Liam Payne is ‘amazing' in Building The Band, says Netflix exec as they share update on tragic 1D star's final project
The late One Direction star's final project sees Liam as a judge alongside Nicole Scherzinger and Kelly Rowland with Backstreet Boys' AJ McClean as host.
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Liam Payne is 'amazing' on Netflix talent show Building The Band, says a show insider
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Liam is a judge on Netflix's new talent contest, his last project before his passing in October last year
Credit: Getty
The first four episodes drop today.
Showrunner Cat Lawson said: 'The show is dedicated to Liam. We all loved him and he was amazing in the show.'
She added that
The show is a blend of The Voice and Love Is Blind, with singers auditioning in closed containers so they're selected on talent alone.
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READ MORE ON LIAM PAYNE
Before the competition started, host AJ appeared on screen to pay tribute to the star.
AJ says: 'When we came together to film
'Liam is a guest judge in later episodes and through his presence we see his deep love for music and his unwavering commitment to helping others find their voice.
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'It is through that spirit that we dedicate this series to Liam and his family.'
It was a bittersweet moment for fans of Liam and
One Direction
last week when
Building the Band: First Look, Netflix
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To reach Wednesday's inner sanctum and her boarding school, Nevermore, the traveller must take a long and winding road, the M11, which stretches from Dublin's M50 into deepest Wicklow – and which leads to Ashford Studios, where cameras have rolled on one of the world's biggest TV shows since early 2024. Wednesday series one was shot in Romania. But Ireland was always the first choice for showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and when studio space finally became available, they enthusiastically upped sticks. Ireland was more accessible than central Europe, and much further from Ukraine, which Russia invaded when the production team was putting the final touches to the first season. 'We shot our last series [Into the Badlands] here. So we've been to Ireland before. We love it so and it's been fantastic,' says Gough. The nice thing about being in Ireland, which I completely appreciate about the Irish, is that they don't give a damn about celebrities — Showrunner Alfred Gough He is speaking to The Irish Times from his production office on the first floor at Ashford – next door to the dressingroom of Catherine Zeta-Jones (who plays Wednesday's mother, Morticia Addams) and up the stairs from the studio space housing Wednesday's dorm and Nevermore's gleefully grotesque new science lab – in part inspired by Dublin's 'Dead Zoo' aka the Natural History Museum on Merrion Square. It's a 'closed set', meaning journalists are not allowed within gawping distance of the cast. So there is no opportunity to watch Jenna Ortega reprise her part as woebegone Wednesday or executive producer Tim Burton return to direct four of the eight episodes in his distinctively baroque style. Nor is there confirmation of the presence of Lady Gaga , rumoured to have flown in to Wicklow to shoot a cameo the previous week. Gough is avuncular in that gosh-darn American way. He is also a proven hitmaker, as demonstrated by series such as Smallville and Into the Badlands, the Wicklow-filmed fantasy caper that has a loyal cult audience. Wednesday, however, is a success on an entirely different scale. When it launched in 2022, it became one of the world's most beloved binge watches more or less overnight, propelling Ortega to instant stardom. 'Do you anticipate that? No,' says Gough. 'We thought the show was good. And we thought it would appeal to the audience everybody thought it would appeal to [ie Addams Family and Burton fans]. Then when it kind of became this other thing ... That's a combination of factors.' He feels Wednesday is the perfect heroine for troubled times. While outwardly hostile and aloof, underneath she is vulnerable and unsure of herself – an introvert in an extrovert's world. Coming out of the pandemic, millions identified with a shy young woman who wanted nothing more than to be given the space to be herself. Gough nods. 'It was the right show at the right time, where, clearly, everybody identified with Wednesday and feels like an outcast.' Joonas Suotamo, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jenna Ortega, Isaac Ordonez and Luis Guzmán in series two of Wednesday. Photograph: Helen Sloan/Netflix Several factors contribute to a hit such as Wednesday, he continues. Ortega was a star in the making, having appeared in Netflix's You and Yes Day, while Burton, director of the 1989 Batman movie and of Beetlejuice, has a significant following. And the Addams Family has brand recognition – largely thanks to the early 1990s films starring a young Christina Ricci as Wednesday. But sometimes it's all down to luck, feels Gough. 'That's just when you hit the culture at a certain point. We had that experience with Smallville,' he says, referring to the all-American Superman prequel which celebrated the wholesomeness of small-town life. 'Smallville came out in 2001, a month after 9/11, and it was suddenly like comfort food for the American soul. Everybody needed a hero and that. Some of these things you can't predict. But then I do think it speaks to the power of Netflix and the power of that platform.' [ Wednesday: The Addams Family gets a Gen Z twist – and Tim Burton gets his mojo back Opens in new window ] Wednesday is set in rural Vermont – for which Wicklow was the perfect stand-in. The producers made full use of dark and mysterious forests around Roundwood – and of 18th-century Powerscourt Estate, which it repurposed as the palatial residence of Hester Frump, Wednesday's impish grandmother, played by Lumley. A favourable tax regime helped too: Ireland recently improved its Section 481 film and TV incentives, raising the cap on eligible expenditure from €70 million to €125 million (each of Wednesday's eight new episodes carries a reported budget of around €17 million). 'We tried to get here in season one, and it was right after the pandemic, when the world, at least the film world, was opening up again,' says Gough. 'And literally between Brexit and the rush of other productions, we couldn't. There was no stage. Our last show was called Into the Badlands. And the old warehouses that we had shot in, I think, had become Covid test centres or, like, package depots because of Brexit. So we ended up in Romania season one, which worked out great. It gave us all the space that we needed, but it wasn't conducive for a long-term television show. When we had the opportunity to come to Ireland, we all jumped on it.' Gough acknowledges there is pressure – after Stranger Things and Squid Game, Wednesday is Netflix's bigger franchise. The streamer has doubled the budget for series two, but there are also concerns over whether its audience has remained loyal; after all, the 14-year-olds who went crazy for Wednesday's goth chic in 2022 will be 17 in 2025 and may have moved on. Gough tries not to get bogged down in any of that. He quotes Quentin Tarantino's mantra about film-making: ultimately, you have to create something you yourself would wish to watch. 'If we don't love it, how are we supposed to expect anyone else to love it?' he says. 'We have a very high bar for ourselves. It's harder, obviously, with all the noise, and it obviously affects the actors and other things. And you know, we're not some little show in the middle of eastern Europe this year.' Amid the hype, he feels Ireland has kept everyone grounded – one final magical ingredient sprinkled into Netflix's bubbling, boiling bingewatch cauldron. 'If we had been in America trying to shoot the show, or even in the UK, we'd have a lot of paparazzi. There'd be a lot of spoiler pictures. We've had very little of that,' he says. 'The nice thing about being in Ireland, which I completely appreciate about the Irish is that they don't give a damn about celebrities. You do not care.'
