The Hunting Party Showrunner Reveals Which Main Character Wasn't Initially Part Of The NBC Crime Procedural

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Hunting Party season 1, episode 3.The Hunting Party episode 3 continued to introduce new and deadly serial killers while slowly unveiling the mystery of how they escaped the show’s fictional top-secret prison in the first place. The breach of The Pit, the underground prison located in the heart of a nuclear missile silo in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was the impetus for the whole show and will surely continue to be a key plot thread for at least the first season. To solve the mystery and track down the killers, an elite team is led by Rebecca “Bex” Henderson, played by Melissa Roxburgh.

With a premise that helps it stand apart from new and returning NBC shows populating the network’s current slate, The Hunting Party has plenty of stories and characters to explore. This is thanks to JJ Bailey, who created the show and serves as co-showrunner with Arrow and Gossip Girl’s Jake Coburn. In The Hunting Party episode 3, the pair helped shape a story that expanded roles for newer characters and hinted at what’s to come.

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ScreenRant’s Rachel Foertsch interviews showrunner JJ Bailey about the twists and turns of The Hunting Party episode 3. Bailey discusses the show’s key character relationships and whether some big mysteries will be solved by the end of the season. The showrunner also discussed the darkness inherent in telling stories about the world’s deadliest killers (check out this The Hunting Party episode 2 clip for an example).

The Hunting Party Showrunner JJ Bailey Reveals We’ll Learn More About The Blast

“We Will Find Out A Lot About What Was Happening And Why The Blast Happened”

A picture of the Pit in The Hunting Party season 1, episode 1

ScreenRant: One of the biggest questions after Episode 3 is whether Odell has been compromised. Will we find out this season who was behind the blast?

JJ Bailey: We will find out a lot about what was happening and why the blast happened. Whether or not that's necessarily the whole story is yet to be told in season one, but we'll definitely get a glimpse of the larger picture, why the blast happened, maybe who was behind it or maybe [that] they weren't necessarily operating on their own. [We’re] definitely going to keep building it for sure.

The Character Of Morales Went From Being “A Little Bit Of An Afterthought” To “One Of The Gifts Of The Show”

Audiences Have Actor Sara Garcia To Thank

Sara Garcia as Jennifer Morales and Nick Wechsler as Oliver Odell in The Hunting Party season 1, episode 2

I also want to talk about Morales, because she came in after the pilot. Was it always a plan for her to be part of the main task force or was she established later on?

JJ Bailey: Great question. She is one of the gifts of the show. She wasn't in any sort of conception of the show. She wasn't in the pilot episode that we wrote. It was actually Lisa Katz at the network who was like, “I think we need one more person on the team,” so Jake Coburn and I kicked around what that could look like. We came up with this character who, to begin with, felt like a little bit of an afterthought, and it took some time to kind of get her right.
When Sara came in and auditioned for the role, suddenly we were like, “Oh my gosh, that's her.” I will credit her with really bringing that character to life and showing us who that character was. We talk about her being sort of like a drop of sunshine in this really dark world. But yeah, she came together in a really interesting way. We've been super happy with her, and the dynamic she provides with the team has been really fun, and I think grows as the season goes on as well.

Romance Is Not Out Of The Question For The Hunting Party

Bex And Shane Are Slowly Building A Deeper Relationship

Patrick Sabongui as Ryan Hassani, Melissa Roxburgh as Rebecca ‘Bex’ Henderson, and Josh McKenzie as Shane Florence in The Hunting Party season 1, episode 1

We’re already starting to see a rapport build between Bex and Shane. You had mentioned before that you didn't want the show to be heavy on romance, but you never know with procedurals–is that one of those dynamics that may evolve into something else down the line?

JJ Bailey: It's something that we're definitely open to. We don't have a “by season three they will be together” type thing, but we do think it was always designed to go that direction. But watching Melissa and Josh on screen and off screen, the friendship they have and the chemistry they have on camera, we’re [like], “Yeah, this needs to happen at some point, for sure.” They’re so much fun together, so we will definitely get there.
Knock on wood [that] we get the opportunity to get there, but we don't have, like I said, a set time where we want that to materialize. We want to take it naturally. In episode four there's a lot of team bonding that happens and I think we start to plant the seed about this particular relationship [there], starting in a very much friend-type place that then gives us the freedom to pursue that when we feel like the time is right.

