“SurrealEstate” Exclusive: Director/EP Danishka Esterhazy Talks Return of SYFY’s Supernatural Series
Beginning Wednesday, October 4, SYFY gets in the holiday spirit kicking it off with a 2-hour block destined for the Halloween Season. Immediately following the Season 3 premiere of killer-doll series Chucky is the long-awaited and highly-anticipated return of SurrealEstate, which makes its Season 2 debut.
The latter supernatural series had quite a bumpy road to get to this point. In October ’21, SurrealEstate was cancelled by the cable network just one month after what would have been its series finale. Series creator and showruner George R. Olson shared the disheartening news on social media.
But much like the ghosts and demons on its show, the series had unfinished business, and SYFY announced the following May that the house-haunting series had been resurrected for a frighteningly fresh new season. The sophomore series was then originally set to debut this past summer, but ultimately pushed back and landed a spot in the fall primetime lineup. As many fans of the show can attest, its return is better late than never.
PopWire spoke with SurrealEstate Director/EP Danishka Esterhazy about the series’ Season 2 renewal, why viewers should be tuning in when it returns, and more.
RELATED | The Roman Agency Bands Together to Tackle Their First Season 2 Scare in “SurrealEstate” Sneak Peek
“I think we celebrated a lot — both when we heard [that we got renewed] and also while we were shooting Season 2 because we were so happy to be back,” Esterhazy tells us. “I think the team that makes SurrealEstate — George Olson, our creator and showrunner, and Blue Ice, our production company, and myself — we never gave up on SurrealEstate. We love the show so much and we always believed we’d get a season 2.
“And with the help of the fans, the fans are so passionate and so loyal and really out there shaking their pompoms and cheering us on, we felt a lot of love” she continues. “And with the network, we found a way to come back. In a way, it’s like we never stopped because George was busy writing episodes for Season 2 all along and we were looking for support and a way to come back all along. It seemed like a continuous journey, but when we finally got back onto the soundstage to start shooting Season 2, I think that’s when we really celebrated when we could all be together.”
While developing and writing episodes for its second season, Esterhazy reveals that their series creator and showrunner had a “few specific goals” to make the return of the series even bigger and better than before.
“He wanted to lean into the horror in a deeper way in some of the episodes, bringing to life some of the ghost monsters who could be truly terrifying,” she says. “That was one of our goals — to bring back tone to every episode and to continue the exploration of the emotional truth in the episodes. Whether it’s the journey that Luke is going through with his abilities and his relationship with his dead father to Susan’s journey to trying to find a home and to become a leader.
“Also, with all the different families with the haunted houses are going through. These are people who’ve lost loved ones, or lost children, or lost spouses, people who are trying to bring emotional closure into their lives. We always wanted to make sure that we kept space for those stories in every episode.”
It’s these stories and the relationships between everyone in The Roman Agency that have had fans rallying for more. But with SurrealEstate being off the air for two years now, it’s understandable that some viewers have departed from the show. And to those who need a push to come back to the funny and frightful series, the director/EP offers this pitch.
“If people loved our concept — this idea of these brave real estate agents who are taking on haunted houses and trying to find ways to cure hauntings to eliminate the ghost from the story and bring closure into people’s lives — we still have that concept, we’re still following that path.
“I think we have our best ghosts and monsters this season,” Danishka Esterhazy adds. “The writing is really top-notch. We have a new prosthetics team who came on to create our monsters. And our ghosts, I think this year, are really chilling and really memorable and a lot of fun.”
SurrealEstate Season 2 premieres Wednesday, October 4 at 10pm on SYFY.
Follow PopWire on all social platforms (IG, Fb, X, YT) for more updates on SurrealEstate.