Sugar EP Simon Kinberg On The Season Finale's Shocking Twists & What Comes Next

Warning: Spoilers for the Sugar season 1 finale!

Summary Sugar blends film noir detective elements with a bold sci-fi twist, captivating audiences with its genre-defying storytelling.

Executive producer Simon Kinberg shares insights on the show's creative decisions, hinting at a potential multi-season exploration of Sugar's world.

The deep lore of Sugar's alien culture adds layers to the narrative, setting the stage for more intriguing mysteries in future seasons.

The film noir detective story gets a contemporary twist with Apple TV+'s Sugar, a provocative series starring Colin Farrell as a hard-boiled gumshoe with a devastating secret. While pursuing the missing granddaughter of a powerful Hollywood film mogul, horrible revelations rise to the surface that threaten to unravel Sugar's faith in humanity. James Cromwell, Amy Ryan, and Kirby co-star in the series, which just wrapped up its 8-episode debut season.

Executive Producer Simon Kinberg may be best known for his work on feature films like Fox's X-Men film series, Sherlock Holmes, and Ridley Scott's The Martian, but he's no stranger to television, having worked on shows as varied as Star Wars: Rebels, Designated Survivor, and the Paramount+ revival of The Twilight Zone. Sugar is the latest feather in his cap, and it's one that manages to subvert and reinforce genre conventions simultaneously thanks to the sincerity of its characters, the quality of its writing, and the boldness of its big creative decisions.

Related Sugar Soundtrack: Every Song & When They Play While unfolding its gripping murder mystery drama, Apple TV+'s Sugar features a myriad of tracks that perfectly complement its story developments.

While promoting the finale of Sugar's debut season, Simon Kinberg spoke to Screen Rant for a post-mortem interview. In this spoiler-filled discussion, he discussed the risks inherent to the show's big twist, as well as various ideas for Sugar season 2 and beyond.

"There Was Never A Second" In Simon Kinberg's Where Sugar Didn't Have Its Iconic Twist

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Screen Rant: It's been a long time since I've had a favorite show, and this is my favorite show. I fell in love immediately, and as it developed, I was more and more entranced. And then it flips the table and goes, "This is what we're doing now!"

Simon Kinberg: Oh, come on! Come on! That's awesome! That really means a lot to me. Thank you so much. I'm very grateful. I really love it. You know, when you make something, you never know if folks are going to like it, so it means so much, especially for something like this, where we took a pretty wild, wacky swing, and put it out into the world. So it means a lot. Thanks, man.

I remember, after the sixth episode aired, there were interviews where people were saying that networks passed on the show because of the twist. They were, like, "Could you not have this sci-fi twist?" Is there a version of this show in your head that doesn't have that?

Simon Kinberg: No. The answer is no, because if it were, we probably would have done that, because it would have been an easier path. Meaning, when Mark Protosevich wrote the pilot on spec, on his own, the original pilot, the original first script, had Sugar's identity as an alien being revealed at the end of the first episode. And that was too early. We felt like we didn't give the audience the opportunity to really connect with the character in a human - literally - and empathic way. But that's all to say, that's what we took out to the marketplace, and we sent it to networks and every streamer, and a lot of people really liked it because the quality of Mark's writing was really fantastic and the character was really special. A lot of people said, "we really love it, it's so good! But does he have to be an alien?" And I mean, a lot of people, a lot of places, said that. Apple did not say that. Apple got it. They understood how ambitious the swing was, and if you could pull it off, it would be really special and stand out even more. It would have been easy to say, "Sure, he's not an alien now, so ten places can compete for this thing." But we all really thought, as great as the film noir and detective part of the show is, this extra element gave it such a boldness and freshness. We all felt like it deepened the experience of the show, rather than hijacked the experience of the show. So we held onto it! We held film. So yeah, there was never a second in my mind where I could imagine a version of this... Every version I imagined without it, I guess out of necessity, all felt like it was missing something that was an essential ingredient.

Sugar Is Meant To Have Multiple Seasons

I don't know if you have a renewal yet, but I'm so looking forward to the idea of a one-on-one cat-and-mouse between John and Henry. Was that baked into the premise? Was there a version of this where it was a one-and-done miniseries, or is the plan always "six seasons and a movie," as they say?

Simon Kinberg: [laughs] The hope was always that it was an ongoing series. The hope going into tthe first season, and that was the conversation with Colin, because obviously, the most important person in terms of their commitment beyond a single season is Colin. He understood and was excited about all the places we could go with Sugar as a character. And the places we could go with him and Henry as the last two aliens on Earth in a cat-and-mouse story on a planet that doesn't even realize they are among us. We felt like that could provide a lot of interesting drama for a second season. We have not officially gotten a second season, but the response to the show has been really positive, and the audience has been great, so everybody, the creative team, and Colin most especially, are all committed to it. So, fingers crossed, that will become official. So, yeah, it was never conceived as a limited series. We wouldn't have opened up a new personal mystery in this way if it was a one-and-done concept.

