Interview: Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski on their new Netflix anime series, ‘Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’

The beloved characters of the “Scott Pilgrim” universe are back in a brand new anime series on Netflix, “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.” The series reunites the original film cast to reprise their roles, including Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Ramona Flowers), Satya Bhabha (Matthew Patel), Kieran Culkin (Wallace Wells), Chris Evans (Lucas Lee), Anna Kendrick (Stacey Pilgrim), Brie Larson (Envy Adams), Alison Pill (Kim Pine), Aubrey Plaza (Julie Powers), Brandon Routh (Todd Ingram), Jason Schwartzman (Gideon Graves), Johnny Simmons (Young Neil), Mark Webber (Stephen Stills), Mae Whitman (Roxie Richter), and Ellen Wong (Knives Chau).  

“Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” was created for television by executive producers and co-showrunners Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski. Our very own Hollywood First Look correspondent Law Sharma sat down with O’Malley and Grabinski ahead of the November 17 release date to talk animation style, the stellar cast, and their return to the “Scott Pilgrim” universe.

Law Sharma: I’m a big fan of “Scott Pilgrim,” and this show is fantastic. I was just on Twitter, actually, and Netflix shared the intro to the anime. Every good anime has a pretty iconic intro, but what makes yours special to you?

Bryan Lee O’Malley: Unfortunately, we don’t have the lyrics on there yet, but the song was originally written for the show, and it’s just like this beautiful, poetic kind of meditation on how being in an indie band and stuff is kind of sh*!!y. And then it’s paired with this really upbeat, kind of frantic song. The first time I heard it, I was crying in my kitchen, listening to it for the first time. I always loved anime, and that was one of the first things we said when we started this project, “We’ve got to have that awesome opening.” And they nailed it.

BenDavid Grabinski: We didn’t want it to feel Westernized at all. Like, we love anime opening credits, and we were just really excited to see what they would do. We just wanted it to be really energetic. These are the characters we want to be in it, and other than that, we were like, “Just really do the coolest thing you can do, and just let us see it once you have something.” And we were so excited with what they put together.

Law Sharma: Totally. When I was watching it, the energy was just insane. I was all in from those first few seconds. BenDavid, I want to talk about the insights that maybe Bryan and even working with Edgar Wright contributed to this pretty fresh take on the “Scott Pilgrim” universe. What insights helped you form this with this world?

BenDavid Grabinski: It’s actually a little different than that, which is just that Edgar and Bryan have known each other for a really long time. It was important to Edgar that Bryan was a driving factor here because Bryan is the expert on all things “Scott Pilgrim.” And if there’s anyone who would figure out how to crack an anime thing, it would be him.

Bryan and I had a relationship, and basically, I had some ideas that he really responded to. We decided what we wanted to do, and we brought our ideas to Edgar, and Edgar loved it. It was just a great situation where the guy who made the definitive “Scott Pilgrim” adaptation was excited about what we wanted to do and endorsed it.

If you’re going to go out there and try to make a bold adaptation that’s unexpected and kind of rule-breaking, it’s really helpful to have someone with the credibility of Edgar saying, “I like it.” And he’s like, “I want to reach out to the cast for us.” That’s the best creative partner you could ask for.

Law Sharma: I really did expect another adaptation or something similar to the video game, but I was surprised by what we got. And it was really rich in new story. You get to revisit characters and give them more time to kind of breathe in this anime. Which characters were you most excited to expand upon to give a little bit more life to, if any of them?

Bryan Lee O’Malley: I mean, Ramona was always first on our list, but you know, since you’re wearing the costume, Matthew Patel was definitely high on my list, too, because he gets to go through some new stuff in this season. It just really appealed to us to be able to spend a little bit more time with him and the other evil exes, which is something I always wished I could have done in the comics. Are we doing no spoilers?

Law Sharma: Yeah, I think we’re avoiding major spoilers. But that said, there are big differences between the show, the graphic novel, and the movie, obviously. What was the biggest challenge in making something so specific for a Netflix audience?

Bryan Lee O’Malley: I think the books were probably a little ahead of their time in some ways, sort of anticipating geek culture, like look at your room here. No one had a room like that in 2002 or whatever. When I was starting, it was like I just had conversations with people about Nintendo games, and that was it.

And then the movie comes along like six, seven years later. Now we’re doing this show. Even 13 years after that, almost 20 years after I started. So, the culture has changed. Our relationship with the culture has changed. We’ve gotten older, the audience has gotten younger, and that all has to be a factor in this adaptation.

BenDavid Grabinski: I think the biggest hurdle is one we created for ourselves, which is that we wanted to make a show that was surprising and rewarding for diehard fans and also something that worked for people who had never seen any version of it. So, to do both of those things at once is like a very complicated bullseye you’re trying to hit.

