How Steven Universe: The Movie Came Together

Steven Universe: The Movie is drawing ever closer, with the official premiere set for this coming Monday. The anticipation among fans is palpable, and while we can’t reveal any spoilers about the film, we did have a chance to talk with creator Rebecca Sugar for nearly an hour about everything from the film’s mysterious villain to casting and beyond. One of our first questions, however, was about how the movie came into existence.

Now, we can only reveal one part of this answer, as there’s a more detailed one we can share after the film premieres. But Sugar discussed at length how certain sequences from the show were stealth preparation for the film, and that it was the studio that broached the topic of a movie musical.

ComicBook.com: How did the idea for the movie come about?

Rebecca Sugar: A while ago while I was working on the series, the studio came to me and asked if I would be interested in doing a movie musical of Steven, which I said, “Yes, absolutely,” but there was so much story that I wanted to tell with the series that I couldn’t put that story before. All of this big ramp-up through “Change Your Mind,” so much of what we were doing with the series was actually us preparing to do this huge musical. Episodes like “Mr. Greg,” and sequences like “For Just One Day Let’s Only Think About Love” and “Reunited” were us getting ready for this huge endeavor. That’s where it started. I’m such a huge fan of musicals. For years, I started studying as we were getting ready every musical I could get my hands on, writing down what was working and what wasn’t working, and every movie that was made from a television show, and trying to figure out how to do the best of both.

*****

What do you think of how Sugar describes the origins of the film? Are you excited to check it out when it premieres? Let us know in the comments, or hit me up directly on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk all things animation! You can also check out our full review of the film, which we gave 5 out of 5, right here.

Steven Universe: The Movie is scheduled to premiere Monday, September 2nd, at 6PM ET on Cartoon Network.