WARNING! This article contains Sweet Tooth Season 3 spoilers.
Sweet ToothSeason 3 diverged sharply from its comic book roots. The Netflix series showrunner Jim Mickle has made significant alterations to the beloved graphic novel series by Jeff Lemire, especially in the concluding season. Season 3 ended the narrative arc of Gus and Jepperd, while introducing shifts in plot that stray from the original comics.
From the outset, fans might have anticipated certain deviations, particularly with the absence of a major storyline from the comics involving a dam and its associated antagonist, Walter Fish. According to Mickle during an interview withComicBook, this decision was influenced by a desire to avoid rehashing themes explored in the previous season, specifically those surrounding The Preserve. Mickle explained the importance of keeping the story moving swiftly towards its climactic destination in Alaska.
I think the bigger thing was once season three really felt like, ‘Oh, this is an odyssey for Gus,’ We didn’t want to stop and be anywhere too long until we got to Alaska. So that was a big part of it, was just really getting them to see the full gamut of what that was going to be.
One of the season’s standout moments is its second episode, which masterfully captures a sense of paranoia and mistrust—a thematic echo from the dam storyline in the comics. Mickle recounts how this episode drew inspiration from the suspenseful ambiance typical of Hitchcock films, keeping the overall tension and uncertainty that define much of the season.
“That to me, kind had a little bit of that flavor of who can you trust?” Mickle added. “And that whole episode, I remember kind of feeling like there was a Hitchcock kind of a paranoia thriller kind of thing happening in between there. And so some of that came out through there too.”
Sweet Tooth
A boy who is half human and half deer survives in a post-apocalyptic world with other hybrids.
Sweet Tooth Explores Darker Paths with New Character Munaqsriri
Sweet ToothSeason 3introduced a new character, Munaqsriri, a figure not found in Jeff Lemire’s original comics and one of the deviations made by Mickle. The character comes out as a crucial addition, an enigmatic hybrid who crosses paths with Gus in the remote wilderness of Alaska. Munaqsriri, a stark contrast to Gus, represents a haunting exploration of isolation and survival.
Munaqsriri’s creation is loosely inspired by a minor comic storyline set in 1911, which briefly mentions the birth of one of the first hybrids to an Inuit mother. Showrunner Jim Mickle seized this fragment of backstory to conceive Munaqsriri, going into a hypothetical scenario that mirrors Gus’s in reverse: what might have become of Gus had he been deprived of love and guidance during his formative years?
“I think given that there’s a lot of dualities in this story, it felt like having a Gus and having what would happen to Gus if everything went wrong, if he was not loved as a kid, if he was not what that would look like. It all kind of grew out of that and coming out of the comic book, and he’s very lyrical, I think, with that backstory.”
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His backstory is created with a sense of authenticity, thanks to the invaluable insights from Inuit consultants Aaluk Edwardson and James Dommek Jr. Their contributions ensured that Munaqsriri’s story did not just serve the plot, but also respected and integrated the cultural history of Alaska, giving viewers a more profound understanding of the character’s roots and struggles.
“And suddenly when we had to put nails to that and sort of put those into position, it really felt like, how do we express that? We had two great Inuit consultants who were awesome from Alaska (Aaluk Edwardson and James Dommek Jr.) and they really helped also to flesh out some of the history and what that meant, and that was super cool. That took on a whole new sort of reins that I thought we’d get into with the show, but I’m really glad we did.”
Netflix’s Sweet Tooth Ends on a Hopeful Note, Diverging from Its Comic Roots
Sweet Toothconcludes with a notably brighter outlook than its comic counterpart. In the comics, the ending shows an elderly Gus encountering a vision of the deceased Jepperd. Conversely, theNetflix seriesopts for a lighter finale, where Gus and Jepperd are seen enjoying syrup together, leaving it ambiguous whether this scene is factual or part of Gus’s storytelling. Mickle said:
“I think there was a little bit of a western thing going on there. I think there was a little bit of John Wayne and The Searchers and keeping that idea alive and keeping the enigma of Big Man alive, so that was all part of it. I tried a couple different versions of that ending, and once that one clicked, it just really clicked into place, and I love that you can read it in a number of different ways.”
