“We're both huge Buffy fans,” explained Astrid & Lilly Save the World co-creator Noelle Stehman about a source of inspiration for the new series. “There are certainly various homage moments to Buffy throughout this season… It became a sort of model where we combined it with a Booksmart-type aspect because this is about also a very close female friendship.” The series premieres Wednesday, January 26th, at 10/9c on SYFY.
(Alex Stead/Blue Ice Pictures/SYFY)
“Noelle and I have always written strong female women who are dynamic and colorful and likable and also unlikeable,” Betsy Van Stone shared, who serves as co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer alongside Noelle Stehman. “It was always a dream of ours to find two characters like that in high school. Because of some experiences we had as kids, or as teens, I guess, these two characters developed that are outcasts and are called losers, but they rise above that. And maybe that's something we wanted to do in high school.”
Best friend outsiders Astrid and Lilly accidentally open a portal to a monster dimension, giving them a reason to need to save the world. “Each episode we try to create a monster that was fully formed and very dynamic in its own way, a monster that you want to watch and follow along with,” Noelle added. “And each monster has a theme about them that sort of ties into a different theme of what the high school kids are going through in that episode. So that overall is the sort of model for the season. And some of the monsters are straight-up terrifying. Some of them are a little bit funny. They're all certainly quirky. I'm very excited for you to meet all of them.”
Meeting the monsters each week are actresses Jana Morrison and Samantha Aucoin, who play Astrid Bell and Lilly Fortenberry. “She really wears her heart on her sleeve,” Samantha said of Lilly. “And that's one of the differences between the two characters, Lilly and Astrid.” Playing Astrid helped Jana feel more confident when standing up for herself. “As a woman who is Filipino and maybe sometimes reverts to keeping things to myself to not hurt others, I think I can do a little more speaking up and learning a little bit more from Astrid in that way,” Jana shared.
Neither Astrid nor Lilly fit the monster-hunter mold, which was not only the intention of Noelle and Betsy, but also instills a sense of pride in its cast. “I think it's going to be really important for teens to hear that whether you think you look like a hero or you act a certain way, you can still be a hero in your own way and in your own community because you don't have to be in a certain group or look a certain way to be a hero for the people in your life,” Jana Morrison said. “Appearances aren't everything, and I think this show really shows you that it doesn't matter what you look like,” Samantha Aucoin added. “This really means everything to us to be able to be those characters for people. I think people are really going to resonate with this show.”
You can watch Astrid & Lilly Save the World every Wednesday at 10/9c on SYFY beginning January 26th.