‘The Afterparty’ is the new murder-mystery comedy series from Writer/Directors/Producers Chris Miller & Phil Lord, premiering on Apple TV+ January 28th. With a complex setup and a cast stacked full of stars, Screen Times dives into the making of the show and where else you can enjoy the show’s talents on your Apple TV.

Tiffany Haddish (Detective Danner)
A big name in standup, check out her breakout role in the movie ‘Girls Trip'. Then move onto her more recent work such as ‘The Last OG’ and ‘The Card Counter’.

Dave Franco (Xavier)
Franco previously starred in three other Lord/Miller films; 'The Lego Movie', '21 Jump Street' and '22 Jump Street'. Make sure to catch him in the acclaimed films ‘The Disaster Artist’ and ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’.

Centering on the murder of popstar ‘Xavier’ (Franco) at the afterparty of his high school reunion, The Afterparty’ started off as a movie concept by Miller in 2010. He later expanded it to a series after realising it would benefit from more focus on each character and their POV from the night of the murder. Adding to the characters stories, each retelling of the night is told in a different film genre from Rom-com to action movie and everything in between, even using different lenses, lighting and photography. “Each genre pays homage to different ways of storytelling,” says Miller. “It was a chance to get to do all the things we love in different types of movies. And there are hundreds of references because it’s such a complicated show with so many different styles of filmmaking in it.”

Assembling a team of writers to plan out the stories, “At one point in the writers’ room, there were three whiteboards filled to the brim with story maps and intricate details so we could track everything,” says Lord.

Sam Richardson (Aniq)
First gaining recognition as scene stealer Richard Spelt in VEEP, he most recently starring alongside Chris Pratt in ‘The Tomorrow War’.
We recommend starting off watching him with Tim Robinson in ‘Detroiters’ (which was produced by Jason Sudiekis) before checking him out as the lead ‘Werewolves Within’.

Ben Schwartz (Yasper)
A master improviser, make sure to catch his two person show ‘Middleditch & Schwartz’ with Tomas Middleditch. He’s most recently played Sonic in the Sonic the Hedgehog movie and will always be known as the outrageous Jean-Ralphio on 'Parks & Recreation'.

Shooting was also a mammoth challenge with scenes from different ‘mind movies’ being shot on the same day. “We would do a rom-com version of a scene in a hallway with Ilana, Zoe and Sam,” Miller explains. “And then we changed the lighting and the camera package and did another version of the scene as the thriller which was dark, moody and mysterious, instead of romantic and well-lit. It was a different scene with a different mood and different vibe, but it was the same moment of the night, just seen two different ways.”

Ike Barinholtz (Brett)
A well known comedy writer and actor, Barinholtz can be seen in all 6 seasons of 'The Mindy Project' on which he was also a writer. He’s also worth catching in the comedies 'Neighbors', 'Late Night' and the excellent 'Blockers'.

Ilana Glazer (Chelsea)
Most well known for her excellent comedy series ‘Broad City’ with Abbi Jacobson, we recommend watching her flex her dramatic muscles in the psychological horror film 'False Positive' as well as her stand up special 'The Planet Is Burning'.

“While it was important for each look to be informed by its intended film genre, and to be unique unto itself, we also wanted a longer visual arc to develop over the course of the season,” Herse explains. “Our early episodes recount the events of the same night, and are primarily composed in a cinematic 2.35:1 aspect ratio to emphasize the subjectivity of their viewpoint. Later in the season, we flash back to much earlier periods in our characters’ lives, which were shot to create the immersive feeling of a lasting memory. We achieved this immersive look by formatting the later episodes in a way that would fill the screen more than the rest of the series. The greatest undertaking in designing each look, and the show's overall evolution, was to identify all of the little ways we could build out each unique perspective. We even made rules about how we shot our coverage, by either adhering to the use of over-the-shoulder style camera placement, or shooting dialogue scenes clean of our foreground character.”

Zoë Chao as (Zoe)
Chao appeared recently in the HBO Max series ‘Love Life’ alongside Anna Kendrick. We’d also recommend catching her in the series ‘Strangers’.

Jamie Demetriou as (Walt)
As well as smaller roles in 'Fleabag' and 'Paddington 2', Demetriou is most well known for the hilarious 'Stath Lets Flats'. Writing, directing and starring in the comedy series, it’s the perfect companion to his role on ‘The Afterparty’.

The creators even brought in a magician to consult on the show. David Kwong, who also worked on ‘Now You See Me’, created coded messages and cyphers that were dotted throughout the show. “In every episode, we’ve hidden a bunch of coded messages that are extra bonus hints for who did it. In the set dressing there are all these hidden things and if you freeze-frame you can decode hidden messages.” Said Miller. Director of Photography Carl Herse: “Chris went to great lengths to sneak many clues and easter eggs into the series, and he provided me with a roadmap during prep on how we could send puzzles and secret messages to the audience. It will be a lot of fun to see how many people pick up on it!”

John Early as (Detective Culp)
Early is well known for many voice over roles but his real breakout is in the fantastic series ‘Search Party’.

Chris Miller & Phil Lord
While you’ve no doubt seen their big hits like ‘The Lego Movie’, ’21 Jump Street’ and ‘Spider-man: Into The Spider-Verse’, we can highly recommend their first project; the gloriously silly animated series ’Clone High’.

All the costumes are very carefully chosen too. Costume designer Trayce Gigi Field explains: “I wanted people to be interested andinvested in the characters, even though they will most likely be wearing the same clothes theentire time. Part of my idea was that every character would be color-coded, kind of like thegame of ‘Clue,’ so you would always know which player was who. There are also these eastereggs that are planted costume-wise. They are clues, like little switcheroos, so I think theviewers need to be very attentive in order to catch all of these little bits and surprises!”

Check out our full review of The Afterparty here and watch our interview with Chris Lord & Phil Miller here.

'The Afterparty' premiered on Apple TV+ Friday January 28th with the first 3 episodes. Each subsequent episode will premiere every Friday culminating with the finale on 4th March.