Netflix’s anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off looks like a fantastic adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic, and this time around it’s going to be a little different and it will put a new spin on the franchise. According to the show’s co-creator, BenDavid Grabinski: “If you think you know what you’re going to see, you don’t.”
During an interview with The Los Angeles Times, the producers of the series offered some additional insight into the anime.
O’Malley went on to say that the show will explore all of the story’s characters in more depth, saying: “We’re trying to get into people’s heads more because when I was 25 years old, I didn’t know what these people were feeling necessarily. But I’ve seen a lot more life and I have more context for those characters now.”
Grabinski specifically mentions diving into Ramona Flowers more and says: “It’s been so fun to try to just give you so much more of an emotional connection to her and adding as much shading as we can.
O’Malley then went on to reveal that Flowers’ evil exes will also be explored further saying: “I think my main regret that I’ve expressed about the books is that I didn’t get enough time to develop the evil exes. Especially after knowing the casting, it [felt] like, oh, we should have more scenes with the evil exes.”
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off sees the return of the cast of Edgar Wright’s film which includes Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers, Satya Bhabha as Matthew Patel, Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells, Chris Evans as Lucas Lee, Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim, Brie Larson as Envy Adams, Alison Pill as Kim Pine, Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers, Brandon Routh as Todd Ingram, Jason Schwartzman as Gideon Graves, Johnny Simmons as “Young” Neil Nordegraf, Mark Webber as Stephen Stills, Mae Whitman as Roxie Richter, and Ellen Wong as Knives Chau.
Wright previously talked about the project, saying: “Luckily, the Scott Pilgrim cast became a close-knit family, and friendships were forged for life. There — to this day — is still a group email with the entire cast on it, that’s been going since 2010. I was happy to be able to reach out to everyone with the news that we had finally come up with a way to continue the adventure. Seeing (and hearing) everyone come back to their roles has been a true pleasure.”
He continued, “Over the years fans had asked if there would be a sequel to the film or some other kind of continuation. I knew that a live-action sequel was unlikely, but I would usually defer by suggesting that perhaps an anime adaptation was an interesting way to go. And then, lo and behold, one day Netflix got in touch to ask about this exact idea. But even better, our brilliant creator Bryan Lee O’Malley had an idea that was way more adventurous than just a straight adaptation of the original books.”
The eight-episode first season of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off will arrive on Netflix on Friday, November 17.
