the Second Take Films offices. In fact, a large portion of his current workload could easily be handled from home or, in this case, from Jenna's apartment.
Lights Out was progressing well. Matt and the editor were handling post-production.
The same was happening with White Bear, the first Black Mirror episode, which was only a few days away from finishing its edit completely and being ready.
As long as things kept moving and didn't stall, Owen didn't feel the need to hover over the team one hundred percent of the time.
Right now, his main focus was completing Black Mirror's first season.
Ever since he had decided to prioritize that and practically shelve Friends, almost his entire work schedule revolved around the series.
Originally, his plan had been different. He intended to use White Bear as a pilot episode and then sell the full package: the completed episode plus the IP rights for the series along with five additional scripts.
But he changed his mind.
He would finance the season himself.
Though he also adjusted the original plan. He would no longer make six episodes.
He would make three.
Which meant producing only two more besides White Bear, which was already nearly finished.
And honestly, it made sense.
Black Mirror didn't function like a conventional TV show. Every episode was practically its own standalone film. New cast, new visual style, different direction, different production design, its own editing style, unique soundtrack…
Everything changed.
Making six episodes for a first season was far more complicated and expensive than it sounded on paper.
Especially for someone like Owen, who wasn't just writing, but also producing, supervising the edit, financing the project, and would probably end up acting in one of the episodes too.
Three episodes, on the other hand, felt like the perfect balance to him.
With the ones he had chosen, he could fully showcase what Black Mirror was and the entire range the series was capable of.
Which episodes had he decided to make?
San Junipero and Shut Up and Dance.
San Junipero follows the story of Yorkie (shy and reserved) and Kelly (outgoing and vibrant), who meet at a nightclub in 1987 in the coastal town of San Junipero. They fall in love, but strange things quickly begin to stand out: people talk about only being allowed to "visit for a limited time," and suddenly the timeline jumps to the '90s or the 2000s.
The big twist is that San Junipero is not a real place, nor are the protagonists actually young. It's a simulated reality created for elderly people or terminal patients.
In the real world, Yorkie and Kelly are old women. Yorkie has been bedridden in a hospital for decades after becoming paralyzed, and Kelly is suffering from terminal cancer.
Thanks to advanced technology, elderly people can "visit" San Junipero for a few hours each week as a form of therapy, using avatars of their younger selves. Once they die, they have the option to "pass over" permanently by uploading their consciousness into the cloud and living there in eternal youth.
In the end, Kelly resists staying forever because her husband and daughter died before this technology existed, and she feels she should die naturally in order to "be with them." Yorkie, meanwhile, wants to marry Kelly so she can authorize her euthanasia and allow her to fully live in San Junipero.
After many doubts, Kelly decides that her love for Yorkie is stronger than her loyalty to the past. The episode ends on an unusually happy note for Black Mirror: both women die in the real world, and their consciousnesses are successfully uploaded.
It was one of the episodes that completely broke away from Black Mirror's usual pessimistic tone. A love story blending '80s nostalgia with transhumanism.
It also carried a strong LGBT component.
On one hand, Kelly mentions that she always knew she was bisexual, but spent most of her life inside a traditional heterosexual marriage. However, the story never frames that life as fake or unhappy. Kelly genuinely loved her husband Richard and the family they built together for nearly fifty years.
The truly tragic story was Yorkie's.
When Yorkie was young, she confessed to her parents that she was a lesbian. They were extremely conservative and religious, and rejected her so violently that she fled in her car. In the middle of crying and panicking, she lost control, crashed, and became paralyzed.
She spent the next four decades confined to a hospital bed, essentially skipping adulthood altogether. That was why she was so shy and inexperienced once she entered the virtual world.
To Owen, it didn't feel like forced inclusion. The relationship was well written, and so was the backstory.
However, he was now making one major change.
Yorkie would no longer be a woman.
He was turning the character into a man.
If audiences somehow knew this while directly comparing it to the original version of the episode, some people would probably immediately accuse him of being anti-LGBT or anti-woke, a term that was starting to become more popular.
But the reality was much simpler.
First of all, nobody in this world knew the original version except him. To everyone else, the episode would simply exist as a romantic story built entirely from scratch, with no previous comparison.
