Steve Martin celebrated his landmark 80th birthday on Thursday, and he marked the occasion by spending the day shooting a scene at Disneyland. Speaking on Saturday at the Television Academy’s Televerse festival, Martin shared why filming at that location, on that day, meant so much to him.
“I shot a little one-day scene at Disneyland on my birthday, August 14, two days ago, and it was in the magic shop where I worked when I was 15,” he told the audience gathered for an “Only Murders in the Building” Emmy FYC event at Televerse. “I’m standing on the exact same spot that I stood on when I was 15! And I said, ‘it’s like going to work when you’re 15, and then coming home from work and you’re 80.”
Martin didn’t specify what he was filming at Disneyland, but Jon Favreau is currently shooting his Disney+ series about Walt Disney’s original pre-Mickey Mouse character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, at the park. This seems to confirm a report, first written by the InSneider newsletter, that Martin will indeed appear in the “Oswald” series. The show’s previously revealed cast includes alongside Kathryn Hahn, Amy Sedaris, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Mykal-Michelle Harris and Ryder Allen. Favreau serves as writer, executive producer, and director on “Oswald,” while Walt Disney Studios is producing.
At Televerse, Martin was joined by co-stars Martin Short (via remote video) and Selena Gomez, as well as exec producer/showrunner John Hoffman. Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who plays Detective Donna Williams on the show, moderated the Hulu comedy’s panel.
Asked about Season 5, Hoffman revealed that “we do something new, we pull from the headlines of New York today. That’ll be a tease, and you’ll have to figure out what that what I mean by that. But very specifically in ways that are very current right now. And also we go back to the theme that’s always started this, the classic-meets-modern and old versus new.”
The show’s first trailer reveals that this season will include a bit of a mafioso twist as Charles (Martin), Oliver (Short) and Mabel (Gomez) enter the organized crime underworld to investigate the death of Arconia doorman Lester. “This is very much, what is the power game going on in New York that might be reflective of a little bit of what’s going on in the country,” Hoffman said. “And in our own way, we are sort of pointing out some interesting dynamics about who gets the power and who has the power? Who had the power? Who will get it now? And what does our trio do if they’re smack dab in the middle of that? So I hope you enjoy it. We wink at a lot of things that way throughout the season.”
“Only Murders,” which is nominated for an outstanding comedy series Emmy for Season 4, returns for Season 5 on Sept. 9 on Hulu.