Agent Elvis Showrunners Talk Show’s Origins

Agent Elvis is now streaming on Netflix as a surreal animated series in which the King of Rock And Roll finds himself becoming an agent for a secret organization attempting to save the world. With the series assembling a star-studded cast including Matthew McConaughey as Elvis, along with Jackass’ Johnny Knoxville, It’s Always Sunny’s Kaitlin Olsen, and The Avengers’ Don Cheadle, the show was brought to life thanks to creators John Eddie, Mike Arnold, and Priscilla Presley. Speaking with Mike and John, Comicbook.com was able to learn more about the origins of Agent Elvis. 

Co-Creator, Executive Producer, and Co-Showrunner John Eddie started the discussion by documenting the earlier days of the Netflix animated original, “The super early steps, we pitched it to Priscilla Presley in 2012 and it was inspired by the famous photo of Elvis and Richard Nixon, where the King offered his services as a D.E.A. agent, battling the evils of ‘counter culture’. We pitched it as an animated show as if directed by Quentin Tarantino, we wanted it to be violent and have sex and drugs and speak to the times for that timeline. We wanted it to be animated because we’re huge Elvis fans, and while there have been some great live-action actors playing the King, it always seemed to us that they weren’t able to look like him. It’s hard to capture and he was a beautiful human being. He was from another planet as far as I’m concerned.”

Agent King

Originally, the series was titled “Agent King”, but was eventually changed to Agent Elvis as the showrunners explained, “It was originally called Agent King, which was because we weren’t sure that we would be able to use the title ‘Agent Elvis’ due to licensing issues.”

Showrunner, Executive Producer, and Head Writer Mike Arnold explained that the concept was simply too much not to dive headfirst into, “When I first met John and heard about the idea, the notion of Elvis partnered up with a coked-up chimp with a shotgun just sounded like too much fun not to get into.”

Will you be checking out Agent Elvis this weekend? What other real-life figures could work as animated super spies? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly on Twitter @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of Elvis Presley.