‘Below’ Creator Breaks Down the Finale’s Last Shot, Josh Hartnett’s Accent and Season 2 Clues — SkimNews
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- Below creator Jesse McKeown built the show's giant squid around Newfoundland's actual Architeuthis dux history, consulting real-life marine scientist Dr. Annie Mercier at the Ocean Sciences Centre (a real St. John's institution) to model a plausible previously-undetected ancestor of the species.
- Josh Hartnett prepped his Newfoundland accent by listening to "The Fisheries Broadcast" — which McKeown identifies as the longest-running radio show in Canadian history — before ever setting foot on the island, alongside Charlie Heaton and Ruby Stokes.
- McKeown's wife, a Newfoundland native, served as the production's accent reference; she carries three distinct registers (generic North American, St. John's townie, and a more pronounced rural "Bay" accent) that the team modulated across the Penney family members based on how long each had spent on the mainland.
- Showrunner Jesse McKeown confirmed he hasn't seriously brainstormed Season 2 ideas, though the finale deliberately leaves multiple icebergs approaching Snook's Arm to tease future danger rather than wrap tidily.
- The Calvin-Dr. Fonda chemistry wasn't in McKeown's original pitch — producers Rhoades said it emerged organically after casting Hartnett and Mackenzie Davis and discovering "they just up and had some chemistry."
- The "old hag" sleep-paralysis visions were drawn from McKeown's own teenage and 20s experiences with the phenomenon, which he noted is woven into Newfoundland vernacular ("Oh yeah, I had the hag last night").
- Episode 5's dreamlike detour was engineered to show Calvin "the dark side of his dream" — what an outport looks like when everyone packs up and the resident sticks it out alone, anchored by Shawn Doyle's character Walton.
Why it matters: Netflix greenlit Below as a rare six-episode "event" limited series with an open-ended finale teasing approaching icebergs, but McKeown hasn't seriously begun Season 2 — leaving creators betting that Newfoundland specificity (a real marine scientist, McKeown's own sleep-paralysis history baked in) earns a renewal conversation without one needing to be locked in.
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