'Hazbin Hotel' Interview: Sam Haft Reveals Season 3’s Major Emotional Shift and Writing for Vox & Vaggie

Photographer: Ben Cope @ben_cope Grooming: Allison Noelle @allisonnoellemakeup

With ‘Hazbin Hotel’ Season 3 and 4 confirmed to be in production, we all cannot wait to see what’s next for Charlie Morningstar, Vaggie, and the rest of the hotel’s residents. On February 2nd, The Movie Nerds were lucky enough to sit down with series songwriter and recording artist Sam Haft to discuss the surprising emotional change of direction coming to the Prime Video series. From Vox having two sides to his musical repertoire to a new spotlight coming for underutilized Vaggie, Haft makes us feel spoiled rotten. Whether you’re looking for spicy lore surrounding Season 3 or some hidden truths behind characters like Sir Pentious and Nifty, this interview uncovers the hellish secrets of the show’s next chapter.

Sal Cento: Which character from the first two seasons was the most challenging to create songs for? Which character was the easiest?

Sam Haft: Ooh…um..I would say the easiest for me has always been Vox, honestly.

I feel like I have a really easy time tapping into his con-man energy. I really understand the character as a villain and what he’s really trying to do which is really helpful - because Vox is half the soundtrack in season two - so thankfully, it wasn’t a character I found too challenging to write for.

A character that I have found some difficulty writing for - although, I would also say that most of the most interesting musical writing for this character hasn’t happened yet  . . . is Vaggie.

Vaggie is a character who puts all of her feelings, so much of her inner life’s focus onto Charlie - and as a character, it’s totally in character for her to be doing that.

But then, as a songwriter - my task then becomes - well, what’s under the surface as she’s doing this? Because there are things about her backstory that I don’t know - the same way an actor will invent a backstory in their head to make them further connect with a character that they’re portraying.

I felt like while writing for Vaggie- I was spending a lot of time putting myself in her headspace - as an exorcist and then rescued by this person who is this leader of these people who I’ve been taught to hate - and then this idea that through Charlie, in many ways Charlie as a character through Vaggie- at least the way I wrap my head around Vaggie- is Charlie kind of represents this idea that Vaggie is redeemable and that Vaggie is not condemned for the kind of brainwashing and the stuff that she was subjected to as an exorcist. I think that’s really fascinating - Charlie didn’t just save her life. In many ways, Charlie saved her soul.

Cento: You have talked about in great length what has so far been your inspirations regarding your musical creations in Hazbin Hotel. Can you go into that once more and has anything new come along that has helped influence season 3 or 4?

Haft: Yeah, definitely - I think so much of the musical inspiration for these songs often comes from Vivienne because it really is just a piece of auteur art - in that, she’ll be like - when I’m thinking about this scene, I’m thinking about this kind of music or when I’m thinking about that scene, I’ll be thinking about that type of music.

What’s fun about that is sometimes it’s introducing me to music artists that I’ve never listened to before or styles of music that I’ve never written in before and so for me - one of the most exciting things about working on both of her shows is that I’m never expecting when it is that she’s going to be like - hey, you’re going to do this kind of song.

Season three involved more in the emotional direction - there aren’t that many ballad types of songs in seasons one and two - so getting to explore stuff that felt really emotional and really lived in that world felt so, so new for us because so much of what we do in these shows is uptempo, peppy and energetic.

There’s certainly still a mix of stuff in seasons three and four but certainly in stuff that’s coming - we got to live in a place where the music is allowed to take its time in a way that we hadn’t before and that was really exciting.

Cento: This award winning series not only has many different characters, but each with their own striking personality as well as origin. Can you walk us through how you connected each of them (such as Charlie, Vaggie and Sir Pentious) with a different musical motif?

Haft: That’s a great question.

A lot of the answer to this comes down from Viv but I think it’s still - a very collaborative process. For example, I would say like the two halves of what informs a character’s music are - their origin and their era. If they represent an era of time - and then the second one is their personality.