And second, Owen wasn't making the change because he disliked LGBT themes or because he wanted to 'fix' anything.
The reason was far simpler than that.
For days, he had been imagining the episode with Sarah as one of the leads.
He knew perfectly well that his sister would have absolutely no issue playing a romantic story opposite another woman. In fact, many straight actresses seemed to handle those kinds of roles with complete professional ease, without kissing another actress representing any real conflict for them.
Jenna was the same way in that regard.
Owen, meanwhile, knew he would struggle with it much more. Not because he was homophobic.
It was simply a personal barrier related to comfort and attraction. Even as someone who loved acting and could deeply immerse himself in characters very different from himself, there were certain limits where things stopped feeling natural.
In fact, he didn't even particularly enjoy overly sexual movies or scenes. He had always preferred emotional intimacy over explicitness.
So portraying a romantic relationship with another man would push him far outside his comfort zone.
The thing was, Sarah didn't have that problem. Which was why he originally imagined her as Kelly, the outgoing one.
But now he had discarded the idea. Not because he didn't want to give her the role.
Two days earlier, he had a conversation with Sarah trying to understand why she kept a certain distance from Jenna.
It was an internal issue. Not what Jenna believed, that Sarah simply disliked her.
Sarah carried around a strange mix of shyness, insecurity, and guilt that Owen still didn't fully understand.
Because Sarah saw Jenna as almost the complete opposite of herself.
Jenna had built her career almost entirely on her own since childhood. No real industry connections. Constantly fighting through auditions. And on top of that, dealing with obstacles Hollywood still very much had, especially toward Latina actresses and certain traditional beauty standards.
Sarah, meanwhile, felt like she represented the exact opposite.
A wealthy family.
And a brother who could hand her roles effortlessly, get her into one of the biggest agencies in Hollywood with a single phone call, and so on.
On top of that, Sarah perfectly matched the classic standards Hollywood had historically favored: blonde, light eyes, and an almost perfect elegant appearance.
That was why part of Sarah felt that, deep down, Jenna should hate her. Or at least see her as someone who had everything handed to her too easily.
'Clearly wrong,' Owen thought with a small sigh as he remembered that conversation.
Jenna didn't think that way at all. More than anyone, she genuinely wanted to get along with Sarah and build a relationship with her.
Because of all this, Owen wasn't going to give Sarah the role. She wanted to start building her own path. Not keep receiving roles dropped from the sky by Owen, even if she knew they would probably be excellent projects.
She wanted to earn them herself through auditions and real competition.
Though, of course, thanks to Owen her career was already extremely well positioned. She didn't deny that. She had a feature film close to release and a short film that had already won awards at Sundance.
Owen never even mentioned this Black Mirror episode to her.
And now another question appeared.
Why spend time changing one of the protagonists into a man?
He could simply cast two actresses and keep the episode exactly the same.
But Owen now wanted to act in the episode himself.
And he was a man.
The script was already practically ninety-five percent finished. It only needed adjustments derived from that change: male dialogue, romantic dynamics, certain references, behaviors, and parts of the emotional backstory.
Now, the introverted character would be named Mike.
Although the story had changed in some aspects, the emotional core remained similar.
Mike had also become quadriplegic at a very young age and spent decades trapped in a hospital bed.
Only the cause was different.
Instead of an argument related to sexual orientation and ultra-religious parents, Mike came from a life defined by extreme pressure and impossible expectations.
Parents obsessed with academic performance, perfection, and professional success.
Perfect grades.
Absolute discipline.
No distractions.
No "wasting time."
Mike grew up becoming exactly what they wanted: intelligent, introverted, and academically flawless. But also someone who had barely truly lived at all.
And when he finally broke emotionally and tried to escape from all of it, the accident happened and destroyed the rest of his life.
As for the third episode: Shut Up and Dance.
It was the complete opposite of San Junipero.
If that one was about hope and love, this one was pure anxiety and darkness. And it didn't even use futuristic technology. Everything that happened in it could happen to you today with your own laptop.
Kenny was a withdrawn teenage boy working at a fast-food restaurant. One day, his sister accidentally installs malware on his laptop. Shortly afterward, Kenny receives an email from hackers: they recorded him through his webcam while he was masturbating.