I think we pulled it off. That’s up to the audience to decide. But that was our goal the whole time, to make something entertaining if you’re a kid who’s never seen any version, but if you’re a big fan, you’d be shocked and surprised constantly.

Law Sharma: Obviously, you have all these returning players, and it was so cool for me to hear their voices in new situations for all these characters. Who stood out to you in their performance for the anime series?

BenDavid Grabinski: There are people who I knew would stand out. I know Brandon well, and I’ve worked with him a bunch. And there are people you know are such pros that they’ll be great. The people who are surprising are people who’ve never done animation before. Like Ellen as Knives just at all times embraced the anime of it all so well, and she was so theatrical and big, and her line readings were just never anything I expected. She embraced it in such a big way. She has some line readings to me that are just from outer space in the best possible way.

A lot of people were like that, and some of it is the surprise of how seriously people took it. Like Chris Evans was so unbelievably prepared, he showed up knowing the script front and back, like in one take, could be perfect. Never missed a line. Just having someone be so professional about something so silly is a dream.

Law Sharma: I want to talk about the art style because it does have a hand-drawn feel to some of the elements. And then, when you’re going into action sequences, it’s incredibly dynamic with all these flying ninjas and camera lenses changing. Did you have a hand in that in the storyboarding process as well?

Bryan Lee O’Malley: I had the tiniest, tiniest part. It was mostly our director, Abel Góngora, and obviously Science SARU. Each episode is boarded entirely, start to finish by one person. Abel did the first and the last episode, and then another person did each of the ones in between. So yeah, it was not just that they would pick the camera angles, but they would be able to draw them in a way I never could. Like if you’re picking some crazy angle, these guys can pull it off, and they would consistently surprise us in so many ways.

BenDavid Grabinski: We would write a script and then get thousands of storyboards for the script, and then we go over every frame and give feedback. But our feedback was never, “This is how you should draw it.” We would just be focusing on emotion or plot or character and try to get out of their way as much as possible because they were so inspired, and aesthetically, they were always on point.

Sometimes we would rewrite our scripts based on their art, and the work that they were doing. It was a great process. They made our writing better, and then we’d push things further. It just was a really good collaboration. We were trying to be respectful of the process because they don’t usually have outside showrunners on anything, but they had been so respectful to us about what we needed and our scripts. The whole process was just a really good situation where they were very respectful of our writing, and we tried to be very respectful of their artistic approach. I think it just made everybody better.

Law Sharma: I do want to talk about the music. There’s at least one song that I recognize and a bunch of new ones, including the fantastic intro song. Who was in charge of bringing that music into the project? What was the direction behind that?

Bryan Lee O’Malley: The music is pretty much both of us.

BenDavid Grabinski:  The music was our biggest passion. We had very strong ideas of how we wanted to push the world of “Scott Pilgrim” into a lot of music areas that the movie and video game had not covered while also doing stuff in that vein. There are a lot of original songs, all of the band ones, Bryan worked with Anamanaguchi, and then there are some that are kind of a spoiler that we wrote together with our composer. It was just a great mix of things. 

Our score was Joseph Trapanese and the band… there’s so much score and sometimes, Bryan would be working on original songs, and I would be focusing on the score, or the needle drops split between the two of us. I love all his choices, and he loves mine. Half the needle drops on the show are mine, and half are Bryan’s ideas.

There’s just this huge different landscape of music for the show. One of the most exciting things to us is to push the concept of what “Scott Pilgrim” music can be. And I think it goes in some places audiences will be surprised by, to say the least.

Bryan Lee O’Malley: Since the dialog was being done in English, we thought it would make sense to develop all the songs over here, and then that extended to score. I think that was one of our biggest jobs as producers on the show. We didn’t have a music supervisor, so we were just talking about music constantly and working it out bit by bit.

BenDavid Grabinski: Yeah, the score has a full choir singing in it and then we have to go on a stage and get a whole choir chanting things. There were just so many different elements to it, but it was so exciting because it was never the same thing. Every day was a different challenge.

Law Sharma: I hope that we can reconnect and talk spoilers because I have a lot more questions about Easter eggs and the cameos that happen. Congratulations to you both. 

“Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” is a whirlwind adventure that has our hero embarking on the ultimate quest for romance. When Scott Pilgrim stumbles upon the enchanting Ramona Flowers, the girl of his dreams, he must take on not one, not two, but seven evil exes to win her heart.

This time, the love story gets a turbo boost as it’s reimagined once again from the beloved graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley. “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” catapults Ramona Flowers, her league of nefarious exes, Scott, and his quirky band of friends into a brand-new, action-packed anime journey to unlock the mysteries of love. 

Expect epic battles, hilarious escapades, and more heart-pounding excitement than ever before. It’s the ultimate showdown for love, a rollercoaster ride you won’t want to miss. Strap in and enjoy. Your heart will thank you later.

“Scott Pilgrim Takes Off” is available to stream on Netflix starting November 17.