Tyler James Williams chats with THR at the Disney Upfronts and talks about what's planned for Janine and Greg this season of 'Abbott Elementary.' Plus, he shares which show he'd like to crossover with.
00:00What's it like to reunite with the whole Disney family here today?
00:02It's good to remember how big it is.
00:05I mean, I think we're in our, like, ABC side so often that you forget, like,
00:09oh, right, how many of us are all in the same world.
00:12It's really nice.
00:13Listen, Abbott is going into what season?
00:16Season 5.
00:17And now, how many more seasons do you think we got in us?
00:21I'm not sure.
00:22I mean, as long as we have story to tell, we'll keep going.
00:24I know that for sure.
00:25We're not, you know, one of those shows where we just want to keep going as long as the wheels fall off.
00:30As long as we got story, we're still going.
00:32And we have it.
00:34Now, what do we have planned for Greg and Janine this season?
00:38We have to explore the next steps of their relationship, for sure.
00:40I think now that they're officially together, there's things that they have to accomplish and get done together.
00:46Like, I think we saw it in the finale of Janine meeting Gregory's father.
00:50They need to meet the families.
00:51They need to decide what life looks like for the two of them.
00:54We have a lot to explore there.
00:57I know last season there was a little bit of a line, school line dance going with Will Smith's Wild Wild West.
01:04He's a Philly and sitcom legend.
01:06What are the odds that we could ever get a cameo from him?
01:10How do we make it happen?
01:12I mean, that's up to him, really.
01:15I don't know.
01:16I mean, that's really up to his side.
01:17If there's a way to, you know, do it authentically and make it make sense and it works out for everybody, you know, we'll see.
01:23But that's really, you're asking Will Smith questions.
01:26I can't answer for him.
01:28I don't know.
01:28That's so true.
01:29That's so true.
01:30Now, I know that five seasons in, this show just gets funnier and funnier.
01:33The fans are staying tuned in.
01:35How do you keep the comedy bar going higher and higher?
01:39We just can't get complacent.
01:40I think that's the thing.
01:41If we have a different bar for ourselves, if something's not making us laugh in a scene, then it's not funny enough for the audience.
01:47As long as we maintain that bar high, our writers do a great job putting stuff on the page, but then we just got to breathe life into it and make sure that that bar stays high.
01:56That'll do it.
01:57We take our comedy and the fact that we are a comedy very, very seriously.
02:01You did a crossover last season with It's Always Sunny.
02:04Out of all the shows that are here today, what's another crossover that you're itching to do?
02:08Oh, jeez.
02:12What's interesting is that we kind of have talked about the bear being in our universe, but also Ayo is also a character in our show.
02:22I would like to somehow tie that up.
02:24Let's understand what the crossover is between the two.
02:26Let's just have her play both different characters.
02:28Yeah, there's just two Ayo's running around in the world in our universe for some reason, and let's explore that.
