Warning: SPOILERS for The Hunting Party season 1, episode 1.

NBC's new series, The Hunting Party, had its time slot premiere on Monday, February 3, introducing a batch of intricate characters with many layers to unravel. The show is a "high-concept crime procedural about a small team of investigators who are assembled to track down and capture the most dangerous killers our country has ever seen, all of whom have just escaped from a top-secret prison that’s not supposed to exist." JJ Bailey serves as creator, as well as co-showrunner, executive producer, and writer alongside Jake Coburn.

In October 2024, ScreenRant visited the set in Vancouver alongside other outlets and spoke with stars Melissa Roxburgh, Patrick Sabongui, Josh McKenzie, Nick Wechsler, and Sara Garcia. The cast dives into The Hunting Party's premise, provides insight into their new characters, and discusses how the crime procedural elicits unexpected empathy. However, while the show explains what led the killers to commit such atrocities, it never seeks to condone their actions.

Sabongui, Wechsler, And Garcia Share What Drew Them To The Hunting Party

"Nothing like facing your fears by just doing a serial killer show."

Sabongui, who plays CIA agent Jacob Hassani, reveals that his wife came across the show before he booked the audition. "She called right away," he shares. "She said, 'You were made to play this part, and your whole career has been leading to this role,' and so I had no choice." Meanwhile, Wechsler, who portrays Oliver Odell, enjoys that the show "isn't straightforward" and "has some mystery about it."

He continues on to emphasize that "the series isn't a 'who done it?' but a 'why done it?'"

Garcia's character, Jennifer Morales, doesn't appear in The Hunting Party pilot, but viewers will learn more about the intel officer as the season continues. She jumped at the chance to play a military woman and "embody her family's fighting spirit." Garcia also its the concept of the show scares her, and felt there was "nothing like facing your fears by just doing a serial killer show."

Roxburgh And McKenzie Compare The Hunting Party, Manifest, And La Brea

"The difference here is that it's grounded in reality to a large degree."

While Roxburgh, who plays Rebecca ‘Bex’ Henderson, feels like the show is reminiscent of Criminal Minds, McKenzie, who plays Shane Florence, its the script was unlike anything he was reading at the time.

Josh McKenzie: Specifically about the script, I thought the imagery was quite cool. It didn't feel like anything I was reading at that point, and just the fact that there was a man burning alive in the first few pages was pretty hectic. I was like, "We're taking big swings with this." It was a pretty gripping, pretty engaging read and there was just nothing really like it that I'd been reading.

Melissa Roxburgh: The fact that there's a lot of messed up people and we got to get inside their head. For a while, I wanted to get into criminology and so that was kind of what drew me from an acting standpoint. I watched Criminal Minds a lot growing up and so when this came along it was kind of like an ode to my childhood.

Roxburgh is most well-known for her leading role as Michaela Stone in Manifest. The sci-fi show ran on NBC for three years and was picked up by Netflix for its final season. While there is a running mystery throughout both series, Roxburgh explains the main aspect that sets them apart. "Manifest was very sci-fi based, so there was an out-of-world, out-of-body experience on that one," the actor says. "The difference here is that it's grounded in reality to a large degree. The mystery is just about human beings, which is really nice."

"It's about secrets more so than supernatural elements," McKenzie affirms. "But having that mystery at the core puts it in a category that takes it out of procedural land, or just strictly procedural land." The star also speaks from his experience as Lucas Hayes on NBC's 2021 time travel series. "La Brea had this big secret." he says. "You were just constantly going, 'How the hell are they going to right their way out of this sinkhole?' So that's always exciting and a little daunting, but this one is grounded in more of a reality and psychological world."

The Hunting Party Cast Discuss The Killers' Backstories

"It's not that she agrees with the serial killers, but she has empathy for how they got there."

While The Hunting Party follows the fictional world's most dangerous serial killers, the cast shares that they are not dehumanized. "It is kind of scary to know that someone is one break away from losing their mind because they don't feel loved or because a parent mistreats them or because of X, Y, Z," Roxburgh says. "Honestly, it's made me check in with friends. Don't do anything stupid to yourself or other people because you're in a dark time."

Garcia agrees with Roxburgh's point, stating that "there are people in our society who get left behind."

Sara Garcia: Yeah, that's a really good point, that there are people in our society that get left behind. Some of the killers' backstories are the most heartbreaking. They're heartbreaking stories. Not to justify their actions in any way, shape or form, but you see the humanity even amongst this evil. You see the why, I guess. I think that, oftentimes, we dehumanize, and we forget to see each other as people and to see how we can help.

Melissa Roxburgh: I think Episode 2, specifically, leans into that a lot. And again, not that we're on board with the serial killers. Not good.

Sara Garcia: Totally wrong.

When speaking about Bex's nurturing side, Roxburgh shares that the trait is partly why she's so good at her job. "Not that she agrees with the serial killers, but she has empathy for how they got there," she explains. "Even if by the end she's like, 'They're really messed up,' it's the fact that she wants to know from when they were a kid to how they are now. I think that kind of correlates with how she is as a mom. She's nurturing in that way."

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About NBC's The Hunting Party Season 1

Created By JJ Bailey And Produced By Universal Television

After a secret prison hidden underneath the Wyoming countryside suffers an unexpected explosion, the nation's worst serial killers are once again at large. Former FBI profiler Bex is brought back into the fold alongside an elite team of soldiers, spies and special agents to help track down and recapture these deadly criminals before they kill again.

Thrust into a world of intrigue and conspiracy, Bex must grapple with not only her own complex past, but also the enduring mystery of what was happening at this prison -- and who caused the explosion in the first place.

The Hunting Party season 1 airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.