Jake Weary has seen those jokes about how The Waterfront is Outer Banks for an older generation.
“I saw someone comment on the trailer, ‘This looks like Outer Banks for boomers.’ I thought that was pretty funny,” Weary, 35, admitted during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly about Kevin Williamson‘s new Netflix show. “But I’ve actually never seen Outer Banks.”
The inaugural episode of The Waterfront, which premiered on Thursday, June 19, featured a subtle reference to the Outer Banks universe when Jenna (Humberly González) discussed her job at a newspaper.
“They asked me to write this piece about the preservation of the Outer Banks lighthouses,” she shared. “And I am dozing off just telling you about it.”
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Weary weighed in on whether her comment could hint at an upcoming crossover. “Maybe there are some elements that can tie us together,” he noted. “I don’t know [about] crossover potential but I know Kevin loves the show, so we’ll see.”
In a separate interview, González, 33, showed her support for the notion that the two shows could cross paths as well.
“It would be so cool to have a crossover. I think Outer Banks is maybe already done. I know that they got renewed for their last and final season,” she teased. “Is this something that they’re trying to do together?”
Outer Banks, which debuted in 2020, follows the conflict between two groups of teenagers in a coastal North Carolina town. Then there is The Waterfront, which is centered around a dysfunctional family as they struggle to keep their crumbling North Carolina fishing empire afloat.
“When you read the pilot episode, you have a complicated cast of characters and they’re constantly being kind of thrown into an environment that is uncomfortable for them. That’s always interesting to see — especially in a drama,” Weary told Us. “But the thing that I really loved about reading the pilot was that it was funny and there are these moments of levity that actually made me laugh out loud. That’s that element of the show that I think is really what’s going to be the thing that brings viewers back.”
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Weary credited Williamson for creating such memorable small town shows.
“You have The Vampire Diaries and Dawson’s Creek. Then he has the horror world and he’s so adaptable,” he shared. “That’s what makes him so unique as a creator. It was not what I expected at all.”
Despite being very aware of Williamson’s TV universe, Weary didn’t become a part of it until The Waterfront, adding, “Growing up, I had seen a few Dawson’s Creek episodes. My sister was a massive fan and she always used to say that I looked like Joshua Jackson from the show — like a young Joshua Jackson.”
He continued: “And I actually was shooting a movie in Vancouver when they were shooting the pilot for The Vampire Diaries. So we all got together and Twilight was also shooting at the same time. There was also Percy Jackson shooting at the same time. So all of us were staying in the same hotel and we all got to know each other and that was just really cool to see all these worlds come together.”
The Waterfront is currently streaming on Netflix.
