Warning: Mild SPOILERS lie ahead for The Waterfront!Kevin Williamson is taking a detour from his horror stomping grounds and revisiting the twisty underbelly of the North Carolina coast withThe Waterfront. Williamson is inarguably best known as the creator oftheScreamfranchise, as well as other such horror favorites as the originalI Know What You Did Last Summeradaptation andThe Faculty. He has, however, often branched out through his work in television, particularly as the creator ofDawson’s Creekand the co-developer ofThe Vampire Diariesseries adaptation, the former of which was set and filmed in his childhood region of North Carolina.
The Waterfrontsees Williamsonreturning to North Carolina and putting a focus on the Buckleys, a family with a wealthy fishing empire who find it suddenly crumbling around them as they fall increasingly in debt. In an effort to turn things around, the family turns to a life of crime, putting all of them at risk as the stakes continue to escalate.The Waterfront’s ensemble cast includesMindhunteralum Holt McCallany, Arroweverse vet Melissa Benoist, Golden Globe nominee Maria Bello,Animal Kingdom’s Jake Weary andThat ’70s Show’s Topher Grace.
In honor of the show’s premiere,ScreenRantinterviewed Kevin Williamson to discussThe Waterfront. The creator/showrunner opened up about his personal inspirations behind the show, particularly his father’s past as a fisherman who turned to crime and was arrested, how the show differs fromDawson’s Creek, and its future after its ending. Williamson also offered an update onScream 7, returning to directing after his debut underwent so many changes, and his thoughts on both the newI Know What You Did Last Summersequel andThe Vampire Diaries' return.
Between the show’s North Carolina setting and dramatic tone compared to his normal horror output,The Waterfronthas already drawn parallels toWilliamson’s time withDawson’s Creek,something that the creator/showrunner doesn’t deny, as he jokes the Netflix show is like the WB classic “if they all grew up and turned to a family life of crime”. Another notable series some have compared the show to is that of fellow Netflix titleOuter Banks, given their shared setting, though Williamson feels while “they’re in the same grocery isle”, his is “a little more of a family drama”.
“I felt likeOuter Banks, from the three or so seasons I’ve seen so far, seems like it’s more young love, and they’re sort of caught up in a pirate show where they’re trying to find a sunken treasure, which I loved,” Williamson expressed. “But this is more about just a generational family, and their legacy, and how they have turned to a life of crime. It’s sort of when really good people do really bad things.”
One of the biggest things that setsThe Waterfrontapart for Williamson from anything he or anyone else has done is its personal inspiration,describing that “it came from my dad” and his life as a fisherman “in the ’80s when he did some drug trafficking”. The creator explained that the fishing industry “had just tanked” at the time and therefore, in an effort “to support his family during a really bad time” and “put me through college”, he turned to “smuggling some drugs”, though wasn’t quite as lucky as many similar TV show characters.
He was trying to support his family, and he made a decision, and he ultimately was caught, and he paid the price, and he went to prison, very much like Jody Potter’s dad. If you watch Dawson’s Creek, Joey Potter’s dad was in prison for conspiracy to traffic marijuana in excess of 20,000 pounds. That was my dad’s charge. Exactly.
He Even Wrote One Role With Their Actor In Mind
With this personal inspiration as his North Star, one of the most important characters to create inThe Waterfront’s castis that of Buckley patriarch Harlan, played by McCallany. When it came to searching for the perfect person to play the part, Williamson had a few key goals in mind, wanting the star to be “very strong”, as well as “very hard and rugged”, but alsohave a “great sense of humor” in the same vein as his own father, upon whom Harlan is largely inspired.
“He just knew how to take any situation and turn it on its side, and just throw a crack in, and just knew how to just make something funny,” Williamson explained. “I kind of think that’s what Harlan does. He can’t help his sense of humor, it sort of sneaks in every situation where he just comments on everything that’s happening in such a way that my dad was the king of one-liners.”
All of this led Williamson to the “terrific actor” that is McCallany, whom Williamson previously worked with “20 million years ago” on the pilot of the short-lived dramaWasteland. Sharing his praise for McCallany’s work on Netflix’sMindhunter,the creator felt he’s an actor that “can do anything”, describing him as being “super talented” and doing a great job at “embodying that sort of patriarch” role in his series.
