Scott Pilgrim Takes Off's Big Change Helped Sell The Series To Netflix (Exclusive)

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off might not be what many fans were expecting. Now available to stream on Netflix, the anime adaptation from Science Saru saw series creator Bryan Lee O'Malley team up with executive producer BenDavid Grabinski in returning to the strange world of Toronto. In an exclusive interview, we were able to talk with the creators about the big changes made to the series and how that helped it hit Netflix.

Warning. This interview dives into major story spoilers for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, so be forewarned. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off ends its first episode by proving that things are far different from the graphic novels and the film. In his fight against Matthew Patel, Scott seemingly dies at the end of episode one and the story completely changes from the source material for the remainder of the series. 

Bryan Lee O'Malley, the original creator of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels who has had a heavy hand in both the Netflix series and the previous live-action film, started things off when it came to the major twist. "That was the whole thing, we didn't want to do the same thing. Doing the same thing would be scary for me. Spending three years remaking the exact same thing I made twenty years ago was scary."

BenDavid Grabinski, the producer and writer of the anime adaptation, added his thoughts, "Watching the first twenty minutes of the first episode might help you understand that. If every moment is living in the shadow of the books and the movies, you're just in a comparison game. You're not telling an exciting, engaging story, it's just someone sitting there with their arms crossed saying, "Is this as good as the books? Is this as a good as the movie?" That would be death to me. Spending three years creating something that is compared to the other thing, we just wanted to tell a new story that explored Ramona, the Exes, and we had a premise that gave us the opportunity to do that."

The Twist Was Part of The Pitch

BenDavid expanded on the idea that the big change of telling a new story was a major selling point of the series to Netflix, "The marketing was part of the pitch. We felt very strongly that the best way to enjoy this story was to never know where it's going next. Netflix supported our idea of keeping everything a secret. We hope that when people watch this, they understand the fun is that they might never know where it's going. If we tipped out hat on that beforehand, it would have taken some of the fun out of it."

O'Malley added, "We've definitely been playing the long game when it comes to the marketing. It's been really hard to not tell anyone what the show is about, but we felt it's much more impactful if you go into the show cold." 

BenDavid then joked, "It's all our fault. If anyone's mad after watching it, we took a swing and part of that swing was that we wanted it to be a secret."