Sometimes, those two halves of a character combine into one thing  - so for, Sir Pentious - I think he’s from the late 1800s and/or early 1900s and from England  - and that inspires some of the instruments we use.

His personality as this sensitive melodramatic guy ends up being almost boyband-style music and so his style of music is melodramatic harpsichord driven boyband balance. That’s typically what we like regarding Pentious’ style. The combination of his aura and his personality.

Now some people like Vox have a sort of split personality in that way. Vox has some of his music rely on his origin, it lives in that very traditional musical theatre bubble from the middle of the 1900s in a very American Songbook kind of thing. There is that side to him.

But there is also his personality which is relentless, it is evil, it is ambitious and he has a relentless pursuit of modernity and so his personality - his inner self, when it comes out - it comes out in an electronic way. There’s like dubstep elements. There’s electronic music - and I think what’s really interesting about Vox is that he doesn’t combine those into one sound, he has this public facing sound and this private pathological sound - so you have a song like Vox Populi which is basically a song from the music man that is over here in this public facing thing which lies in his origin, this 1950s huckster.

Then, you have a song like Brighter which is super electronic because that’s internal. That is his inner monologue where he is just this evil, evil bastard who is trying to be the newest, the brightest - trying to glow the brightest - and I think that’s an interesting difference between Vox and Sir Pentious.

Sir Pentious combines those things into one sound and Vox has two different sounds.

Cento: In terms of count, the first season had two songs per episode (including reprises). The second season goes above this with some entries having three musical numbers. If you could say of course, where do the third and fourth seasons lie on this scale? And will there be song reprises?

Haft: I cannot say how many songs are coming, I feel like I’m certainly not allowed to say that.

However, I can say like - for sure, represe stuff is a very important tool in our toolkit and we’re always using it - we don’t want to use it too much - but we’re always using it when it will really enhance the story that we’re supposed to be telling

There are times when a song really should call your attention back to a previous song - either because it’s progressing that song further or it’s flipping it on its head and recontextualizing it. I think the tool of represe is so, so important and I would never want to approach a season completely without it.

Cento: You have contributed to many different projects in the past - some of which are more suitable for children and others more themed for adults. What was it about Hazbin Hotel that drew you in to become a songwriter for the series?

I mean, I think so much of it - is something that’s so original. That’s really what it is.

So much of what Hazbin is - and Helluva Boss, as well - is this thing that is so purely creator driven from Viv and I think - especially in animation - animation tends to be a very studio driven process. 

Oh, we need a show to appeal to this demographic or we need a show about this topic and then a network is going to pull in a showrunner and put it together in that way.

This is just so beautiful, so bizarre, the brainchild of Vivienne and I think that’s one of things that makes it so wonderful is that it really is this sincere and authentic piece of expression from her.

For me, what sold me on it is - before I started work on either of her shows - she took me to lunch and she was like I want to tell you about this world of my shows, I just want to tell you what I’m about and tell you what they're about and I was just so charmed by that lunch. She laid it all out for me.

Cento: She gave it to you all at once.

Haft: Yeah, yeah - and a lot of things have changed. A lot of the general ideas of what the story is and what it’s about have been consistent over the years too because this was back in 2019 - but I was just so impressed by the degree of passion she had - and it’s not just passion - also the degree of dedication because I personally know so many brilliant, passionate artists. That’s only half the battle though. 

You also got to put in the work and she is one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met in my life.

I could tell - it was like, I know - you are going to stop at nothing to make this happen. I was just so excited and engaged by that energy.

Cento: It’s rare to meet someone like that in life.

Haft: Totally.

Cento: But once you meet them - you go.

Haft: Absolutely.

Cento: In a 2025 interview done with the creator of the show Vivienne Medrano, she said that the upcoming third season is the heaviest, most emotionally-driven run of episodes yet. What did that mean for you in terms of creating a character driven musical selection?