On the flip side of the cast isThat ’70s Showalum Topher Grace, no longer playing the lovable Eric Forman, but instead starring inThe Waterfrontas Grady, one of the show’s main antagonists, the ruthless head of a new drug operation. However, it was this exact past as a beloved protagonist that Williamson wanted to subvert in his casting of the role,“writing that character with [Topher] in mind”.
I wanted someone who was so darn likable, and someone that we knew to be so darn cute, and funny, and winning in all those ways in which you don’t usually see a psychotic psychopath, a horrible person. I like when really, really, really nice, funny people do really evil things. He really plays the duality very well.
“…I Think The Show Can Just Go Up.”
With the show now streaming, the conversation did turn toThe Waterfront’s future, particularly sinceDawson’s Creekenjoyed a successful six-season run before coming to an end. Williamson did confirmhe has plans for multiple seasons to keep the show going, sharing his hope that “people watch it and respond to it”, with the ending being a note of “what’s next” for the characters and world that he’s put together.
“I’ve just sort of figured out who these actors are in these roles, and I would love a chance to write for them, and lean into them, and I think the show can just go up,” Williamson expressed. “There’s a whole second season that I have planned out, and a third season, quite frankly. So I’m hoping I get the chance to tell those stories. I do think it’s a fun show, and it’s unlike anything I’ve ever done, and I just hope people enjoy it.”
When asked specifically about the final moments with Danielle Campbell’s Peyton inThe Waterfront’s ending, in which she forgave both Cane and Jenna for their adulterous relationship,Williamson indicated that the character is very much “a survivor” and is “going to get the life she wants at all costs”. Even still, the creator did denote that, in spite of Peyton’s self-aware concerns about turning into Cane’s mom, Maria Bello’s Mae, her choices are leading her down that very path.
There’s a moment in the show where she goes off on her husband Cane and says, “You’re just like your dad. I know you don’t want to be. You may have your training wheels on, but you’re still just like your dad. I’m not your mother, and I never will be.” She makes that comment, and, of course, that’s exactly who she’s becoming. She’s just going to get the life she wants at all costs. She’s a survivor.
Neve Campbell Helped Convince Williamson To Direct Scream 7
The Movie Is Also Coming Along Nicely In Its Production
Looking to the future, Williamson hasScream7’s release on the horizon, having taken over the director’s chair after the departures of Radio Silence and Christopher Landon, as well as the complete overhaul in the wake of Melissa Barrera’s firing and Jenna Ortega’s exit. While acknowledging he was “never in the circle”, butrather had served as “the godfather” of the past two films, he recalls that the producers behind the next installment “came to me and said, ‘How well do you know Neve?'” when they sought to retool the story.
“I went, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. I know her so well that I’m not going to have this conversation. But, what do you want from her?’,” Williamson explained. “And they [told me], and I go, ‘Oh, that’s exactly what I want.’ I wanted Neve Campbell to return as Sidney Prescott so bad. This is the story I really want to see, and that’s what they wanted to do. So they went to her and it all happened. It all sort of fell into place. Maybe we were talking about it, but I certainly wasn’t directing it at that point.”
After calling the departure of the Carpenter sisters “a bummer” forScream 7, Williamson did find that “this idea to bring Sidney Prescott back” and “focus on her character and tell her story of who she is today” a really exciting one. Even still, while invigorated by the “great story” and script from James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick,he wasn’t quite ready to jump back into the director’s chair after his infamous experience withTeaching Mrs. Tingle26 years ago, pointing to Campbell as being the voice who finally talked him into it.
Neve called me one day and said, “I think you should direct this.” And I went, “No, no, no, no, no. Okay, I’ll do it.”
From there, the pair set off makingScream 7, praising the opportunity to direct Campbell as the star “was so supportive” and “was there with me every step of the way”. While also revealing thatthe sequel is currently in the editing stage of post-production, Williamson further beamed at the “family” environment felt on set beyond Campbell, with many of the cast and crew being franchise vets and “a tight-knit group of people”, all of which is what has made the horror series “special” for the group.
Going on to reflect on the wider history of theScreamfranchise, Williamson recalled his initial concerns after sending the script for the first film, originally titledScary Movie, to his agent, feeling “he’s going to hate it” and that “it’s going to be awful”. However, in an effort to “keep myself in check”,Williamson went on to “start writing the opening scene ofScream 2”, then fleshing out the “three or four-page outline” for the sequel and even “added a page at the end” with an idea for a third film.
