Scott Pilgrim Takes Off’s creators talked about the Netflix series’ massive swerve. It feels like BenDavid Grabinski and Bryan Lee O’Malley heard some of the fan chatter and decided to do something about it. The Hollywood Reporter interviewed the series creators about the choice to take Scott Pilgrim off the board in the anime adaptation. For the duo, it makes sense because of how the fandom reacts to the title character in a lot of the discussions about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World now.
In essence, the conversations about Michael Cera’s hero being the least interesting thing about his own narrative struck a chord with Grabinski and O’Malley. As an added bonus, the choice allowed them to delve into all those evil exes and background characters that have become cult favorites over the years. Here’s what they told THR about Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“We were talking about [how the fandom] seems to hate Scott now, that he’s the worst character in his own story,” Grabinski explained. “So why don’t we give the people what they want and just take him off the street?”
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Went Meta
Fans were excited about the prospect of more Scott Pilgrim. But, getting the actual cast onboard was its own heavy lift too. However, Mary Elizabeth Winstead told ScreenRant that the “meta” approach to the story definitely spoke to her particularly. It feels like the swerve allowed Ramona to really step to the front and grab some agency. A lot of the fans found that change interesting.
“Definitely,” Winstead began. “It was really meaningful for me to get to have Ramona be more of the focus and to get to explore her, emotionally, a bit more. I think we all really identified with our characters at the time when we made the movie, and there’s something really personal about Ramona for me, so to get to look back at her as a character and also look back at myself at that time, and think about all the things that I would like to get to say to that character, or say about that character, or to myself… it was all very meta.
“The show feels [meta], obviously, but it felt that way making it as well. We were all sort of looking back at our former selves with this new lens and bringing all of that history to these characters, and who they were then, and where they’re going,” she added. “That was a very cathartic and emotional thing to get to do that I didn’t really expect. I didn’t really realize it was going to feel that way until I was actually recording it.”
Did you like the twist of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off? Catch all of our pop culture discussion at @ComicBook on social media!
