Netflix's Scott Pilgrim Anime Will Feature All the Best Parts of the 2010 Film

Reimagining a graphic novel as a live-action, on-screen project isn’t always the smoothest process, and the end result can often feel like a pale imitation of the vibrance and action captured on the page. Under the direction of Edgar Wright, however, the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was a success, due in part to his stylized approach, incorporation of comic book graphics throughout, and a stacked cast. Now Netflix is trying to recapture the magic with its own Scott Pilgrim anime series, and it’s setting itself up for the same success by bringing back Wright as well as Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski, the novel’s author and artist, and the film’s original cast.

“We’re getting the band back together! [Michael] Cera and [Mary Elizabeth] Winstead, [Satya] Bhabha, [Kieran] Culkin, [Chris] Evans, [Anna] Kendrick, [Brie] Larson, [Alison] Pill, [Aubrey] Plaza, [Brandon] Routh, [Jason] Schwartzman, [Johnny] Simmons, [Marc] Webber, [Mae] Whitman and [Ellen] Wong. A stellar cast, perfectly assembled by Edgar Wright. And, with Science SARU leading the phenomenal animation, we couldn’t ask for a better team for this adventure,” said Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski in a press release. “We can’t wait for fans and newcomers alike to see what we and our partners at Science SARU have been cooking up. It’s going to be a wild ride.”

While Wright was able to expertly bring some of the most action-packed pages of the novel to life in his film, he was still constrained by the physical limitations of the real world. With animation, the series will be able to bring O’Malley and Garbinski’s pages to much more vivid life, maintaining the signature character and world design in the novels. And the series being animated is likely part of what made it possible to bring the entire cast, many of whom have gone on to have wildly successful careers in the last 13 years, together. Not to mention, the pandemic sparked an increase in voice acting work, making animated roles a more viable option for everyone.

The series also opens up the possibility to explore more of O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim novels — there are six books in the series. In a 2012 interview with Radiomaru.com, he said that writing the ending of the series was the hardest part of the process partially because of the success of the film. “There was also the looming shadow of the movie — I had seen parts of it, I knew how BIG the finale was, and I wanted to try and compete with it a little.”

Along with the film’s cast returning, the series will feature new Sex Bob-Omb tunes from the band Anamanaguchi, which did the soundtrack for the video game. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game. The as-yet-untitled series is poised to take all the best parts of the Scott Pilgrim source material so far, creating an unstoppable team capable of taking down just about anyone’s evil exes — or at least entertain the hell out of them.

Brianna Wellen is a TV Reporter at Primetimer who became obsessed with television when her parents let her stay up late to watch E.R.