Lucky Showrunners Jonathan Tropper & Cassie Pappas Explain Why the Series Refuses to Be Just Another Crime Thriller

One of the most highly anticipated shows of the summer is Apple TV’s Lucky, a seven-episode adaptation of Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel.

Starring Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular heroine, a con artist pursued by both the FBI and a ruthless mob boss, the series promises intense action and thrills while exploring what it means to be a good person.

TV Fanatic recently spoke with showrunners Jonathan Tropper and Cassie Pappas about setting this story to the screen.

In adapting the novel to the series, you chose to make some significant changes to the narrative. What aspects were you most interested in preserving in the adaptation?

Jonathan Tropper: I had long talks with the author, Marissa [Stapley], about this. Cassie and I both felt that the essence of the story was this complicated father-daughter relationship and Lucky coming to terms with it and overcoming it.

That was something we wanted to make sure remained the mandate of the show. We stayed very true to that and to the themes Marissa was exploring around that.

But then, in order to make the kind of taut thriller we wanted to make, we had to generate a different kind of plot that would lend itself to that. We had Marissa’s blessing to do that as long as she felt we were taking care of her characters, which we made sure to do.

When you were writing for Lucky and the ensemble of characters around her, where did you find the tensions that moved the story forward?

Cassie Pappas: We discovered in the writers’ room and then on the page in Episode 2, there was a moment where… because the pilot had been written when the writers’ room started, and the pilot is a full sprint.

So we knew that Episode 2 was going to be an opportunity for an emotional downbeat, for her to hide, for her to lick her wounds.

And we were able to find this beautifully tense moment where Lucky’s inside the house and Agent Billie Rand, the FBI agent (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), is at the door.

The next 10-15 minutes that follow are some of the most tense, suspenseful moments, and there’s no action; there’s barely any dialogue. And that’s when I knew that this show could live in different spaces but maintain that tension.

On the page, when we first read Episode 2, it felt like a real epiphany of like, “Oh, our hair doesn’t always have to be on fire for it to be edge-of-your-seat.”

Lucky’s relationships often evolve suddenly. Was there a specific relationship that spoke to you?

JT: Beyond the relationship she has with her father, which is the crux of the series, her relationship with Priscilla is really interesting. First of all, Lucky’s a girl with no mother. Right?

Based on their past, which we hint to in the book, there’s this weird, almost maternal nature Priscilla has even as a mobster.

In all of the conflict between Lucky and Priscilla — and there’s some genuine animosity there — I do think there’s an underlying respect they each have for each other.

Pitting these two adversaries against each other when… y’know, she’s her mother-in-law! There’s so much going on beneath the surface between the two of them.

There’s also a sense that Priscilla, as a young woman, was probably not dissimilar to Lucky. Lucky’s at a crossroads that Priscilla turned right at that Lucky is desperately trying to turn left at.

That relationship, to me, every time those two are bumping against each other feels energized and fraught and alive in a way that I find very satisfying.

Tell me about assembling this incredible cast. Who was the actor you couldn’t believe that you got?

CP: Anya was attached from the beginning before Jonathan and I came on, so we didn’t have that shock and awe moment of like, “Oh! We got her!” She was already there, y’know? But she was why both of us were so excited to work on this with her.

But I would say when we got Annette, because Annette was our number one choice. When she read the script and was leaning in, I think we all had a pinch-myself kind of moment.

JT: Yeah, we still do. Even in post, when we’d be editing the show, we’d be looking at Annette on screen, and we’re like, “Oh, Annette Bening’s in our show!” We still pinch ourselves.

Get ready to pinch yourselves, Fanatics, when the double-decker series premiere of Lucky arrives on July 15 on Apple TV.

With a cast spearheaded by superstars Anya Taylor-Joy and Annette Bening and rounded out by Timothy Olyphant, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and William Fichtner, this could be the action thriller of the summer. Are you ready?

Hit our comments with whose casting you’re most intrigued by. Who are you tuning in for?

Did you read the book? If so, how do you feel about the changes to the tone of the narrative?

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