Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Duster Episode 2.
Two episodes in, the new HBO Max original series Duster, co-created by LaToya Morgan and J.J. Abrams, is already a pretty wild ride — although maybe that’s to be expected when your lead character is a getaway driver for an Arizona mob boss. This week, things heat up a little more for Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway), as he strikes a deal with yet another leader in Arizona’s criminal underworld, Sunglasses, played by Patrick Warburton. In exchange for his assistance in silencing corrupt cop Sergeant Groomes (Donal Logue), Sunglasses, himself a bona fide collector of Elvis Presley memorabilia, charges Jim with going to the King’s Palm Springs house and swiping his iconic blue suede shoes. Given that the episode starts with Jim digging a hole in the desert to bury a body later that same day, clearly the deal doesn’t go according to plan — but how it goes down is more than worth the journey. Meanwhile, as her investigation into Jim’s boss, Ezra Saxton (Keith David), continues, FBI Agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) finally reveals the truth to her partner, Awan Bitsui (Asivak Koostachin), about why this case is so personal for her.
Ahead of the premiere of Episode 2, Collider had the opportunity to sit down with Morgan, who co-writes the episode with Abrams, for a longer breakdown of some of the biggest moments that play out this week. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Morgan explains why the episode begins where it does, why she wrote Sunglasses with Warburton specifically in mind, how Adrienne Barbeau ended up playing both a fictional character and casting her younger self at that Elvis house party, and more.
COLLIDER: One aspect of this week’s episode that really jumped out to me is the storytelling device of opening with the scene of Jim digging in the desert and then jumping back to hours before. What inspired that choice?
LATOYA MORGAN: It was an intentional decision to have the audience really lean into what’s happening, and then trying to figure out, “Where could this go?” I want the audience to always try to pick up the clues. You see Jim’s got a body, he’s wearing bowling shoes. Why would he be wearing bowling shoes? It’s night. It’s the middle of the desert. There are so many crazy things, especially coming off the pilot, where we’re setting the table. The idea is to have the audience be asking those questions. Who is this? How did he get there? And we liked it so much that we did it a couple more times. [Laughs] It’s not in all the episodes, but it’s definitely something that is a device that I think really lends to the audience being drilled down into the storytelling.
I love that [Duster] takes what we most commonly think of as a Mafia/mob trope and finds a way to upend expectations. This week, Jim gets called into a meeting with Sax, and the chairs are covered in plastic, which ultimately leads to him having this moment of relief that he hasn’t been found out yet. It feels like it’s done for humor, too — like the show’s not taking itself too seriously.
MORGAN: Yes, that exactly — and the idea of what you said at the beginning, which is to defy expectations wherever we can. I loved the idea of Saxton being this traditional gangster that we would know, or mafioso, but at the same time, he is this well-rounded, three-dimensional guy who is also just a businessman. Something happens to your ceiling sometimes, and you’ve got to get it spackled while you’re taking care of business and talking about gun shipments and whatever other nefarious things you’re doing. It’s the balance of finding the humor in the moments and defying expectations, which is something I think we try to do throughout the season.
‘Duster’s LaToya Morgan Wanted Patrick Warburton To Play Sunglasses From the Beginning

“You just can’t take your eyes off of him.”

Image via HBO Max

Patrick Warburton as Sunglasses is such perfect casting. Did you have anybody specific in mind when you were writing the character, or did you tailor the character more to Patrick once he was cast?
MORGAN: Yes. I for sure wanted a Patrick Warburton type, because he has that great voice and is so good at being the heavy. We were just amazed. I was so excited when he said he wanted to be a part of the show. But there’s no one who commands like he does, even in the tiniest little gestures, so it’s so funny to see him effortlessly in that scene across from Jim in the booth. You just can’t take your eyes off of him. It was just the opportunity to do something where he could play something so stylish. He’s dressed to the nines. He looks amazing. He gets to be this obsessive memorabilia guy. Also, there’s some violence. It was a great culmination of all the things that he was excited to do.
This episode introduces a recurring theme, which is Jim constantly racing against the clock. This man is on a deadline so many times this season, but this feels like one of the first instances, with him having to break into Elvis’s house to steal the iconic blue suede shoes. What inspired the decision to continually put him on a ticking clock?
MORGAN: From the jump, we always wanted Jim to be racing the clock. That’s his job as a driver. He’s always got to get to point A, to point B, and there’s a window of time that he has to get it in. That’s why we opened the pilot the way that we do. He has to get the heart there on time or someone will die. That’s literal life and death stakes. Jim is the type of person who is juggling plates all the time. He’s trying to fix one thing while this other thing is leaking, and he does it with all the style and charm. It just seemed right to the essence of his character, who’s constantly putting out fires, and talking his way out of God-knows-where at any moment, and that’s really the fun of being with him in every episode.
‘Duster’s LaToya Morgan Confirms Why Elvis Presley Doesn’t Show Up in Episode 2