Haft: For me, it meant a lot more of the stuff I was talking about earlier where I was like - oh let me really think about Vaggie as a character and what’s in her head and what she’s feeling - it meant doing that for a whole host of characters.

Season Three is such a dense - and as she said - emotional story, that so much of it was really about getting characters’ feelings out there. This happens from time to time in season one and two - I think season three just ended up with a lot more emotionally driven songs - and I’m always a skeptic of emotionally driven songs! As we’re writing them, for the most part.

You know, there are songs like More Than Anything in season one - where I was like - oh, this is a good song but who knows how it will do. I totally underestimated it. In season two, Sera’s Confession - I was like, yeah that’s a good song but who knows if people will care about it. People really, really attached themselves to it.

I’m always underestimating the degree to which the audience wants these like really feely songs. In season three, we leaned into that hard. So, it was a really emotional process for us because we’re getting into the emotional headspace of these characters.

We’re exploring what they’re feeling. We’re getting a lot more angst and a lot more introspective music rather than stuff that tends to be more plot-driven. It’s more character driven music than I would say plot driven music.

Cento: When did you personally realize - oh, wow - Hazbin Hotel is going to be this crazy hit of a show?

Haft: Well, I had a sense that it was going to be big when I first started because I just know what the enthusiasm of Viv’s fans is like - but the moment I realized that it was a phenomenon was two weeks after season one came out.

I got an alert from Spotify - there’s the listening app of Spotify but there’s another app called Spotify for Artists where if you’re an artist on Spotify - you can check your numbers for the month - it’s like the backend. I got an alert from that which said - oh, you’re in the top one hundred artists on Spotify - I was one of the most streamed artists in the world on Spotify all on the strength of Hazbin Hotel music.

I think I was number fifty five in the world and next to Nicki Minaj. At that moment, I was just like ok - this is really a phenomenon.

Cento: Throughout the entire song-writing process thus far and finding out about all the different personalities of Hazbin Hotel, has any of your opinions or perspectives on the characters changed over time? Who do you like the most, who do you like the least? Who ended up growing on you? Etc?

Haft: Oh, totally. I mean one of my favorite characters now is Sir Pentious and at the very beginning of this process, I was like what is this guy for, what’s his deal, what’s his purpose? I was so - I think part of it was that it took us a while to really get a handle on what he would do musically.

Our first attempt at the song that would eventually become It Starts With Sorry in season one was completely wrong. I just like - I didn't know what was great about him until I saw him getting animated and I saw the way Alex Brightman was playing him. I think in so many ways, he is someone who has so much heart and a lot of that heart comes from the performance because on the page what I was seeing was like, oh he’s very funny.

A lot of the things he says are punchlines and like comedic relief. So, I thought of him as a comic relief character until I started to see Pentious get performed. Then I was like, oh - his whole thing is that he’s deeply sensitive and feeling. He is just a person who has spent much of his afterlife trying to be an arch villain - when in his heart of hearts - he’s a My Little Pony character.

Cento: laughs Sir Pentious and Nifty are actually my favorite characters.

Haft: Oh my god, I love Nifty. Nifty too was another character who I just didn’t think much about during the process of season one - mainly because Nifty doesn’t sing in season one - but then getting to see Nifty perform - I was like this is so good. I would just watch hours of the Nifty show.

In many ways, Nifty is - one of the influences that Viv loves to talk about is Invader Zim in terms of her creative influences and I think Nifty is the most Invader Zim of all the characters in the show.

Nifty is so on that Jhonen Vasquez wavelength in a way that I just love so much.

Cento: You’ve talked a lot about collaborating directly with the voice actors of Hazbin Hotel during the recordings. What were some of the most memorable moments of this back and forth process that really - in your mind - elevated a song to new heights?

Haft: Mmm, well I’ve talked about it a little bit but spending time rehearsing Love in a Bottle with Keith David was really amazing.