The hackers threaten to send the video to all his contacts unless he follows a series of instructions sent through text messages.
They force him into a chain of increasingly disturbing errands that eventually lead to a bank robbery and finally to being forced to fight another man to the death in the middle of a forest.
The final twist is that throughout the entire episode, the series manipulates you into sympathizing with Kenny. You see him as a terrified kid whose life is about to be ruined over a normal act of intimacy.
Except Kenny wasn't watching normal pornography.
All the empathy you felt as a viewer instantly turns into disgust and horror.
The hackers leak everything anyway. They never intended to protect him. They only wanted to manipulate and psychologically destroy him.
Kenny ends up arrested both for the illegal material and for the crimes he committed during the blackmail. It was one of the most disturbing episodes in the entire series.
Initially, Owen had thought about playing the role himself.
As an acting challenge, he found it fascinating. Kenny was uncomfortable, withdrawn, frustrating, and progressively disturbing. A character that was incredibly difficult to emotionally defend in front of the audience.
That was exactly why it attracted him. But he eventually changed his mind.
Mainly for one fairly obvious reason: He was probably going to become Superman.
And yes, that was genuinely the level of confidence he already had about the casting.
He had passed the self-tape stage and, two days ago, attended the second in-person round at the Warner Bros. studios.
And he felt it had gone extremely well.
He met James Gunn, read scenes in front of important DC executives, and walked out of there feeling like he had delivered one of the best performances of his life in an audition.
The problem was that Black Mirror would probably premiere before Superman.
A movie of that scale would take forever to reach theaters. The shoot alone could last four or five months, and superhero film post-production was always extremely long because of visual effects, editing, and marketing.
Which meant Shut Up and Dance would likely come out a few months before Superman's release.
The thought honestly amused him.
The internet would probably explode seeing the future Clark Kent playing someone so miserable and disturbing.
But strategically, it was a terrible idea.
He could perfectly imagine the horrified reactions from Warner and DC executives if that happened.
Kenny required a physical energy completely opposite to Superman's.
For the role, he would need to look thinner, withdrawn, socially uncomfortable. Almost unsettling at times.
Whereas Superman demanded the exact opposite: presence, confidence, charisma, and probably gaining a significant amount of muscle mass to look physically imposing on screen.
That was why he was making the change in San Junipero and acting in that episode instead, something far more emotional and hopeful.
Mike was still introverted and socially awkward in many ways, yes, but he was a completely different kind of character from Kenny.
He didn't radiate disturbing discomfort or moral darkness.
Mike was more like someone emotionally repressed, deeply sensitive, and weighed down by an overwhelming sense of lost life. A man who had practically never truly lived and who, inside San Junipero, slowly began discovering who he actually was beyond expectations and fear.
In fact, Owen noticed that some aspects of Mike's personality fit surprisingly well with a certain version of Clark Kent: slightly shy, kind, reserved, and socially awkward.
Right at that moment, while he kept typing on his laptop and thinking about the episode, the phone lying beside the table began to ring.
Owen stopped typing and looked at the screen.
The name was simple:
Larry.
He immediately felt a mixture of nervousness and anticipation as he picked up the phone.
This could be about whether or not he had passed the second stage of the Superman casting process.
He took a deep breath and answered.
"What's up, Larry?"
"Hey, Owen," Larry greeted him. "There's news from DC. You passed the second stage."
He said it directly, without suspense or dramatic pauses.
Larry knew Owen far too well to try building up some huge cinematic reveal. Owen wasn't the kind of person who exploded emotionally or screamed with excitement over the phone. His reactions were always pretty restrained.
Still, this time there was one.
Owen clenched his free fist tightly and let out a small, "Yes…"
Almost under his breath.
Larry laughed softly on the other end.
"Did you just say 'yes' enthusiastically?" he asked, amused. "I think that's the most excited reaction I've heard from you in weeks."
Owen immediately shook his head as if Larry could somehow see him, "Of course not," he lied shamelessly. "It's great, but I'm chill."
"Uh-huh," Larry replied, very obviously not believing him.
Owen quickly decided to change the subject, "When's the next test?"
"Monday. I'll send you the material they gave me and what they want to see. And this time they want chemistry tests with the Lois Lane actresses and costume tests. Plus, they'll probably ask you to improvise."
