Yahoo Lifestyle Exclusive: Graceland Continues With ‘Love Letter’ Short From Aaron Tveit, Brandon Jay McLaren — WATCH NOW
Graceland is back thanks to Aaron Tveit and Brandon Jay McLaren, two alumni of the USA Network crime drama.
The actors revisit their respective characters, Mike Warren and Dale Jakes, in a new 10-minute short called Nextland, which they secretly dropped on Monday morning. (Watch video above.)
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Nextland picks up 21 months following the end of Graceland, which ended in 2015 after a three-season run. The finale ended on a cliffhanger, with Jakes cutting off his dreadlocks and blowing dodge with a cool $9 million in his pocket. At the time, series creator Jeff Eastin was hopeful for a fourth season, but USA Network cancelled the series instead.
“We were all really confident in getting a Season 4,” McLaren tells TVLine. “I mean, that’s why I shaved my head in the finale! We kind of got the rug pulled out from under us.”
“It was close, too,” Tveit recalls. “We shot in Florida, and they had lost their tax incentives. But we had been told it looked like we were going to go ahead in Atlanta. It was a late thing when it didn’t go forward, and we were all super bummed.”
Fast forward to 2020, and the actors decided to put the series’ fate into their own hands. McLaren was in Vancouver filming Disney+’s Turner & Hooch revival and Tveit was also in town working on Apple TV+’s Schmigadoon!.
“We were both there, and it was an opportunity for us to be face-to-face and come up with something and shoot it,” McLaren says.
Tveit says that the entire cast and Eastin thought it was “so cool” they were putting something together. They even went for dinner with co-star Manny Montana, who played Johnny Tuturro, but because of scheduling conflicts, he and others were unable to join.
“Sometimes you don’t realize how great situations are, our jobs are, but we actually all did,” Tveit shares. “We all got along and had so much fun, and thought it was such a cool show that was ahead of its time. To get the chance in any way to revisit it, it’s just been so awesome.”
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McLaren wrote the script based on a story he and Tveit conceptualized, and in 2021 McLaren’s friend Torre Catalano directed the short at McLaren’s L.A. home. The story picks up with Jakes — dreds as long and memorable as ever — living a secret but peaceful life. But then Mike shows up, and the action begins.
“We sent it to Jeff and we didn’t know what the reaction was going to be, but he was super psyched and loved it and said it looked amazing,” says Tveit. “He was impressed with where the story was and said if this were to kick off something else, like a buddy show between these two characters, that would be so fun.”
The actors hope the short creates enough energy to spark talk of an actual potential reboot or continuation, because they’re itching to see where the story could go next. But at the end of the day, they created this for fans.
“This truly is a love letter, so we thought, why not put it out there and see what happens?” says Tveit. “If nothing happens, nothing happens. At least we showed that we did it.”
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