Because of the pandemic, the Starz spinoff of the acclaimed 2018 Oakland-based film had to shoot interiors in Los Angeles, moving to the East Bay in the latter stages to film on-location scenes. That has led to questions about Blindspotting's authenticity. “The Bay Area’s going to have a lot of opinions about this show and it’s going to be a lot of arguing about the validity of this show, but what we always keep in mind is we’re bringing the Bay to Germany, and Brazil and Australia — we’re thinking about the global impact of how to transfer this and explain it to people who aren’t from here,” says co-creator Rafael Casal. Should they get a second season, Casal and fellow co-creator Daveed Diggs hope to bring more characters and communities into the Blindspotting world, bringing production to the East Bay and building infrastructure in the area that might help others tell their own Bay Area stories. “Maybe that’s our Bay Area upbringing, but I do think it’s our responsibility to try to have an impact on the systems and institutions that we have to work with in order to make the show,” says Casal. “We may not be able to do that overnight. We may not be able to fundamentally shift one of those things. But we can at least chip away at it.” He grinned. “And we’ll go make some sellout projects later.”
TOPICS: Blindspotting, Starz, Rafael Casal