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LOS ANGELES, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- The cast and creators of Reno 911! were filming a second season of the series for Quibi when they got the news that the streaming service had ended. "Quibi went under on day three of a 12-day shoot," Robert Ben Garant told UPI in a Zoom interview.
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Garant, Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney-Silver play Reno Sheriff's Department officers in the comedy series. Lennon, Garant and Kenney-Silver created the series, which originally ran on Comedy Central.
"All of a sudden, I look around," Kenney-Silver said. "Everyone is on their phones. Nobody wanted to tell me, so it was like, 'What's happening?'"
Lennon was in the middle of filming a comedy scene in which he wears a leotard and goes to the bathroom in a bucket. He said the news of Quibi's demise hit especially hard.
"I pulled my leotard back up, and they're like, 'Oh, Quibi doesn't exist anymore. You're in Sun Valley pretending to poop in a bucket in a leotard for absolutely no one,'" Lennon said.
Cast member Niecy Nash said she never worried. Nash said she has faith Reno 911! always will find a home to air or stream new material.
"People love this series," Nash said. "We love doing the series and someone will always make room for us."
ViacomCBS allowed Reno 911! to complete the season it had begun, and it will air somewhere eventually. But first, Paramount+ asked if it could film another special for its new streaming service, Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon, which will premiere Thursday.
"We said, 'Great, we'll do a movie,'" Garant said. "They said, 'It's called Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon."
Lennon raised issue with being given the title of a movie before the cast made it. But, the actors accepted the opportunity and wrote a script to accommodate Paramount+'s title.
"We said, 'Thank you, we will figure that out,'" Lennon said.
The Hunt for QAnon runs 90 minutes, just like the 2007 movie Reno 911! Miami. The Reno Sheriff's Department buys tickets to a QAnon cruise on which its members hope to uncover the identity of the conspiracy theorist leader Q.
"To be honest, if the idea works at all, that's not to our credit," Kenney Silver said. "It was handed to us - the idea, anyway."
The Queen Mary, docked in Long Beach, Calif. and no longer sailing, doubled for the QAnon cruise ship. Cast members Ian Roberts, Mary Birdsong and Carlos Alazraqui said they enjoyed exploring the ship between scenes. Alazraqui said it lived up to its reputation of being haunted.
"You could possibly run off and get lost," Alazraqui said. "It added to the creepiness of the whole thing."
Garant directed the film and said his costume troubled the crew. As his character, Deputy Travis Junior, Garant wore a "Don't Tread on Me" T-shirt and carried several prop guns. Garant said some crew members did not realize he was doing double duty as an actor.
"I was wondering why they treated me so weird," Garant said. "It's because they thought that I was the weird guy who directs for Paramount+ and I'm super into Q."
Because they are undercover as QAnon believers, the cast members got out of their usual Reno Sheriff's Department uniforms. Nash said she still had to fit the fake behind she wears as Raineesha Williams into a bathing suit.
"It's a lot of spandex to fit over the big booty, but I loved every minute of it," Nash said.
Kenney Silver has one nude scene in which her private parts are covered, but little else.
"I wrote it so, of course, it's fine," Kenney Silver said. "I'm nude often on this show. I don't think it was as impactful as it was the season when I was eight months pregnant with my son, who is now 16 years old, by the way."
Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon, will premiere Thursday on Paramount+.