I didn’t know it at the time when we were writing it but it turns out - and Keith has been public about this - Keith is someone who is sober. When I showed up to his house, I had no idea that he was going to bring that into his acting process.

So much of what we did when we were working on the song was just like - getting the music and the rhythm into a place where it could kind of just get out of the way - and all he could do was just like - think about the acting and the feeling and all of that. It’s interesting because different actors have very different processes.

There are some actors in the cast that really don’t want to be very rehearsed. They want to be giving stuff that feels really spontaneous, but for Keith and his process  - it was fascinating because for him it was drilling it to a point where all he was thinking about was the feeling he was putting into it and the arc of the energy that he was putting into the song.

Some of the stuff that came out in those recordings was so good and I mean it’s really a testament to how the song turned out and that’s from the way that Keith prepared for that and it felt so cool to be a part of his process.

One other very fun thing in shaping how some of these songs went is that there was melodic improv that Jeremy [Jordan] did in Vox Populi where he goes - am I allowed to curse in this interview, by the way?

Cento: Yea, fine!

Haft: Oh, great. Yeah - there’s a line where Jeremy goes “the muthafuckin’ king of Hellll!” - but that high thing at the end was not in the demo. [Haft then sings the original version which wasn’t as high in pitch].

It wasn’t all the way up there. But Jeremy changed it - to do that. It turned out so good - it was so cool. But after we did that, we realized - oh, actually - that’s so much cooler - let’s go back, bring Christian [Borle] back in - because we’d already recorded Christian for Vox Populi and Vox Day. 

So we brought Christian back in for Vox Day so that he could - because Vox Day, he’s doing reprises of that earlier Jeremy bit - so we had Christian re-record his lines to match Jeremy’s line because the whole point is that he’s kind of like impersonating Lucifer’s part of the song . . . so that was an interesting place because just by playing around with the song in the booth - we found something that we really liked that went and changed another song.

Cento: Now I know season 3 and 4 may uncover the answer to this question, but if given the chance, which character’s story would you want to explore even more through song writing?

Oh, man.

So, I can’t - I can’t say what’s coming - so, take - you know - It’s not like - I couldn’t be like I want to explore this character in a way that would imply that I don’t already get to do that in seasons three and four.

Cento: I get that.

I can’t give anything away. However, I would say in terms of characters - that - I mean - one character that I could say - you know with some certainty - you know . . . can I say this? Hold on. Let me just think if I could say this? laughs

Cento: laughs Alright, I’ll give you two minutes.

Ok, ok, umm…. Yes! You know I think it would be fun - I’m not saying how much I do or don’t do this in the future but I think I would have a good time spending more time with the various creatures of heaven.

Cento: Ok, alright. Good.

Cento: My last question is a creative one. I saw this on the subreddit but I wasn’t sure to include this - When it comes to Vox, when he was sent to hell - was he just a TV monitor or did he have a body too?

Haft: That’s a great question. While I don’t know the canonical answer, I would say in my head canon - it would be that he showed up as an old TV on his old body and I think as time goes on, he upgrades his television and he upgrades his body.

I think he shows up in the dead body of Vincent - the guy he was - with the TV that fell on his head. As time goes on, because he’s kind of one television and human organism - I would like to believe as his powers increase - he can upgrade the top and the bottom separately.

Cento: That’s a brilliant theory.

Haft: I think one of the things that’s really fun about the end of season two is getting the sense of like - oh, maybe his soul is kept in there. It’s not like his body stands up without a head and goes around looking. It’s the TV over there. I think it’s really fun.

I have to wonder if, without the body, if he’s just a TV walking around with little wires.

Cento: Yeah, yeah or perhaps the tiny TV stand that holds it on top of a cabinet. Who knows?

Haft: Totally.

Cento: Alright, that is it! Thank you so much, Mr Haft. This was amazing.

Haft: Thanks so much. I had a great time.

While Hazbin Hotel seasons one and two are currently available for streaming on Prime Video, seasons three and four are currently in development (as of this writing).