Primal Creator Worried About “Jumping the Shark” With Season 3’s Zombie Twist

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal is now back in action on Adult Swim for Season 3 of the animated series, and the creator behind it all opened up about his fear of kicking off the new season with a massive zombie twist for Spear. Primal Season 2 came to an end with as conclusive of a potential ending as you could ask for as it resulted in the death of its main star, Spear. But the surprise heading into the third season is that Spear is back in the spotlight as a zombie revived through ancient magics and forced to wander the wasteland.

Speaking to ComicBook to celebrate the third season of the series, Primal series creator Genndy Tartakovsky was initially worried about coming into the third season with a zombie version of Spear after everything the character had gone through. Explaining that while he loved the idea for the third season, he was trepidatious of “that jumping the shark turn” that would signal to fans that they might have gone too far with its world this time around.

Primal’s Creator Talks About Bringing Spear Back as a Zombie

“The whole idea of him being a zombie, I loved,” Tartakovsky explained. “But you’re always afraid of that jumping the shark turn. That moment of ‘Did we go too far? Did we not build into it correctly?’ And all this kind of stuff. But it was a short-lived concern because I felt so good about it and where the stories go emotionally.” As for where the story is heading emotionally, Tartakovsky reflected on the end of that second season and where it has left fans heading into the new season. But the creator’s hope that fans are surprised by the end of it all.

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“I think a lot of people, that’s what they were afraid of…not afraid of, but maybe sad with the ending of the second season,” Tartakovsky stated. “Because it’s kind of bittersweet, right? And I like bittersweet endings. I don’t like everything being so perfect. But in this case, the people hopefully have a pleasant surprise at the end.” Without giving too much away about what’s coming in future episodes, the creator hopes that the end of this season helps everything to make sense for fans emotionally in terms of both the Season 2 and Season 3 endings.

Primal’s Putting Together a Puzzle

In terms of what’s next, Tartakovsky wants Primal Season 3 to keep fans on their toes, “I don’t want the audience to try to predict what’s gonna happen.” Elaborating further, “You start out, and you’re not predicting it. You’re trying to, but it’s not working, and then you stop, and you just settle in with ‘Okay, I’m just gonna sit back and see where this takes me.’” For this creator, that’s the aim for his shows, “That’s always the hope that we do that. As a person who watches movies and TV shows. I like when it’s unpredictable to a degree, because then my brain relaxes and just lets me get into what’s gonna happen.”

That’s why so much of these first few episodes feel like a puzzle, “I love starting things with a question. ‘What is this? This fire? Who are these characters? There was a battle.’ And that’s the fun of Primal. Without the dialogue there’s some visual puzzling you have to solve.”

Primal Season 3 now airs Sunday evenings on Adult Swim with episodes streaming on HBO Max the next day. What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!