‘How To Get Away With Murder’ EP Pete Nowalk On New Characters & More Drama

#TGIT is back and with it the return of “How to Get Away with Murder,” starring Viola Davis in her Emmy-Award winning role.

While deadlines kept him glued to his seat in the office working on “HTGAWM” Season 2 this past Sunday, Creator Pete Nowalk was elated for his leading lady.

“It’s incredible. Mostly, I’ve never felt this happy for someone,” the Executive Producer told Access Hollywood. “She’s taught me so much.

‘HTWGAWM’ EP Pete Nowalk, Viola Davis (ABC)

WATCH: ‘How To Get Away With Murder’: On The Set With Viola Davis

“She’s just been my constant teammate and collaborator,” he continued. “[I] know how much she puts into it and I know how smart she is and just to have other people recognize that — that’s so lucky [for] us.”

Fans will get to see what Pete and his team have come up with for the actress’ character, Annalise Keating, when “HTGAWM” returns Thursday night at 10/9c on ABC. We already know that the mystery of who killed Wes’ ex, Rebecca, will be solved in the premiere episode, so Access Hollywood asked Nowalk, the boss in charge of all those mind-blowing and jaw-dropping plot twists, about everything else we can expect in the Season 2 premiere and beyond.

WATCH: ‘How To Get Away With Murder’: Famke Janssen’s Debut (Sneak Peek)

AccessHollywood.com: [This week, ABC released a sneak peek] at Famke Janssen and her amazing entrance. She seems like quite the formidable character. I don’t know very much about her at all other than [her character, Eve] clearly gets under Annalise’s skin. Is there anything you can tell us about her?
Pete Nowalk:
Yes. We’ve been keeping this so secret because – part of the show is the surprises and discovering who people are, because even already, just seeing that one clip, you’re telling yourself your own story, which I love. Obviously, part of the fun of the show and writing it is that there’s a lot of different ways to interpret things. She — I will say this — brings the most refreshing, fun, lighter energy to our show. She is a formidable match for Annalise, but she also brings a level of joy that we haven’t really gotten to experience just based on how dire things always are in the Keating household. And Famke is brilliant at it. I was so excited when she came to take the role, but then to see her perform it — I’ve never seen her perform anything like this before, where she just brings a real joy to it and her and Viola on screen together are everything, so I can’t wait for people to see [it].

Access: Since you said lightness… I’m now curious if there was sort of a conscious effort in the writers’ room to bring some more lightness to the show after what was a very heavy, 15-episode Season 1?
Pete Nowalk:
No. I think, for me, it always comes from a character place. … Annalise wasn’t always this person and I think I was more — especially for Viola, our Emmy winner, we always want to try to show different parts of Annalise, like we do with all of our characters, but especially her. We haven’t gotten to see her feel joyful or happy that often. She’s been through quite a year and I don’t think she was always this person, so I think it comes more from that. I think the show is dark, obviously. It has some very dark comedy in it, some of our characters are very funny, but no, I think show is what it is. It’s called ‘How To Get Away With Murder,’ and murder can’t always be kind of silly. So I think that’s what it is for me is it’s wanting to see different sides of Annalise.

Access: So speaking of wanting to see other parts of our characters, obviously the students found out that Frank [isn’t] a lawyer. How much backstory on him are we going to get this season?
Pete Nowalk:
We’re going to definitely find out bits and pieces about Frank as well as a lot of the characters. We like to spoon it out slowly like you find out about people in real life, but we’ll find out more about where he comes from for sure. We will eventually, in Season 2, find out what this favor that he owed to Sam was, why did he kill Lila – we’ll answer that question, and we’re going to also – Laurel and him, there’s still a lot of loose ends between them, so we’re going to delve into them. She doesn’t know that much about him, and he knows a little bit more about her, but again, those are two people we don’t know a lot about and that’s kind of the theme of our Season 2 is that we’re going to delve into a lot of history and really, the characters, more.

Access: One of the things Mikaela found out about [last season] was Laurel had her ring. I’m just curious how that’s going to propel Mikaela’s journey… [Ultimately, the situation with the engagement ring being missing] helped her become this stronger person, but her classmate backstabbed her, so she’s got to be feeling a lot of emotions right now.
Pete Nowalk:
Yes, and we’ll definitely pick up kind of close to where we left off in the finale, so there’s that. Those two are definitely not on good terms. I think Mikaela has a right to be angry and I think Laurel was right to do what she did. It’s revealed a lot about each of them and I think for this season, there is no ring on Mikaela’s finger for the right reason and… we’re definitely having fun with showing her be a single lady through the season and, I think, watch her come into her own more. She thought her life was going to be one way with Aiden, which was very traditional, and kind of picture perfect and now she’s a murderer and she’s single and ‘Who is she now?’ is the question for her.

WATCH: Matt McGorry: Asher Has Secrets In ‘HTGAWM’ Season 2

Access: How much of [Nate, played by Billy Brown are] we going to get in Season 2? Annalise sort of left him out there a little bit.
Pete Nowalk:
She did leave him out there, but she was the one who gave him that number and I think the question is, is this a way for her to protect him or is she playing her shenanigans with him again. He plays a big part of our Season 2. … And he is – you know, he’s a victim in our show. He’s been persecuted, [and wrongly] jailed, so he’s kind of one of the only good people on our show — maybe Oliver too – who’s actually trying to do the right thing. So, he’s very important to me — to the show, to the energy of it and just the soul, the moral center.

Access: [At the end of last season, Connor found out Oliver has HIV]. I’m curious if Connor is capable of handling that…?
Pete Nowalk:
I will say I don’t think the Connor of when we met him would have even really thought that much about wanting to stay in this relationship. I think he’s a different person and I think that question is exactly the question for the character is, ‘Can he do this? Does he want to do this?’ and also involved in that is Oliver — does he want Connor? So, I think they’re both coming into the season walking on eggshells, each of them, about each other, but also about their own mental states.

Access: We met [Asher’s] dad last season and I think [Matt McGorry told] us at one of the TCA events that we’re going to get more Asher family stuff.
Pete Nowalk:
That’s true.

Access: Is it going to involve his dad?
Pete Nowalk:
I don’t want to say one way or another, but Asher, where we left him, the lawyer that’s prosecuting Nate showed up at his door and said she had some questions for him about Annalise. … What we’re going to find out is he has some secrets of his own, and he is in a very tough position for much of the season so far, and that might involve his family.

Access: Finally, are there any details you can give us about Kendrick Sampson’s character this season, since he’s going to be around for a few episodes at least?
Pete Nowalk:
He is around for a few episodes. We haven’t revealed anything, but I will say, he plays a very mysterious character.

Access: Aren’t all of your characters mysterious though (laughs)?
Pete Nowalk:
(laughs)… He plays a character where a big central mystery of our season revolves around him. You’ll know very quickly into the episode.

“How to Get Away with Murder” returns to ABC on Thursday night at 10/9c on ABC.

Jolie Lash

Copyright © 2024 by NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This material may not be republished, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Read More

Jenn Tran Makes History As First Asian-American Bachelorette For Season 21