Interview: Bryan Lee O’Malley on Scott Pilgrim’s 20th Anniversary, Netflix Anime Series, & More

I mean, yeah. They all have so much personality. Even if they are the bad guys, they’re still so much fun and you bring so much love to them. I was going to ask you about the show, but before I get to that I kind of just want to briefly recap the movie. It was 2010 and I think that was my first introduction to Scott Pilgrim. I would’ve only been 12 or 13 when that came out and then, after I saw the movie, I went and read all your graphic novels. It’s been around 14 or 15 years, now, since the movie came out. What’s it like looking at that now? Is there anything you’d change about it or are you happy with how it turned out?

I mean, I don’t really think in terms of what I would change. It’s just such a journey. We worked so hard on this movie. First of all, it was like, ‘Oh my god, they’re going to make a movie of my book? I’m just some kid, I’m just some guy.’ Who would ever imagine such a thing? Going through the reality of it, all the hundreds of thousands of people who worked on this movie. They’re real people. There’s kind of the real-world effect of it. And, then, after it comes out, it’s not a huge hit but there’s still thousands of millions of people talking about it. It kind of just wove into the culture so fast that, at that point, right around 2010, it just changed my life in such a way that’s really hard to explain.

It’s kind of something that I was maybe trying to articulate in the show, a little bit. But, yeah, Scott Pilgrim is part of the culture. I can’t go anywhere without hearing about Scott Pilgrim, in some way. The kind of person that I’d become friends with is now a fan of Scott Pilgrim, so there’s kind of a weird layer to that. My relationship to culture is forever altered after 2010.

I’m sure. Like you said, it’s kind of one of those movies that keeps coming back. Today, in 2024, with streaming and everything, it feels like you can drop something and it goes completely unnoticed. Scott Pilgrim, it feels like there’s a bigger and bigger fanbase the more the years go on. Which is awesome. If there’s a property that deserves it, it’s Scott Pilgrim.

That’s true and it was kind of unnoticed at first, too. It’s funny how, like the books, it really snowballed over the years. People keep coming back to it or keep recommending it to their friends. It just makes people laugh, I think. Or it makes people feel like there’s something special going on. That’s how my favorite cultural things always made me feel, so it’s cool to be a part of that ongoing story.

Sure. Just as far as the cast goes, in terms of both the movie and the show I think that, myself included, when people think of Scott Pilgrim, they think of Michael Cera and hear his voice and everything. But before, when you were working on the graphic novels, was there — I’m guessing you weren’t thinking about who’s going to play this guy if they make a movie off this, but did you have a voice in mind? Did you hear Michael Cera’s voice, at all, or someone like Micheal Cera when you were working on it?

I mean, he was still young when I was working on it. He would have almost been too young to play the character, essentially. But he was such a good fit. But, no, I don’t really think of that when I’m working on the book so much. It’s so based on the drawing, for me. What is the drawing saying to me, essentially? And just trying to translate that into the dialogue. The thought of actors, at least at that time, it didn’t really enter into it. Nowadays, I’d probably think about it a little bit more. I do think, when I’m writing something, like, ‘What if adult Michael Cera was in something like this? Or if this character was played by someone like that?’ Because I have those guys, these actors, in my head, now. I’ve used them, I’ve worked with them, and it’s so interesting. But at the time, when I was 20s, no way.

Yeah, that makes sense. But then you got everyone back for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, which came out last year. And I loved that. Congratulations on that show, I had no idea what to expect after the first episode. It was such a, ‘Whoa, we’re doing something totally different here.’ But I loved the journey and all the different twists and turns it took. What was it like working on that? I know you wrote all the scripts and everything. Did you know, from day one, that you were going to retell Scott Pilgrim but you’re going to flip it completely on its head, or did that kind of just come together along the way?

I was kind of asked to do — or, I was asked if I would want to be interested in doing something like that. And I kind of wasn’t. But then I had dinner with my friend Ben David, who ended up co-writing it with me. As we were talking about it, one of his ideas was, ‘What if you just killed Scott Pilgrim in the first episode?’ It made me laugh so much. Whenever something creative makes me laugh that much, I kind of take it seriously, in a way. Based on that dinner, we started coming up with all these silly ideas. It just sounded fun to me.

It didn’t sound good to go back and redo the same story. I didn’t want to take like four years, treat it super seriously, and kind of make the cool version, the updated, unproblematic, or whatever version. Doing all the kinds of fixes and updates that I’d need to do. That just sounded like a nightmare to me. And I know maybe that’s selfish of me, but I took the opportunity to do something that was fresh with all these collaborators that I knew were so amazing. Also, to treat it as a learning experience because I’ve never done a show before, and I’ve never done animation. I got to work with a Japanese team and stuff, so I learned so much.