“When they called and said, ‘Oh, we think we can take this out onto the market,’ I gave ‘em the outline, and they were like, ‘Oh, oh, there’s more here. There’s a franchise here.’,” Williamson explained. “And what happened was they sent the script out, and if anyone was interested in it and wanted to make an offer, they sent the outline. So it did sell with that outline attached, that treatment.”
As we shared our appreciation for bothScream 4and6, particularly after the latter brought back Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby after her somewhat vague fate from the former, Williamson similarly shared his love for the 2023 sequel,while also revealing he had some doubts about the shift to New York. Initially feeling that the series’ formula was better suited as “a small-town story”, he praised the film for making its big city setting “work like gangbusters”.
Williamson Is Thrilled About I Know What You Did Last Summer’s Return
There’s Another Of His Horror Cult Classics Getting A Reboot
In the wake ofScream’s success came another hit slasher inthe form ofI Know What You Did Last Summer, a loose adaptation of Lois Duncan’s novel of the same name, which has a legacy sequel releasing in July. Though not directly involved in the new film, Williamson is “thrilled they’re making” a new incarnation of the film, particularly given the franchise’s main antagonist, The Fisherman,was another original creation inspired by his father, who even helped him plot out the original movie’s deadly ending.
“My dad took me out on the boat and showed me how the fishermen operated the boat,” Williamson shared. “I said, ‘Well dad, I need his hand to be severed. How do I do that?’ And he was like, ‘Well, here’s the winch.’ He was just showing me around, and how to kill people in spectacular fashion. ‘Then you put ‘em down in the ice hole down below’” And I mean, he just sort of helped me construct that entire sequence on the fishing boat. My dad has been very, very instrumental, as well as my mom. But yeah, I had some great parents that were very supportive."
Another of Williamson’s fan-favorite horror movies about to get a new life is that ofThe Faculty, his teen twist on theInvasion of the Body Snatchersformula helmed by Robert Rodriguez, which is getting a remake fromCompanion’s Dew Hancock. Looking back on Rodriguez’s work on the original film, Williamson revealed it nearly wasn’t the only movie the two paired on,confirming the long-held theory that Rodriguez nearly directedScream 2before Wes Craven elected to remain with the franchise.
“Wes was really hesitant about doing a sequel,” Williamson explained. “He had other opportunities, and I think he was worried about getting trapped into Scream. But then, of course, he didn’t want to leave it, so he came back. But we talked to Robert about it, and he was up to do it, and then he moved over, and he did The Faculty, which I love. I think The Faculty was fun. It’s very ’90s when you watch it. To me, it’s just like a time capsule of the ’90s right there.”
Williamson Has No Involvement In The New Vampire Diaries Adaptation
He Is, Though, Intrigued By The Ever-Changing TV Landscape
Though having come to a close in 2017 and let its spinoffs carry on the torch until 2022,The Vampire Diariesmight just have new life in it, as Julie Plec, who co-developed the original show with Williamson and served as showrunner for its eight-season run, previously teased plans toScreenRantfor a new incarnation, though no new updates have come out since. Williamson, however,indicated that the newVampire Diariesshow is being set up at Netflix, but without his involvement, citing Warner Bros. Television as being the driving force behind it.
I was surprised. I thought it was too soon.
After humorously admitting to losing track of time for when the show actually ended, he also reflected on theVampire Diaries’ return as being part of a bigger industry trend of TV shifting to streaming. Recalling how even when he “first started in television” withDawson’s Creek, it was “a completely different experience” for both him and TV, given The WB, now The CW, was a “brand-new-network” trying to find their footing,he still finds himself excited by what the future holds as he continues to watch the next cycle play out.
Now, we’re in the tech age where we have a worldwide platform called Netflix, which pretty much dominates what people watch on television, and it’s streaming. Everything has changed, it’s kind of fascinating. I love technology and I keep waiting for, “What’s the next thing? What’s going to happen next?”
Check out our previousWaterfrontinterview with stars Holt McCallany, Jake Weary and Melissa Benoist!
All eight episodes ofThe Waterfrontseason 1 are available to stream on Netflix now!
The Waterfront
Cast
The Waterfront: The Waterfront follows a prominent North Carolina fishing family as they navigate through dangerous waters to salvage their deteriorating business empire. Released in 2025, the drama unfolds amid the family’s efforts to preserve their legacy in the face of mounting challenges.
