Recently Helstrom showrunner Pual Zbyszewski revealed that a panel in the Marvel Spotlight supplied him all the information about how to explore Daimon Hellstorm’s tortured family.
Marvel’s Helstrom showrunner Pual Zbyszewski revealed that he got a specific inspiration from the Hulu series – a single panel from a single issue of the 1970s horror comic book about Daemon Hellstrom. However, that single panel opened many gates to multiple stories about Helstorm and his family dynamics.
In an interview with Collider, Zbyszewski told me that what impressed him about the character was “the emotion. There was a specific comic book panel that inspired me. That panel was Marvel Spotlight #13 (January 1971) from Gary Friedrich and Herb Trimpe. There’s a particular panel where Daemon, in his full cape with a pentagram on his chest, is reading his mother’s diary, which is telling him the story of his father, how his mother and father met, and who his father is and how he’s the evil of it all. In that comic book panel, he’s crying. That told me everything that I needed to know about him, and that story and how it was placed.”
Helstrom Showrunner Continued The Simple Dynamic Story
“And then, he’s got a sister and his mother, in the comic book, is dying but going insane,” Zbyszewski continued. “There’s a real simple family dynamic story there, which is that this is the story of a really bad dad, and that’s relatable. That’s what we look for in these stories.”
With having all this in mind, Helstrom showrunner got the way to ground Helstorm in the episodes of first series’ first season, through working as a university ethics professor and part-time exorcist who shares the same work with his sister Anna, to played by Sydney Lemmon to encounter supernatural. For Zbyszewski exploring the family dynamics and finding Daimon and Ana in present was very delightful.
“Aside from all of the cool fire, horror, magical stuff, and Marvel, you want and need a relatable, universal human emotion, a grounding that makes you understand why these people are the way they are,” Helstrom showrunner added in his statement. “We all have brothers and sisters, and mothers and fathers, and we all have our dysfunctional family dynamics, and have encountered and experienced those things. Once I saw that panel, I was like, ‘Oh, I have a way into this story that could be interesting.’ And then, because they’re already adults, we can unpack all of that stuff from the past, as opposed to the traditional, ‘They’re kids who are learning their powers.'” He continued.
“We’re taking it from the more adult perspective of having some characters that have grown a little bit, and can look back and have a little bit of wisdom to understand their experience and to unpack their childhoods and be confronted with their childhood as adults. Those are all super interesting concepts to me,” Helstrom showrunner continued.