Bailey Details Other Key Show Relationships

“Who Can Bex Trust?” Is A Theme Of The Series

Melissa Roxburgh talking into a walkie in The Hunting Party

Odell has reunited with Bex. Where would you say she stands with him? She knows what he's capable of, but there is still a rapport between them, as well.

JJ Bailey: That's a great question. For my part, I think Bex wants to see the best in him. Obviously he did this terrible thing, it really derailed their lives, and I don't think she would look at that and say, “Hey, this is the guy who could mastermind the destruction of this place,” but she can't help but see the bits of truth in what Hassani is presenting her. She can't deny what she's seeing on that camera. She can't deny what he's saying. I think she's sort of wrestling with, “Is this really the guy I knew?”
He was sort of a mentor figure with her. They had a little thing back in the day, everything sort of fell apart before it could become what maybe it could have been, and she's looking at him now thinking, “I have this idea of who you were. Is that really who you are now?” Because, also, there's been a few years since they were even in the same place.
So, I think she's wrestling a lot with that, but still not willing to accept that he could be behind all this. She's going to resist that for a bit because you don't want to think that of somebody that you care for.

You mentioned Hassani. Bex is out of the loop—nobody's telling her what's going on. Is he one of the people she feels she can trust?

JJ Bailey: She gets there. I think everybody has a road to walk to get to a place where they feel like they can trust each other. Something we really wanted to craft is the story of, “Who can Bex trust?”. Everybody seems to have their own agenda except for Shane, and then we find out he may have his own agenda too.
But I think Bex and Hassani come together quickly around the midpoint of our season. We start to realize she really does feel like she can trust him. He really is aboveboard and has learned that he can trust her too. I think he came into things thinking, “Bex has this prior relationship with Odell. I'm not sure that she can be trusted to be objective here,” and I think he learns relatively quickly that she can. She's smart, she's capable, and he can lean on it.

Bailey Teases Deeper, Darker Developments In The Show’s Future

Flashbacks Will Help Uncover More About Killers And Protagonists Alike

Melissa Roxburgh as Rebecca ‘Bex’ Henderson and Josh McKenzie as Shane Florence in The Hunting Party season 1, episode 1

Will we continue to see more flashbacks throughout the season to help put the pieces together?

JJ Bailey Yes, definitely. We typically do flashbacks with our killer of the week. In episode two, we do a little bit of a flashback to Bex’s story as a kid, but we definitely want to be able to–and we do from time to time in this story–go back to the moments of the blast and what was happening at The Pit.
Something that's a big talking point for us right now in season two is really blowing that open and really exploring more of The Pit experience prior to the blast, because it's fun. We talk about it a lot, but it's fun to see it. We want to be able to show it to people.

This [show] centering around serial killers obviously deals with some very dark situations. Is there an episode you worried was too dark and had to tone down?

JJ Bailey: Absolutely. The two that really come to mind are episode four and episode nine. Melissa, Jake and I were on a panel recently and we all agreed that nine was probably the one that we all felt was the scariest one. We had so many conversations about what this guy was doing–”How far can we take it?”
This sounds weird to say, but we talk about how we want fun serial killers. You know what I mean? “Where's that line where it's no longer fun?” That's what we constantly talk about. I think we found it in episode nine, but it was definitely a process to reel ourselves back.
[Episode] four as well, I think, in a different actor's hands, [might have crossed that line.] We got to work with the fantastic Kevin Corrigan in episode four. In a different actor's hands I think that role could have gone a little too far, but he brought it to life in a way that is so crazy and weird that you're just like, “It is the fun serial killer version of what he's doing, but what he's doing is pretty dark.” But with that actor, he was able to toe that line really, really well.

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About NBC's The Hunting Party

Created By JJ Bailey

The Hunting Party is a crime procedural series released in 2025, centering on a specialized team of investigators tasked with apprehending notorious killers who have escaped from a secretive and non-existent prison facility.

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