ANN’s coverage of New York Comic Con 2023 sponsored by Ize Press!
Netflix began streaming a trailer for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off — Netflix, Universal Studio Group’s Universal Content Productions’ (UCP), and Science SARU‘s anime series of Bryan Lee O’Malley‘s Scott Pilgrim graphic novel series — on Saturday:
Update: Showrunners Bryan Lee O’Malley and BenDavid Grabinski confirmed at New York Comic Con that Julian Cihi voices the Katayanagi Twins (Kyle and Ken).
The series will premiere on November 17.
The cast from the 2010 live-action Scott Pilgrim vs. the World film adaptation are returning for the anime, and it includes:
- Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim
- Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers
- Ellen Wong as Knives Chau
- Brie Larson as Envy Adams
- Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells
- Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim
- Alison Pill as Kim Pine
- Mark Webber as Stephen Stills
- Johnny Simmons as Young Neil
- Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers
- Satya Bhabha as Matthew Patel
- Chris Evans as Lucas Lee
- Brandon Routh as Todd Ingram
- Mae Whitman as Roxy Richter
- Jason Schwartzman as Gideon Graves
O’Malley is writing the project and serving as executive producer with BenDavid Grabinski (new Are You Afraid of the Dark? series). O’Malley and Grabinski are also the showrunners. Japan’s Science SARU (DEVILMAN crybaby, The Heike Story, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!) is animating the project with its CEO Eunyoung Choi as producer and Abel Góngora (Star Wars: Visions‘ “TO-B1”) as director.
Edgar Wright, the director and co-writer of the 2010 live-action film adaptation, is an executive producer with his producing partner Nira Park, the film’s co-writer Michael Bacall, and Marc Platt Productions‘ Marc Platt, Jared Leboff, and Adam Seigel.
Scott Pilgrim is the story of a 20-something Toronto indie rocker’s adventures in getting and keeping jobs, avoiding being kicked out of his apartment, and surviving encounters with the seven evil exes of the new girl in town on whom he has a crush.
Wright had hinted in 2020 that there were “some plans to revisit the material in an animation way. […] We’ve been talking with Bryan and with Jared for a while [about]: What if we did something with the books in anime form? It’s being discussed as we speak.”
O’Malley published the original Harvey Award-winning, manga-influenced Scott Pilgrim graphical novel series from 2004 to 2010. The Scott Pilgrim vs. the World film opened in 2010, and it spawned the “Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation” short from Titmouse that same year. Ubisoft Montreal also developed Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game in 2010.
O’Malley contributed an original cover illustration to the March 2008 issue of Viz‘s Shojo Beat magazine. The issue included an interview with O’Malley, an art tutorial, and a short four-panel comic by him. In 2018, Anime News Network interviewed O’Malley about his work and his manga influences.