Development Miller conceived of
The Afterparty in the early 2010s, where he wanted to make a murder mystery showing the different perspectives of the murder from its witnesses, inspired by his love of the murder-mystery genre and Akira Kurosawa's
Rashomon. The high school reunion aspect was added after Miller attended a high school reunion himself, thinking it would be a unique setting for such a concept. Miller initially wrote it as a feature-length screenplay on his own while he was making
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and
21 Jump Street with Lord. In June 2013, the project was set-up at
Sony Pictures as a film titled
The Reunion, with Miller as sole writer and director, while producing the film along with Lord, Jonathan Kadin, and Hannah Minghella. However, the film never came to fruition due to commitments with
The Lego Movie and
22 Jump Street. Lord and Miller were still optimistic in making
The Reunion while promoting
The Lego Movie, so when Miller considered making the project in later years, he made the decision to make it as a mini-series. Miller felt that expanding the concept into a series would allow him to properly develop the characters. Doing so also gave Miller the idea to present each version of the event as a separate genre in line with the respective POV's of each witness. On June 24, 2020, it was announced that
Apple TV+ had given the production an eight-episode straight-to-series order, now titled
The Afterparty. The series is created by Miller who is also the showrunner and is expected to executive produce alongside Lord while Aubrey Lee is a producer. Production companies involved with the series were slated to consist of
Sony Pictures Television and
TriStar Television. On March 2, 2022, Apple TV+ renewed the series for a second season. On April 27, 2022, it was revealed that the second season would consist of ten episodes, two more than the first, and will revolve around a murder mystery at a wedding. It was also revealed
Anthony King would be serving as co-showrunner along with Miller. On October 13, 2023, it was revealed that Apple TV+ had cancelled the series and would not order a third season. After the first season finale aired, Schwartz revealed that he was told he would be the murderer upon being cast, and that he kept it secret from the rest of the cast until the table read for the episode. Upon the second season renewal announcement, it was reported that Haddish is set to reprise her role as Detective Danner, but a new cast of suspects for the second season. as, respectively, Isabel, Edgar, Travis, Grace, Hannah, Sebastian, and Vivian. In May 2022, it was reported that
Ken Jeong and
John Cho were cast as series regulars for the second season. On June 13, 2022, Will Greenberg and
John Gemberling joined the cast in recurring roles for the second season.
Filming On November 11, 2020, Miller, in an Instagram post, confirmed that filming for the series had officially begun. Miller directed all eight episodes in the series, making it the first time he has directed separately after his collaborations with Lord. In another Instagram post, on February 17, 2021, Miller revealed that filming was finished for the first season. The sixth episode features animation done by
ShadowMachine, the animation studio behind
BoJack Horseman and the 2023 revival of Lord and Miller's
Clone High. The animation was designed by Lindsey Olivares, who previously worked with Lord and Miller on the aesthetic design for
The Mitchells vs. the Machines. The animation was done at the same time as the live-action. Filming for the second season began on May 11, 2022, with Miller again returning as director. In an Instagram post, on September 1, 2022,
Jack Whitehall confirmed that filming for the second season had wrapped.
Music The score for season 1 of
The Afterparty was composed by
Daniel Pemberton, who previously worked with Lord and Miller on
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In an interview with
Variety, Pemberton explained the challenge of having to compose in different styles for each of the characters. He states, " It's like I'm scoring 10 films, plus a series, plus loads of incidental stuff, plus producing some songs. There was a lot on my shoulders with this project." Pemberton started work on the project by composing the main theme and the frame story outside of the flashbacks, then the music for the flashbacks. His influences on each include those of
Richard Curtis films like
Notting Hill for Aniq's rom-com flashback, the music of
Howard Shore and
Bernard Herrmann for Chelsea's psychological thriller, and the
Tyler Bates' drum and guitar-heavy score of
John Wick for Brett's action-movie story. The third episode is also a musical, containing three songs written by Jack Dolgen from
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and musical comedian
Jon Lajoie, who worked with Lord and Miller on writing the songs for
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. The soundtrack album for the season with the score and songs was released alongside the first three episodes on January 28, 2022. The score for season 2 was co-composed by Daniel Pemberton, who returned composing from season 1 and David Schweitzer. The season contains cover versions of
Doris Day's
Sentimental Journey and
Hanson's
MMMBop. The third episode that was set as a noir detective film had some music written by Ed Mitchell and Steve Morrell. The soundtrack album for the season with the score and songs was released of September 1, 2023, before the season finale. Another
extended play album was released on February 1, 2022, featuring four songs performed by Franco in character as "Xavier" called
R.I.P. Xavier.
Season 1 soundtrack Season 2 soundtrack R.I.P. Xavier EP ==Release==