Hailey’s On It! Creators Talk Cast, Inspiration, & More

Hailey’s On It! creators Devin Bunje and Nick Stanton talk all about their new Disney series including its inspiration and incredible cast.

Hailey’s On It! tells the story of a teen girl, Hailey Banks, who is suddenly visited by someone from the future. This person gives her a to do list that her future self has provided, with the pretty heavy terms that she must do them or the world will be destroyed. 

As she works her way through the list, there is one that she continuously avoids — kissing her neighbor and best friend Scott Denoga. Auli’i Cravalho voices Hailey, and Manny Jacinto voices Scott.

In this interview with Mama’s Geeky, the show’s creators Devin Bunje and Nick Stanton discuss their inspiration behind the series, bringing on an incredible cast, and what they are most excited for viewers to see. Devin and Nick also reveal their favorite episodes of season one and which carnival ride they are scared to go on. 

Hailey’s On It! Creators Talk Cast, Inspiration, & More

Mama’s Geeky: This show is a lot of fun. Can you talk about the inspiration behind it? 

Nick Stanton: The original idea was for a scene, and a version of that scene ended up in the first episode. But it was the idea that there is this regular fourteen year old girl, and this person from the future bursts in with two minutes to tell them their entire destiny and all the great things they will do, and everything they need to know.

The joke in that scene was that the conversation keeps getting sidetracked with questions like who stole my Halloween candy? And who do I go to prom? Stuff like that. From that we built the world. So, who is this character? And then we came up with the character of Hailey.

And what if she had this best friend who lives next door, and who knows, maybe they’re more than friends. Maybe they have a Jim and Pam relationship. Then the idea of Beta came from that. We thought he would be fun. We just kept adding ingredients to the soup after that. And pretty soon we had a show.

Mama’s Geeky: Can you talk about bringing on this incredible cast?

Devin Bunje: They’re phenomenal. Honestly, I feel like a lot of it was luck. It was luck that they were interested in our writing. Our first round of auditions both Aulli’i Cravalho and Manny Jacinto were in the pile and when Nick and I heard their auditions they were they immediately jumped to the top of the list.

The challenge was, right after that, before we could even cast them, the pandemic hit. We had to produce the pilot in order to try and get a green light with all scratch dialogue, which could have been a huge challenge. But we lucked out and got some really good actors to cover. People that had home audio setups, which kind of limits your pool.

But there is a silver lining because that was how we found Gary Anthony Williams. He happened to have the rig and he was already on the shortlist for people we were considering. After his first session, it was immediately clear that he was Beta and it could be no one else. We’re forever grateful that it worked out that way, because we wouldn’t want to do this without Gary now.

Mama’s Geeky: What are you most excited for viewers to see in Hailey’s On It! season one?

Nick Stanton: I’m excited that there’s a growth in the character and in the story. It’s not a show that we reset every episode. Certainly, we have standalone eleven minute episodes where they do a list item, but there’s a series arc. In the first episode, we meet Hailey and she’s shy. She can have trouble stepping out of her comfort zone. She’s has moments of anxiety. So how does this character in episode one evolve where she does great things down the line.

There’s definitely a growth in her character and also in her and Scott’s relationship. You saw on in the first episode, Scott starts dating Christina the hat queen. There’s a couple other big twists in their relationship, I’m not going to spoil them. But their relationship dynamic does not remain the same. And that made it really fun to write. It’s fun writing for a totally different dynamic. I think that people will really enjoy the evolving nature of the show.

Devin Bunjie: Honestly, it’s a show that I think everybody of all ages will love. We didn’t dumb down any of the humor. So some stuff parents will get but the kids won’t. But the kids will really appreciate it, too. So we’re excited that everyone will hopefully get to experience that, and hopefully people will be watching it with their kids.

Mama’s Geeky: The episode where Hailey must ride all the rides at the carnival is hilarious and relatable. I always hated the Gravitron too. Is there are carnival ride that you hated going on?

Devin Bunje: I love the Gravitron personally. That is one I found to be a lot of fun. For me, it was the Zipper. I actually did it once. It was a big long loopy thing and then also flipped upside down. And my older brother made me go on it once with him. Every time it flipped, which he was doing on purpose, I would fall down onto my head and then fall back up so I was literally being tumble dried in the thing. That was probably my least favorite experience ever.

Nick Stanton: I’ve always been afraid of heights, so I would say any tall roller coaster — even to this day. I go on roller coasters with my kids and I’m hiding in their laps. A roller coaster is probably my most dreaded one.

Mama’s Geeky: Could you pick a favorite episode of Hailey’s On It! if you had to?

Nick Stanton: Yes, there’s some really fun ones coming down the line. I’ll pick one that is later in the in the season. Hailey finds this little thing called squeeples, which the professor comes from this crazy adventure in the future and accidentally drops off a little cute little squeeple. Borrowing from some classic sci-fi shows, it’s turns out that this cute little thing is multiplying and has a taste for rubber. He eats all the rubber in town and ends up at a drive in movie theater, which is this big set piece. It’s just this big crazy sci-fi kind episode, which I think is really well done. So I’m excited for that one.

Devin Bunje: Another one later in the season that I really like is an episode where Hailey has her first sleepover. Everybody’s getting tired so she tries to encourage them to pull a prank on on A.C., who is sort of her rival. In the process of pranking him they accidentally destroy his most treasured possession. It becomes sort of an I Know What You Did Last Summer parody. Someone seems to know what they did and is leaving clues around town. They slowly are driven to madness over the guilt of destroying this. That’s a really fun one.

Hailey’s On It! premieres June 8 on Disney Channel and Disney XD, and comes the next day to Disney+.

NEXT: Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai Season One Review

About Hailey’s On It!

Animated comedy-adventure “Hailey’s On It!” follows Hailey, a risk-averse but resourceful teenager on a mission to complete every item on her long list of challenging — and sometimes impractical — tasks in order to save the world.

Whether she’s tackling every ride at the county fair, performing in a musical, reuniting a singing duo or facing her ever-growing and complicated feelings toward her best friend Scott, Hailey is always encountering new challenges ― and more opportunities to conquer her fears.

Hailey’s On It! premieres June 8 on Disney Channel and Disney XD, and next day on Disney+.