SCOTT PILGRIM Creator Initially Told Netflix "Hell No!" to an Anime Series
It turns out that when Netflix initially approached Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan O'Malley about making an anime series based on his graphic novels, he was not interested at all and turned them down. During an interview with SFX magazine, O’Malley said when they asked him about it, "I was like 'Hell no!'"
It was his long-time friend and co-showrunner of the series, BenDavid Grabinski, who ended up persuading him to change his mind when O'Malley mentioned the proposal during a random get-together. Grabinski said:
"Almost everything I mentioned over that dinner is in the show. There are a lot of twists and turns, and most of them came together extremely quickly, just in that conversation. That was not a meeting with the goal of doing a show, but Bryan went back to Netflix and said, 'Hey, I know what the show wants to be, and I know who I want to do it with.' And now, years later, we have a show."
O’Malley added: "That dinner will become legend among certain fans.” From there, O’Malley got the original film’s director Edgar Wright involved, and then the entire original cast from the film jumped on board, and the series look freakin’ great!
The eight-episode series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’s returning cast 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.
When previously talking about the project, series showrunner and EP BenDavid Grabinski says the show will have “unbelievably big” action sequences that could only be pulled off in the medium of animation. He explained: “There’s an extended fight sequence in Episodes 2 and 3 that, if this was a live-action movie, would cost more than Avatar. If you made a live-action movie of the show that we did, I think it would be the most expensive movie ever, and you’d be shooting for ten years.”
Wright said: "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."
Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski, the author and artist of the graphic novels published from 2004 to 2010, will serve as executive producers, writers, and showrunners. Wright will serve as executive producer while Science SARU will serve as the animation studio with executive producer Eunyoung Choi and director Abel Gongora.
The eight-episode first season of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off will arrive on Netflix on Friday, November 17th.