How theScott Pilgrim Takes Offco-creators reclaimed the element of surprise.
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Spoilers follow for the entirety ofScott Pilgrim Takes Off.
It was BenDavid Grabinski who proposed the murder.
That was the spark of it, says OMalley.
To start out normally, then suddenly diverge into a big What if?
and do whatever we wanted right after that.
Of course, Scott doesnt actually die inthis adaptation, which came out last week.
Its designed to show you what you may realize you didnt want, says Grabinski.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Were fine with someone being upset because they turned it off and someone else spoils it for them.
You cant rush it.
Doing the show was a microcosm of that structure.
We go normal, normal, normal,crazy.
Its not shocking anymore to learn that this young 20-something love story has video-game fights.
How do we push that concept even further?
I knew studio co-founder Masaaki Yuasa from way back.
His first movie,Mind Game, came out the same year as the first book ofScott Pilgrim.
So it was automatically appealing to work with them.
It was just a matter of Why?
What doesScott Pilgrimhave to say today?
OMalley:And the comic is not a manga.
Theyre very plain in a lot of ways.
Lets talk about that new stuff.
Other characters like Knives do as well.
But our thinking was if you remove that thread, what happens to these people?
How do they grow up when theyre not just in orbit of Scotts narrative?
How is Ramona going to deal with them now that theyre not getting murdered by her boyfriend?
And if the exes dont fight Scott, who do they become as people?
Whats going to happen to the league?
Ive always viewedScott Pilgrimas an ensemble, and I love almost all the characters equally.
I mean theres probably a couple I like more than others.
OMalley:If you take Scott out, what then are all these people so mad about?
What are the alternate forms of conflict resolution that we can use to learn more about them?
That villain scene inthe first episodewas my first North Star for the show.
I just wanted to have more villain scenes, cuz anime is so good at villain scenes.
A lot of this just sort of grew naturally from wanting to do that.
We did it because it was part of the story.
They can do whatever they want.
And then theres weightlessness in terms ofcharacter.
If hes a real human, some people probably wont tolerate his activities.
Grabinski:Its a balance of really heightened and really grounded elements at the same time.
You might think everybodys always gonna be at a ten out of ten.
But they dont realize theres so much quiet stillness to everything.
It borders on a Jarmusch indie.
The thing about anime thats really beautiful is that we can go really big and really small.
It feels of a piece.
It also helps build into how unexpected we wanted the story to be.
A lot of our story instincts really work for the format.
Tell me about that scene.OMalley:I wanted to write stuff I could never write in a comic book.
Obviously, that scene is all about sound.
Not dialogue, not really action.
Theyre just playing instruments.
But its so emotional.
It really works after we put it all together.
I love being able to do that.
In terms of getting older and stuff yeah, totally.
We were making the show mid-COVID.
I was processing a lot of stuff.
Grabinski:Thats my favorite scene of the season.
We were trying to find something that was more complicated and nuanced.
Were just building on top of all this other work.
Im very happy with them.
And thats a totally valid interpretation thats definitely present in the original material.
So it was fun to lean into that in a comedic and pathos-driven way.
Im really happy with how the older Scott evolves from episode seven to episode eight.
But they both have even more to learn from now.
They have this other version of themselves to learn from.
They have this time without each other to learn from.
I cant talk about Old Scott without bringing up Will Forte, because theyre one and the same.
That character needed the right actor or else hed be annoying as hell or just unlikable.
He has an innocence to him even when hes just bluster or is doing really dumb stuff.
He needs to be a silly idiot at times.
Hes the fucking best.MacGrubersmy favorite comedy of all time.
Bryan and I both love it dearly.
One of the greatest, most complicated villain performances of all time.
He does the Will Forte pathetic stuff thats so funny too.
Grabinski:It adds another fun level because the A.K.
Fields are a homage to the A.T. Fields fromEvangelion, so to have that actor doing that is unreal.
Im a huge, huge, huge fan of that show and theRebuilds.
But we cant take any credit for it.
We had no idea he was playing him until we hit play and heard it.
That was all Science SARU.
Because we know that exists, right?
That whole scaffolding aboveScott Pilgrim: the history, the fandom, the debates, the takes.
Its all part of the mix now, and you cant really ignore that.
Its a hard line to walk.
I wanted the upper hand in some regard.
I think it was more the element of surprise.
I wanted to throw them off guard a little bit.
I want it to be a little dangerous.
They dont know what could happen next.
Anybody could die now, you know?
That was really fun to me.
We just took something we both loved and made it feel bigger and more complicated.
I read that the show was green-lit without a cast.
Is that true?Grabinski:Oh yeah.
That was just a big leap of faith.
We had no idea what they would say.
People might take it for granted, but it was not for granted when we were making the show.
Grabinski:We bought 16 lottery tickets, and all of them had to win.
Every performance youre like, Is this as good?
And suddenly youre adding things to your viewing experience that are unnecessary.
How did they all say yes?
Was it an Edgar Wright thing?
Was it a Netflix thing?O Malley:Its pretty much an Edgar thing.
Maybe well do something animated, and theyd be like, Cool, sure, wed love to.
But you never really know what theyre going to say.
Then one day in June last year, Edgar sent a nice email out.
Me and BenDavid wrote a nice note to go along with it.
We sent them the first two scripts, crossing our fingers.
We were over the moon.
So the rest of the day we were not working very much.
We were just waiting for more emails.
By lunchtime, most of the people had said yes.
And we started our day late.
But this isnt a story that I could have told in my 20s.
Its not all pretty.
But we can have fun with it.
Bands and comics and anime theyre always going to be kind of teens, late-teens stuff.
Thats the age to experience that stuff for the first time and to be excited about it.
So, of course, I want to corral all of us in.
Us older kids too.
We deserve a fun show with layers for us.
Im wondering how you feel about that.OMalley:Im less inclined to do tons of references now.
Now every single person on the internet has drawn their character with a raccoon tail fromSuper Mario Bros.
It just doesnt hit the same, as the kids would say.
We found some new references, but for the most part, weve built our own world.
you’ve got the option to reference it, but its not referencing anything else all the time.
This is the world we live in now.
You guys are fucked.
