Kristen Wiig on How That ‘Palm Royale’ Season 2 Twin Twist Was Inspired by ‘Bewitched’ and ‘I Dream of Jeannie’

SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from “Palm Royale,” Episode 6, “Maxine Finds Herself,” now streaming on Apple TV.

Just when we think that Kristen Wiig has done it all, the comedy gods at “Palm Royale” toss us a happy little surprise — they give her character of Maxine a twin sister. “Weirdly, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Wiig says.

When Maxine comes home to find a mirror image of herself passed out on a sofa in her foyer, she lets out a gasp and asks who she is. The bleary-eyed lookalike says, “I’m Mirabelle. Your sister.” Unaware that she had a sister, let alone a twin, Maxine rapid-fires questions to get to know her, everything from her favorite pasta shape to why she’s so drunk in the middle of the afternoon. Mirabelle says she usually doesn’t over indulge like this, “I was just a little nervous, you know, about meeting the famous Maxine.” Those are flattering words to Maxine’s ears, and she encourages her to go on. But what she learns about who raised Mirabelle hits her hard, although she tries her best to hide it.

Related Stories

'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Could Burn Out at the Oscars With Franchise Fatigue Among Voters

National Board of Review Winners 2025: 'One Battle After Another' Dominates With Best Film, Director, Three Acting Prizes

While the series of events that rolls out confuses some and results in an unfortunate case of mistaken identity, it titillates Douglas (Josh Lucas), who is clueless to the fact that the carefree woman who looks like Maxine, is not, in reality, Maxine at all.

Wiig says that when they were batting around ideas for the second season of the Apple TV series, a photo that production took during Season 1 of Wiig’s Maxine and Allison Janney’s Evelyn together, caught their eye.

“We were like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Samantha from “Bewitched” and Endora!” Wiig says, referring to the classic TV sitcom of the 1960s and ‘70s that starred Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha, a witch who marries a mortal man, Darrin, much to her haughty mother, Endora’s, chagrin. “And then we started thinking, ‘Oh my God. Well, Douglas is totally Darrin.’ It was hilarious. Then we were thinking of really embracing what the show is and like the bigness, the broadness, the farce of it all.”

The more they thought about it, the more they realized that other comedy series of that era — which is also the time period “Palm Royale” is set — had another thing in common, something that would be a fun turn to take in Maxine’s story. Samantha had a twin cousin named Serena (also played by Montgomery), on “I Dream of Jeannie,” Barbara Eden played dual characters of Jeannie and her twin sister who was only referred to as Jeannie II, and on “The Brady Bunch,” Peter (played by Christopher Knight) had a doppelgänger named Arthur.

“[Creator/showrunner] Abe [Sylvia] was like, ‘What if Maxine has a twin?’ And I said, ‘Please!’” Wiig remembers. “I’ve always thought that would be so fun to do. And it just kind of fit in this weird world that is being created.”

Wiig’s two characters may look alike, but that’s where the similarities end. “Maxine figures out what she wants, and she goes and gets it. But she always wants something,” Wiig says with a laugh. “I think that is kind of relatable. These days, things being so available to us and how technology is such a big part of our life, we’re just used to getting things quickly. I think there’s something about Maxine seeing what other people have — that could go into like the whole social media of the world today — but it’s funny because she wants what other people have, but she’s also super comfortable and happy being herself. She doesn’t necessarily wanna change. She just wants stuff.”

On the flip side, Wiig doesn’t think Mirabelle is really motivated by money or status or things, the way Maxine is. “I think she’s got a lot of Maxine in her, obviously, but I think because she grew up where she did, and with their parents and not in an orphanage, she’s just has a totally different outlook on life,” Wiig says. “I think they share being very ambitious and doing what you need to do to get what you want. But I do think there’s like a sweetness in there that Mirabelle grew up with her parents being sort of con artists. She just had a harder upbringing than Maxine in a different way.”