"The final stage…" Owen murmured, excited just imagining himself in the suit.
"Exactly," Larry replied. "From what I've gathered, you've got two competitors left."
Owen gave a faint nod, his expression thoughtful.
Monday.
That gave him barely three or four days to prepare.
"Do you know if Jenna passed?" he asked then.
He knew she had made it through the self-tape round and had also done the in-person audition, but beyond that he knew nothing.
"I don't know," Larry answered. "But her agent is probably telling her right now."
"Mm," Owen murmured. He'd find out soon enough.
There was a brief silence before Larry spoke again.
"And there's one more piece of news."
This time he did pause for a second, just enough suspense to notice.
"What is it? Shoot," Owen said curiously.
"Marvel wants you. Looks like they don't want to lose you to DC."
Owen slightly raised his eyebrows.
Even though the Superman casting process was being handled with extreme secrecy and a very low profile by DC, Hollywood was still Hollywood.
The entire ecosystem was practically concentrated in the same city. Agents, managers, executives, producers… sooner or later things always leaked. Especially when major actors were involved.
And in a few months, complete lists of who auditioned for Superman and the other characters would probably end up online anyway.
Owen's mind immediately started connecting the dots.
At the moment, Marvel Studios didn't really have many major films still in the casting phase.
Thunderbolts was already close to starting production.
Deadpool & Wolverine had been filming since May.
Captain America: Brave New World was practically finishing its shoot.
Which left one option.
"Fantastic Four," Owen said.
"That's the one," Larry replied, not remotely surprised that Owen figured it out so quickly. "They want you for Johnny Storm."
The Human Torch.
Owen slowly leaned back in his chair while processing that.
"A casting?"
"Not exactly," Larry answered. "It's not a self-tape or a formal audition yet. More like an exploratory meeting. They want to see if you're interested, talk to you, get a feel for things. That kind of meeting."
"I see," Owen murmured.
Johnny Storm was exactly the kind of role he could fit naturally into: charisma, dry humor, youthful energy, and movie-star presence.
"So? Want me to set up a meeting?" Larry asked. "No commitment. Just a conversation."
Owen didn't answer immediately.
He spent a few seconds thinking while absentmindedly watching Juan Antonio sleeping on his legs.
The offer was tempting.
The Human Torch was a huge character, and Fantastic Four would probably become one of the future pillars of the MCU.
In theory.
Because Owen was also noticing something fairly obvious.
Over the past few years, Marvel Studios simply hadn't been reaching the same level they had during their peak era.
Not critically.
Not commercially.
Not in audience perception.
The clearest example was Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, released only a few months earlier in February 2023.
A disaster in almost every possible way.
The budget alone had already become a major topic of discussion inside Hollywood. Disney publicly claimed it was around two hundred million dollars, but multiple industry sources were talking about numbers much closer to three hundred million.
The movie ended up grossing only 476 million worldwide.
A total failure.
Millions of dollars lost.
A movie generally needed to make at least double its budget in theaters just to become profitable.
On top of that, the reviews were poor from both critics and audiences. The CGI received massive backlash, the script got torn apart, and Kang, who was supposed to become the major villain of Phase Five, ended up feeling forgettable and debuted in the middle of a lukewarm reception.
Owen still remembered the disappointment he felt walking out of the theater after watching it. He had seen it with Matt and the guys.
The one major recent exception had been Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Directed by James Gunn himself.
The film had worked like an oasis in the middle of Marvel's negative streak: excellent reviews, a strong emotional response from audiences, and over eight hundred million dollars at the box office, temporarily restoring some confidence in the studio's storytelling quality.
That was why Owen knew he had to be careful if he decided to enter Marvel during this phase.
The character alone wasn't enough.
He needed to see the scripts and understand the creative direction. He needed to know whether it was actually worth it.
"Tell them I'm busy right now and that I'd rather wait a little before any meeting," Owen finally replied.
Larry immediately understood where this was going.
"You want to see what happens with DC first."
"Yes," Owen admitted. "If I get Superman, then I'll tell them I'm not interested. But if for some reason I don't get it, then I'll accept a meeting."
He was confident.
Very confident.
