eugene levy casts a long shadow as Dan Levy launches his new Netflix series Big Mistakes, which premieres on Netflix April 9 (ET). Dan Levy, actor and co-creator of the series, says the show channels grief into dark comedy and follows siblings from grieving to criminal missteps. Levy spoke about the series while on a short promotional stop in Toronto, framing the project around loss and creative inheritance.
Eugene Levy’s Legacy Shapes the Conversation
Dan Levy repeatedly framed the conversation about Big Mistakes around family and creative lineage, and he invoked the presence of Eugene Levy in those remarks. Dan Levy noted the long-standing creative partnership between Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara, a friendship and comic partnership that pre-dates Dan’s birth. He described the way that partnership influenced the later work the family created together; in creating Schitt’s Creek for CBC, the Levys, father and son, gave O’Hara the role of Moira Rose, a part that became central to her later-career acclaim.
Dan Levy said, “I consider it one of the great honours of my life and of my career to be able to set the table for Catherine O’Hara so that she could just go to town. ” In those remarks he placed Eugene Levy in the same orbit of creative mentorship and long-term collaboration that shaped the Schitt’s Creek era. The dynamic between Dan Levy and his father, and the elder Levy’s long work with O’Hara, is presented by Dan Levy as an active influence on his new storytelling choices.
Big Mistakes: Premise, Cast, and the Role of Grief
Big Mistakes centers on Nicky, played by Dan Levy, a Christian pastor whose sister, a primary-school teacher, commits a large error while they are grieving their grandmother. That impulsive act draws the squeaky-clean siblings into the New Jersey underworld, to grave-robbing and gangsterism. The show pairs Dan Levy’s turn as a spiritual leader with a cast that includes Laurie Metcalf as Linda Dardano, the mother, and co-creator credits that bring Rachel Sennott into the writers’ room; Taylor Ortega co-stars opposite Levy.
Grief is explicit in the creative arc: Dan Levy has used grief as a catalyst previously, most notably in the 2023 Netflix film Good Grief, where he played a man rebuilding himself after a husband’s death. In conversation about Big Mistakes he returned to that well, saying, “When you lose somebody that is irreplaceable, there’s this feeling of ‘Oh gosh, well, how is anyone going to make me feel the way that she made me feel?’” That line connects the show’s darker comic impulses to the personal losses Levy is processing on and off camera.
eugene levy’s decades-long collaboration with Catherine O’Hara is part of the backdrop Dan Levy invoked; the elder Levy worked with O’Hara on SCTV and on films together, and that history informs how the younger Levy talks about mentorship, casting and the gifts performers bring to roles.
What’s Next
Big Mistakes will reach audiences when it premieres on Netflix April 9 (ET), and Dan Levy is continuing a brief promotional tour that has included Toronto stops. Viewers and critics will see how the series balances spiritual themes, family dysfunction and escalating criminal absurdity; Dan Levy has positioned the show as part of an ongoing engagement with grief that stretches from Good Grief to this new series. The public conversation around Catherine O’Hara’s recent passing — and the work of figures like eugene levy who shaped that era — will remain a throughline as Big Mistakes arrives and audiences weigh its tone and legacy impact.