“The timeline of our show is very specific…”

Image via HBO Max

We’ve previously talked about the show introducing real-life figures, and one of the first instances is Colonel Tom Parker. Was it always meant to be him in the episode, or did you ever toy with the idea of Jim running into Elvis Presley at his own party?
MORGAN: It’s so funny you say that. One of the things that I was excited about was just that there was, first of all, this Elvis house, this honeymoon house. That is a real thing in history. We had done some digging and looked into his tour dates, where we knew that Elvis probably couldn’t be at the party, because the timeline of our show is very specific, but we loved the idea of having Tom Parker there as a surrogate. That’s why we did the phone call where he really is talking to Elvis. But it’s funny you asked that, because we were supposed to have more celebrity lookalike people at the party, so that part didn’t quite work out, but we have a few that are in the chatter, in the background. If you listen carefully, they’re talking about people. Genesis mentions Warren Beatty, and things like that. I love to keep those real-life people alive in the background of the show.
I was curious about the very meta decision to cast someone as Adrienne Barbeau in your show while you actually have the real Adrienne Barbeau playing Evelyn Breen — who, as we see, has this deeper connection to the bigger conspiracy around the Saxton investigation. Did you get her thoughts about having someone play her at a younger age?
MORGAN: Yes! It was incredible, because as soon as we knew we were going to do this Elvis party, and we wanted to have celebrities, we knew that we wanted to have some representation of really fun, recognizable actors from the ‘70s. We started talking about Adrienne Barbeau because we’re both big fans of Adrienne’s. As we were thinking about having a younger version of her, we knew that we were also going to have this role of Evelyn Breen, and I was like, “Do you think she would be in the show as someone else and have a younger version of herself?” When we reached out, she was absolutely delighted. She was so thrilled to be in it. We called her on the phone, and we talked to her together, and she was so excited.
Then, we showed her the audition clips for the top actresses we were considering to play the younger version of her, and she picked the one that she loved the most. It was a great collaboration. Then, she had the flu, but she was incredible when she came and was such a trooper. She played the hell out of that role. It was just an incredible opportunity to do a wink and a nod for the people who are paying attention, who are going to be like, “Wait, is that Adrienne?” Yeah, it is her!

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One of the things I really like about this show, too, is how often it offers action in tandem with comedy. Some of that has to do with how Josh [Holloway] often plays those scenes, too. When do you feel it’s OK to lean into a more comedic fight scene, even though that Jim/Sunglasses fight is technically a fight to the death?
MORGAN: It’s very serious. Jim, as a character, is the driver. Yes, he is familiar with violence. Yes, he’s around violence, but Billy is the guy who does the violence. Jim’s slightly outside of his element when these things happen. The fight in the pilot is probably the most comedic one — not of all of them, but there’s a comedy element. Then, with Sunglasses, while Jim went to get the blue suede shoes from Elvis’s house, Sunglasses just shot Groomes, and his brother died. It’s just madness. Josh has no shoes on in the fight, so that’s already adding a danger and a comedic element to it. We just kind of roll that way. I think the fight with Sunglasses is a little darker than the one in the pilot, and as the story goes on, the violence in the fights gets more serious. But with everything, there’s always going to be just a little bit of comedy, because that’s the way life is. Nothing is all one thing or the other.
This is also the week when Nina finally tells Awan what her personal stake is in this mission and what really drove her to pursue Saxton, which is his role in her father’s death. What made you want to reveal that after two episodes in, rather than letting the truth spool out a bit longer?
MORGAN: I think it was the right time for her to share and really drop the veil and be vulnerable with this person. Awan is telling her, “You’re asking me to do all these crazy things. You’re asking me to break into these places and break all these rules, so you have to really be honest with me.” And I think it’s a great opportunity for the audience to really understand what’s at stake for Nina and what this case means to her. It’s not just ticking boxes, or it’s not even solely about her ambition and moving up in the world. It’s about this wound that she has from being a child and wanting justice — maybe a little bit of revenge, but mostly justice — for what has been taken from her.
I just think it’s such a great moment between Rachel [Hilson] and Asivak [Koostachin]. The way they played it was so gorgeous. It was late at night when we shot that, and, oh my god, I don’t even know how they had the energy to still be emoting the way that they were. You get to really see, not just the history of what has happened with Nina, but the bond that started to form between the two of them when the trust is building. That was really the most important part of it for me.
New episodes of Duster premiere Thursdays on HBO and HBO Max.

Duster

Release Date

May 14, 2025

Network

Max

Directors

Steph Green