He genuinely believed he could land the role. But he was also smart enough to know that in Hollywood, the best actor didn't always win.
Besides, it probably wouldn't look very good if DC discovered that while he was in the final stages of the Superman casting process, he was already taking meetings with Marvel.
"Yeah… I think that's the right move," Larry admitted.
Owen honestly preferred Superman.
It was a much bigger role than Johnny Storm.
The Human Torch was still important, of course, but he was part of a movie shared with three other protagonists. Superman, on the other hand, was Superman.
The face of an entire universe.
After exchanging a few more words, the call ended.
Owen focused back on his laptop while the cat continued sleeping on his legs with absolutely no intention of moving.
After an indeterminate amount of time, Owen heard footsteps in the hallway, muffled voices behind the door, and finally the sound of the lock opening.
He lifted his head and saw Jenna walk in alongside—
'Mom?' he thought, slightly raising an eyebrow as he recognized Elizabeth.
The two of them were chatting animatedly, almost like friends who had known each other for years.
Owen didn't even move from where he was sitting. When both of them set their things down and approached, Jenna looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You're not even getting up to greet your girlfriend and your mother?"
Owen pointed downward, "I have a cat using me as a bed. I can't move."
Jenna looked down at Juan Antonio and immediately smiled, "Good job," she said, petting the cat for a moment before leaning down to kiss Owen. "Thanks for taking care of him."
"It's not free. One hundred dollars an hour," Owen replied with complete seriousness.
Jenna immediately answered that not even working for Netflix would allow her to afford rates that ridiculous, making Elizabeth let out a soft laugh as she watched the interaction between the two of them.
Then she greeted her son affectionately.
Finally, Owen asked, "What are you two doing together?"
"We arranged to have dinner together tonight, the three of us," Elizabeth answered naturally.
'I had absolutely no idea about this,' Owen thought with a strange expression.
"Yep," Jenna added with a completely serious nod. "Your mother is going to teach me how to cook that dish she made the other day at your house."
Owen blinked once.
Jenna genuinely seemed to be taking this mission incredibly seriously.
"Cool… cool," Owen murmured, still slightly confused by the fact that his mother and Jenna apparently had developed an entire parallel dynamic without him.
Then he changed the subject.
"So," he said, "guess what?"
Jenna answered instantly without even thinking, like she was responding to a test question, "You made it to the next stage of the Superman casting."
Owen let out a small laugh, "Yeah. You did too, right?"
Jenna nodded with a smile.
Owen raised his hand, and she immediately high-fived him.
"Now we're really in the final phase," Owen said, clearly satisfied. "The odds are much higher now."
And it was true.
The next round would no longer be about individual acting alone.
Now came the chemistry tests between Superman and Lois Lane.
And for the first time during the entire process, they genuinely had a concrete advantage over everyone else.
They weren't just dating.
They had already worked together in a romantic film, trusted each other, and had a natural chemistry that couldn't easily be manufactured during a two-hour audition.
That increased their chances.
After that, they started preparing dinner. Owen eventually helped a little too, though mostly he just watched Jenna follow Elizabeth's instructions with almost absurd concentration for someone who was simply learning a recipe.
At some point during all of it, Owen also told them about Marvel's interest in meeting with him to discuss Johnny Storm.
Later, once they were sitting down eating dinner, something strange happened.
Elizabeth suddenly looked at Jenna and said, "Come on, tell him."
Owen, who had been looking down at his plate while cutting his food, immediately looked up.
He raised an eyebrow and looked at Jenna, "What's wrong?"
Surprisingly, Jenna actually seemed a little shy, which was unusual for her.
Elizabeth even nudged her lightly with her shoulder.
"Come on," she said with an amused smile. "Just like you told me. It's not that hard."
Jenna gave a small nod, took a breath, and finally looked at Owen, "I wanted to know… if you'd be interested in a role for Wednesday season two."
Owen stayed silent for a few seconds, 'I really am getting a lot of offers lately,' he thought.
And not just any kind of offers.
Completely mainstream offers: DC, Marvel, and now Wednesday, the biggest show on Netflix.
-------------------------------------------------
You can read 15 chapters in advance on my patreon.
Link: https://[email protected]/Nathe07