As Myrde inne Is Hull (Murder in Ice Hole) returns to screens, SBS Guide spoke with showrunner Svørn Svørnssøn in a foolhardy attempt to glean some answers about everyone’s favorite Nordic Noir serial killer thriller.
Did everyone die last season?
In Myrde inne Is Hull’s season one cliffhanger, it appeared every major character was kaput, encased in a circle of ice holes as the faceless “Ice Hole Killer” (who really is faceless, with no face) played "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe" with a chainsaw and a UFO hovered overhead.
New showrunner Svørn Svørnssøn, taking over from series creator Christian Bjørnson, who was tragically mauled to death by a polar bear on set, is tight-lipped on who survives or, indeed, who is alien-probed and in which orifice.
But he’s loose-lipped when it comes to this season’s casting overhaul.
“Everyone was an icehole, frankly,” says Svørnssøn, who is a renowned icehole. “It was just a surplus of iceholes. What do you call that? A duffle bag of iceholes?"
Who’s the new big Hollywood guest star?
The show’s producers were forced to scramble to find another big Hollywood guest star when big Hollywood guest star Keanu Reeves wandered into a snow storm to “find his Zen”, never to be seen again.
Svørnssøn categorically denies there was something more insidious at play, with rumours circling that Reeves was “disappeared” for breach of contract. Production sources say the versatile actor flat out refused to play new character Estebanina Solis, aka “Mistress Whippy”, the dominatrix twin sister of his character, chief of police Esteban Solis.
“What happened or didn’t happen to Keanu is a tragedy, but we’ve really landed on our feet with another big Hollywood guest star,” reveals Svørnssøn. “It’s only Oscar winner Kevin Spacey! Can you believe it? We couldn’t believe such an in-demand star could fit our little production into his busy schedule, let alone agree to be paid peanuts. We literally paid him in peanuts. I mean, what a major publicity boost for Myrde inne Is Hull! We’re really going to be applauded for this.”
But casting Spacey did come with complications.
“For some reason, legal insisted Kev couldn’t be on set,” explains Svørnssøn. “So we had to have him film his scenes remotely and then digitally insert him in. But it suited us just fine, as he plays a radioactive ghost.”
How will the show address the whitewashing controversy?
Myrde inne Is Hull has been heavily criticised for casting all-white actors in a show set in an Arctic Circle research outpost with a melting pot of nationalities. Reeves as a white Canadian actor playing a Latino was a particular point of contention.
“We’ve really listened to the criticism and it’s given us the opportunity to jump on the inclusion rider bandwagon,” says Svørnssøn. “So we have an ethnic actor this season – can’t remember his name. He’s 1/26th Inuit and replaces Keanu as the Latino chief of police.
“And we made another diversity hire by recasting sole female cast member and eternal icehole Sofie Gråbøl with Pam Anderson as French/Norwegian psychoanalyst Stella LaCroix.”
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We predict it’s going to be one icy, murder-y season of Myrde inne Is Hull.