There are so many different potential avenues. The main sequel hook we've got is with John and his sister and Henry, but I feel like there's room for Jonathan Siegel to return. Would the idea for Sugar season 2 be for it to be a whole new story with John Sugar, or could we see the Siegel story continue?

Simon Kinberg: I think the idea would most likely be that he would be engaged in a new case as a detective. There would be a new mystery. Essentially, the Siegel mystery has been solved. They're fantastic characters, and obviously extraordinary actors. The acting level of this show was like an embarrassment of riches for us. Just hitter after hitter! In small parts and in big parts, and they brought so much to it. We want to live up to that in our next season. It would be up to everyone to create as juicy parts as were created in Season 1. I think the plan would be to explore not only a new mystery, but also a new strata of society. Because part of Sugar, now that we know that he's not one of us, that he's not human, part of Sugar's experience on Earth is moving through what it is to be human. We loved the Hollywood storytelling because, obviously, his fascination with film noir, and the show's love for Los Angeles and Hollywood, but there's a lot of stories in Hollywood to tell, and not all of them have to do with the film business. And the next season would take Sugar and the show into some other strata of society.

I'm thinking of that last scene between Sugar and Jonathan. On the surface, there's a lack of judgment between these two guys. But at the same time, you can see him taking in all of Jonathan's horribleness and thinking, "What am I going to do with this marble of knowledge?"

Simon Kinberg: You're describing it so well. I think, the way we thought about it, and the way Colin plays it, which I think is so heartbreaking and subtle, it's not judgment so much as disappointment. Like, this is a guy he really idolized. There's an innocence to Sugar, the way he was written and certainly the way Colin performed him, and clearly, a lot of things over the span of the season chip away at that innocence, chip away, in some ways, his idealism. And Jonathan was almost the last -- Melanie would really be the last -- but Jonathan was this, sort of, paternal figure for him. It's really disappointment as much as anything like heartbreak for him at the end there.

"What Is Their Larger Mission?": Sugar's Aliens Have A Lot Of Story Left To Tell

Is there a giant book, or a giant PDF of the alien culture and their planet and how they travel and all of that lore, stuff that's not necessary for moment-to-moment storytelling, but that you still need to have? Do you know everything about John and his planet and his culture and his mission that we don't ever have to learn about, or can you just make it up as you go?

Simon Kinberg: No, we have a really clear PDF of it, as you say. And it's much more focused on his culture, his civilization, the way they interact with each other, the moral laws that they have, their nature, more than it's focused on how they got here, though we talked a little bit about that. The sort of bible of John's people, of John's species as aliens, that bible is really focused on how are they like us, how are they not like us? What drew them here to Earth? We talked a lot about that. What is their larger mission? They're clearly not here to invade us or destroy us, so they're here for some sort of exploration and study of humanity. That has a lot to do with what has happened on their planet and the way they're sort of trying to reconcile some things that are human about their alien lives. Without giving too much away, the short answer is, yes, we have a very full and stuffed PDF, some of which will find its way into, hopefully, future seasons and stories, and some of which will just be for us, and nobody will ever know about it. It was most important for Colin. It's stuff every actor always wants to know. Motivations and backstories and things like that, which may not show up in the literal text, but is laced through the subtext, for him.

Maybe this is too absolute of an answer for you to give, but will Sugar always be a film noir cupcake with sci-fi sprinkles? Or could it go into other genres or become more sci-fi first? Is this the ratio you prefer?

Simon Kinberg: (Laughs) I love it. I don't know if I can say "always," because who knows, right? If we get lots of seasons, we can decide to explore more or mash up more genres, but I can certainly say that the creative team behind the camera, the filmmakers, and Colin, are all really enamored with this mash-up of science fiction and film noir detective mysteries. Those ingredients will certainly remain part of the dish, and whether we bring in other genres may just be appropriate to whatever the mystery is. The mystery can bring in other genres. That may happen. So far, we've all just loved this. We've only had a little bit of time to play with this combination of elements. Even though we, the people making the show, knew that he was an alien, we've only had two episodes where it's been text and narrative for the audience. There's still a lot to play with, in terms of how these things intermingle. So, we'll see. But I think the fundamental DNA of the show will remain film noir mystery detective with science fiction. There might be more science fiction on the surface in Season 2 because we're not playing that card down anymore.

Thank you for the show, I can't tell you how much it means to me, personally, and just how much I enjoyed it every single week.

Simon Kinberg: I appreciate it. Listen, I mean it, it means so much that you dug the show. I really love it, and it's such a labor of love for us. You know, like so many things I've worked on, some work and some don't, but when you start to mash things up and blend things that haven't been blended before, studios and networks can be nervous about it. And they have every right to be nervous, I get it! But it's so great when they take a chance and audiences embrace it.

About Sugar

In this noir drama, award-winning actor Colin Farrell stars as John Sugar, an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. As Sugar tries to determine what happened to Olivia, he will also unearth Siegel family secrets; some very recent, others long-buried.

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All episodes of Sugar are now available to stream on Apple TV+.