There are plenty of horror shows and movies to check out for this Halloween, but you might want to keep an eye on one of MAX’s newest animated series to see some of the creepiest aliens this side of a xenomorph this spooky season. Scavengers Reign focuses on a group of civilians trapped on an alien world, searching for an escape as they dodge creatures and challenges hurled their way by the foreign landscape. Recently, we here at ComicBook.com had the opportunity to chat about the series with Executive Producer James Merrill and Director Benjy Brooke.
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The series first got its start, for those who don’t know, as a short film titled “Scavengers” on Adult Swim in 2016. From creators Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner, the short used a wild animation style to flesh out an alien world that offered treasure for the eye but had just as much, if not more so, terrifying things lying in wait. The new animated show Scavengers Reign expands on this concept, with the series arriving on MAX on October 19th and telling a twisted tale that spans twelve episodes. With three new installments released on a weekly basis, the series has already given animation fans some horrific monstrosities and unique landscapes to take in.
Scavengers Reign’s Terrifying Creatures
Executive Producer James Merrill started the conversation by explaining how the different creative departments were able to work with one another to formulate these creepy creatures, “We’ve used the term beehive when it comes to our departments inspiring one another. We were getting concept designs from our great artists, and while we had the original short and the pilot to work from, we had our art director constantly showing us super out-there things that the department was working on. When Caleb (the art director) would do a new drawing, we would specifically look at that and think about ways on how to integrate that creation into the series. These designs and creatures totally fit with this “regret story” that we’re doing and where these characters are going.”
Director Benjy Brooke then expanded on how the creatures were forged thanks to “nature documentaries” and “strange phenomena” to name a few, “Environmental events and locations drove a lot of story implications. It was sort of a back and forth where we would think to ourselves, ‘Ok, we have this story need, is there a creature that would fit into that?’ We came into this inspired by nature documentaries, strange phenomena in the world that you can extrapolate on. There’s actually a YouTube channel called Primitive Technology that was a huge inspiration for going through this process, some of the things our characters are familiar with and others that they are unfamiliar with.”
Have you caught the first episodes of Scavengers Reign? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the world of the Scavengers.
