They have already passed of decades since the first publication of the comics Scott Pilgrim, and now they return to the screen with a new adaptation, this time in the form of an anime, which will premiere on Netflix on November 17. An iteration of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s work that more closely resembles the style of the source material, with the specialized company Science SARU putting new scripts from the creator himself into motion. Although his comics were already adapted in 2010 into a live-action film Scott Pilgrim vs. the world by Edgar Wright, probably the culprit that the franchise has perpetuated itself over the years.
The platform has opted for the brand despite the fact that the feature film was a small box office failure, failing to raise $50 million against a budget of around $85. However, Netflix does not escape the fact that in recent years Pilgrim has been gaining cult and new fans, has appeared on countless lists of films that have defined an era and has even been the subject of a Ubisoft video game. In this way, it closes the circle of thematic feedback that, at the same time, renews its potential audience. The comics are about a group of twenty-somethings born in the late 80s and early 90s, coinciding with the millenials raised between television and video games, accustomed to spending hours in front of screens and ordering from Amazon.
Therefore, the length of 2010 is not so much a generational milestone, but rather a visionary reflection that went ahead to define the anguish of the coming decade and beyond. The growing appeal of Scott Pilgrim led the platform to approach O’Malley to take advantage the consolidated massive hobby for anime nowadays like weapon in your favor and present the content in a way that was more faithful in the style of drawing on paper, where a strong influence of Japanese manga could already be seen. The story will be the same as always, telling how the Canadian music fan falls in love with Ramona Flowers and must defeat his seven evil exes, although in the eight episodes that arrive there will be surprising deviations for fans.
Although the series will be seen more in the comic, the film’s cast returns, despite the current star position of many of its actors. Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Jason Schwartzman have maintained their level of popularity. And, although others like Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh have not stopped working, Cases like Aubrey Plaza’s have exploded in a big way. The popularity of Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans and Brie Larson created more doubts for producers after having played Captain America, Captain Marvel and the unheroic Roman Roy of Succession respectively.
But everything was possible thanks to the fact that the director of the feature film, and now producer of the series, Edgar Wright, I kept an old email chain from 2010 y sent an email to the group that within a few hours everyone had responded with a resounding yes. As he tells Netflix: “14 years later, we are all still friends and see each other whenever we can. For them returning was the opportunity to revisit something that meant a lot to them, but now they bring their years of experience. I always thought that a “A live-action sequel was unlikely, but perhaps an anime adaptation was an interesting way to go and Netflix came up with that same idea.”