I think, overall, people took it like it was intended. Especially over time. I think maybe people were shocked at first, but hopefully people will still like it years from now. We’ll see.

I was going to ask you about that, too, because I know fanbases can get pretty serious about graphic novel and comic adaptations if anything changes. But I felt that Scott Pilgrim Takes Off works so well that I was thrilled with just not knowing what was coming next. I was curious if you’d seen general positive feedback from people or if people seemed to be digging it. As far as my circles, it seemed like people were.

Yeah, the critics loved it and so many fans loved it so, so much. It was really nice and beautiful to kind of see those reactions. There’s the other contingent that’s just like, the thing that I didn’t really anticipate is that they were expecting me to do the book because I’m me and because they know me from doing the book. They’re like, ‘Oh, he’ll do the same thing because he’s the same person.’ Again, my brain just didn’t really work that way. Maybe, in the future we could, but knowing that we had maybe one season, maybe eight episodes, and knowing that kids are going to watch it, anybody can watch it, you don’t have to know anything about Scott Pilgrim — again, did I want to spend four years pouring my personal bullshit onto the screen or on Netflix? Not really. So I made a slightly kid-ier version, but also I tried to bring my grown-up concerns to it as well. It’s a weird fine line to try to walk. But I had fun doing it.

I’m sure. And I think that all shows. I think that totally plays out, especially in the last couple of episodes. It works really well. So, now, with the 20th anniversary, I know there’s a hardcover box set in both color and black-and-white. I believe they’re already out and available to purchase. How did it feel to be working on it again? I know you did some new cover art and a whole bunch of other stuff with Oni Press. How was it coming back to Scott Pilgrim again? In graphic novel form, at least, I know the show wasn’t that long ago.

It was nice because, yeah, it was literally right after we finished the show. It was nice to revisit it and go back to the origins of it more. It turned out so beautiful. I really just wanted to make something that’s beautiful and cool, so I hired Patrick Crotty, who is one of my favorite designers in the indie comics world. We just worked together on this thing. We worked really hard on it. After doing the show, I kind of learned how to work hard on stuff with a larger team, I think. Doing the comics, I’m working hard, obviously, but it’s all by myself. Doing this, we were doing weekly meetings. It felt like it was a real project. It all paid off, I think it looks really great. I’m super happy with it. I think it’s what fans deserve to have. I know it costs money, but I made something to be nice, not to make money. That’s not my goal.

Sure. And it’s also Scott Pilgrim. It’s well worth the money.

Yeah, I mean, it’s beautiful. It does justify the price, to some degree.

And there is a seventh hardcover that comes with it, too, right? About the making-of and the behind-the-scenes that went on when you were working on it?

Yeah, it’s called Scott Pilgrim: Collected Extras. Most of it was in the color hardcovers, but we kind of recompiled it, and reedited it all together. It flows really well as a book. I really like it, I’m really proud of it, actually.

Sure. I absolutely can’t wait to check it out, that sounds like something that’d be right up my alley. I can’t wait. Then you’re going on tour just in a couple of weeks or so, right? I think you start in Canada and then hit a bunch of Canadian cities and United States cities?

Yup, I’m starting off, pre-tour, I’m going to Columbus’ Crossroads, it’s a comic convention there that Jeff Smith started. That’s like a week away. From there I’m headed to Halifax and so on and so forth. There are twelve cities. It’s going to be really exciting, there are several cities I’ve never really been to or signed in. So, you know. Trying to get out there, trying to meet people. Post-pandemic, I haven’t done a lot of signings since before the pandemic. I’m looking forward to it, it should be fun.

It sounds like it should be a blast. Bryan, I’m almost out of time with you here, but you’ve got the show that just came out, you’ve got this 20th-anniversary box set. Do you have any plans for Scott Pilgrim in the future? Do you have any plans for anything you’d want to do next or are you going to take a break for now?

I will probably take a break, a little bit. I think there are some things that will slowly start to percolate out. I’ve been trying to expand more. This year, I’ve been trying to do more other, ancillary stuff. Which I never really used to do merch and stuff, but people want the merch. They’ll kind of bootleg their own merch if they don’t get it from me so I might as well start trying to make stuff. I’m going to try to expand a little bit. But, yeah, as for Scott Pilgrim books, I think we’ll keep it quiet for a little bit. We’ve spent the whole year talking about Scott Pilgrim, so I think I’ll just go away and do something else for a little bit.