The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins creators Robert Carlock and Sam Means have big plans for a second season, and unsurprisingly, it involves Jon Hamm.

**Spoilers ahead for the two-part Season 1 finale, now streaming on Peacock**

After wrapping Season 1 with a list of guest stars including Heidi Gardner, Craig Robinson, Corbin Bernsen, Ronny Chieng, and Megan Thee Stallion, Carlock and Means say they’re not trying to get ahead of themselves, but as they await news of a Season 2 renewal, they’re putting out big names to try and draw in the fans of their previous shows.

“There are so many amazing, hilarious people we’ve worked with over the years, and it’d be weird if Jon Hamm wasn’t in it, right?” Carlock told DECIDER in a Season 1 post-mortem. “Seems like an oversight,” Means added.

Of course, Means and Carlock have worked with the Mad Men star on a series of other hilarious projects, including 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which only makes them feel more confident he would pick up the phone. Until then, they’re okay letting the world think he’s the one who keeps calling them to get a role in Reggie Dinkins.

“We should put it out there that he keeps calling and asking what he can do,” Carlock joked, “He keeps bugging us.” To that, Means — who also worked on Parks and Recreation and Great News — added, “Yeah, Jon Hamm is out to us.”

For a breakdown of the Season 1 finale and more from the pair, check out DECIDER’s full interview with Carlock and Means below.

---

DECIDER: Thank you so much for chatting with me. Would you just start by walking me through this two-part finale and why this felt like the right place to end Season 1?

SAM MEANS: The whole season for Reggie, at least in his own mind, has been leading to the Hall of Fame vote. That’s why he’s doing this documentary in the first place, or at least that’s the intermediate and the thing that he’s looking forward to, to get his career, his legacy all back on track. That’s why he hired Tobin. We knew we wanted to bring that to a head in some way, but also, it’s a show about the whole family.

ROBERT CARLOCK: Now, including Arthur, Dan’s character, who’s brought in on a professional basis, and by the end of the season, we wanted to have him more interwoven. And those two episodes were very much in part about that as well.

Means: It’s really especially in Episode 9, as you saw, it’s about what his role in the family is. Him having to confront that he is now a member of the Dinkins family, for better or worse, as well as being their documentarian.

Carlock: We sort of landed kind of late on the romantic Romeo and Juliet cliffhanger that we ended on. We hope, in addition to the bigger kind of redemptive arcs that everyone’s on, that there’s going to be some fun going forward as the Dinkins deal with the fact that their son is romantically entangled with their nemesis’s daughter.

Means: I think one other thing that we were intentional about was that because this is so much about the whole family, and because in many ways, Reggie’s quest is not what’s really important. It’s not about getting his fame back. We want to go past that, to have it end in some ways on Monica and her own story and her own redemption, and showing that this journey they’re all on is something that affects all of them, and that there’s potential in the documentary and in the story for all of them to start a new chapter.

I wanted to inquire specifically about the Rusty Hall of Fame element, because I know we were building to the Hall of Fame vote, but then throwing in that curveball with Rusty at the very end was one of my favorite moves from this entire season.

Means: I feel like we landed on the washing machine early. I think everything else just came from there.

Carlock: I think it was always a conversation of, okay, we’ve established this as Reggie’s goal is this very mechanical thing that’s kind of out of their hands. And it was always a question of how to make it something that’s happening to our people. And that in part became the whole family circles the wagons and tries to help out, but also, ‘Oh, what if Rusty gets used in this way by their enemy?’ It was like, ‘Oh, well that creates dynamics within our actual characters.’

I also have to ask about Craig Robinson, because he’s a perfect choice for the antagonist in this.

Carlock: I mean, what’s so great about him is that he’s lovable, he’s likable, and so making him be secretly a villain felt like, that’ll be fun if he says yes to us. He’s also a tall guy, which helps the football thing. And then Heidi, I never worked with Craig before, but she was on Girls5Eva.

Means: Yeah, she did Girls5Eva.

Carlock: She was on a Girls5Eva, delivering an amazing monologue that’s worth revisiting about her fear that she’s going to have sex with all the dads at her kid’s school. And then she was on the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Interactive movie. We’ve just been fans forever.

Means: And then you put them together.

Carlock: I don’t know if you recall, in their episode, when they leave Episode 5, where we’re revisiting the kids’ football camp, their exit from the episode is them holding hands and skipping away, and they just did that without telling anyone that they were going to do it.

Before we go any further, I just need you guys to know I’m the world’s foremost Girls5Eva fan. “Four Stars” was my top song on Spotify for two straight years.

Carlock: That’s amazing, I will tell Meredith [Scardino].

Means: What a fun show.

You seem to have a roster for your shows. Are we considering any roles for any of the Girls5Eva team or anyone from any of your other shows for a second season?

Carlock: There are so many amazing, hilarious people we’ve worked with over the years, and it’d be weird if Jon Hamm wasn’t in it, right?

Means: Seems like an oversight.

Carlock: We haven’t asked yet.

I know you guys are waiting on a second season renewal, maybe we start spreading rumors. Do you guys want the headline to say “Jon Hamm will be in Season 2?”

Carlock: We should put it out there that he keeps calling and asking what he can do.

Yeah, give me the audio bite.

Carlock: He keeps bugging us.

Means: Yeah, Jon Hamm is out to us.

I feel like he’s kind of got the former NFL player stature, right?

Carlock: Yeah, he could play triplets. He could play all three Mannings.

Means: He’d be one of those quarterbacks who, like, smoked in the locker room at halftime.

I need that. Also, I fell in love with Brina this season. The ensemble part of this must be difficult to deal with because you’re trying to manage and make sure that everybody’s got their own piece, but it seems to come together seamlessly. How does that work for you guys?

Means: Well, everyone’s so good and so generous as performers that any pairing, any triplet, any quadruplet, we’re still looking for one that doesn’t work.

Carlock: To your point, as much as we love being on network, you know, there are times where, yeah, we know who the star is, but also everyone deserves to be the star of any given episode. And that’s a good problem to have, but definitely one that we kind of had to deal with.

Means: Casting Jalen and Precious as actors we hadn’t worked with before, we, on some level, knew there were auditions were great. We knew we loved them in the pilot, but we ultimately didn’t know what we were getting. And it’s a good problem to have. We just want to give them more and more, and yeah, hopefully we’ll get to do a bunch more episodes and see a lot more Carmelo and Brina.

The first season of The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins is now streaming on Peacock.

Peacock currently offers two subscription types: Premium with ads and Premium Plus ad-free. Peacock Premium costs $10.99/month, while Premium Plus costs $16.99/month.

You can save a bit by subscribing to one of Peacock’s annual plans, which give you 12 months for the price of 10. These cost either $109.99 with ads or $169.99 without ads.

Peacock Premium Plus is also available to subscribe to via Prime Video with a seven-day free trial that you can’t get by subscribing directly on Peacock.