Interview: Talking World-Building, Pupa Development, and When It’s Time To Build A Bigger Wall With Solar Opposites Exec Producers, Mike McMahan and Josh Bycel
It’s never been a better time for animation on television and Hulu’s Solar Opposites is a testament to just how far the medium has come. Unconventional genre experiments that gleefully deconstruct form are now increasingly common instead of being niche outliers. Solar Opposites has found a dedicated fandom with how it leans into certain sitcom archetypes, only to send them into a black hole after they’re exposed to the Shlorpian ways of the Solars. In two seasons, Solar Opposites has chiseled out a unique corner for itself where it feels distinctly different from Rick and Morty, American Dad, Futurama, or any of the other comparable science fiction/comedy hybrids. The show’s new third season goes above and beyond when it comes to character development, seasonal storytelling, and finding new ways to lampoon staples of the medium. It’s also incredibly funny.
To celebrate the release of Solar Opposites’ third season, co-creator Mike McMahan and executive producer Josh Bycel, break down the big changes that the Solar family faces this year, the evolution of “The Wall” storyline and adding more shows-within-shows, finding new ways to push expectations and structural boundaries, and what lies ahead in season four.
Daniel Kurland: This is a season of twelve episodes instead of eight, which makes it feel like you’re able to do weirder things like the “Silver Cops” episode, which looks like it could turn into the next “Wall.” Talk a little about wanting to continue to push boundaries in that sense and creating new pocket universes to explore within this world that could possibly overlap.
Mike McMahan: When Justin and I first pitched the show to Hulu, we explained how each season we want to feature some surprising new world and storyline that’s happening. But then we fell in love with the Wall. We fell in love with Alfred Molina, Andy Daly, and the stories that we were telling in the Wall. So we kept going with the Wall and so by the third season when we had more episodes we were like, “Wait, we have others things that we wanted to do, too! Why don’t we just do all of it and be greedy!” Silver Cops is the first of one of those things. When I pitched Josh the Silver Cops it was like a five-season arc—we just finished working on season four and Silver Cops are a very main storyline. We’ve got Silver Cops, we’ve got the Wall, and in the “99 Ships” episode we even build out and texturize the galaxy that the Solar Opposites came from.
We’re digging in and getting to world-build within our own show. We’re network executives greenlighting weird mini-shows within our little Solar Opposites network that never would have been able to get made otherwise. Nobody would ever say, “Yes, let’s give comedy writers the opportunity to break a five-season arc of a drama that only takes place a couple episodes at a time.” It’s really taking those Itchy & Scratchy or McBain moments from The Simpsons, but then making that the entire episode! It’s a joy! When we set down to write, the number one goal is always what we’re doing with Terry, Korvo, Jesse, and Yumyulack this season, what are our Pupa stories, how are they going to grow stronger as a family—but then we spend the day breaking a serialized dramatic storyline for the Wall. And then we’re going to do the same with Silver Cops, and son. When you mix all of that together it’s pretty simple stuff, but it’s how we’re doing these things, the amount of thought that we’re putting into it, and hopefully the amount of fun that the audience can tell that we’re having with all of this.
DK: I think that “99 Ships” is my favorite episode of the series and really quite a marvel in terms of storytelling. Was this an episode that you were hoping to bring to life for a while now and did it go through many revisions regarding the other Shloprian deaths?
Josh Bycel: I would say that you pitched that narrative for a couple years now. That area we’ve been in for a little while now.
MM: It just feels like that because we just wrote season four, but actually, there was an episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks that I loved working on called “Three Ships.” It was a Klingon ship, a Vulcan ship, and a Federation ship. For Solar, I was like, “What’s the insane version of that?” But then remembered that we already have the built in 99 ship angle to the show. Justin [Roiland], Josh, and I had talked a lot about how much we were going to learn about Shlorp, when we would get into it all, and when that would feel like jumping the shark. Luckily, we’re so dumb that we jump the shark so hard and so often that you don’t even see it anymore. If you fully commit to jumping the shark then you’re suddenly flying in the air and you’re free of any shark-jumping. “99 Ships” was my way of dedicating a whole episode to the concept of really clarifying what the Pupa is going to do, what other aliens have encountered, how the Solars fit into it—it introduces the Silver Cops, very lightly, very intentionally—and I get to make some T-Rex jokes, which are very near and dear to my heart.
JB: Many, many T-Rex jokes. There were even more T-Rex jokes!
MM: When they first saw the page of the T-Rex jokes they were like, “What’s wrong with you?” The ending too, being that this isn’t even the first time that this has happened, meant that Solar Opposite style, there are still another 99 ships out there. From a world-building perspective, it was so exciting.
DK: And as an audience member, it makes you think of how the series might end because the Pupa terraforming the planet is probably off the table. That’s been done and is defused, which makes the show feel even bigger.
MM: That’s what we were hoping. You’re the first person that we’ve broken down the episode with and I wanted it to feel epic and like there were serious stakes. We can eventually pull the trigger on that idea, but when we do it we won’t make you wait too long. It’s like in a horror movie when there’s a kill in the opening scene so you know what the monster looks like. We did the same thing with the Tim episode earlier. We wanted to show the audience how this would actually play out if it were going down. The whole thing is through Tim’s warped, misogynistic perspective—when you watch it again you’re like, “Oh Cherie would never say this!” It’s filtered through Tim’s skewed internal martyrdom, but for a second you get to see the Solars yelling at each other in front of an open Wall, but then there’s still more Wall stuff afterwards! We don’t want these moments to feel like rug pulls, but that we’re still honoring these stories and giving you things that you wouldn’t expect, but then resetting them in good ways so that you get more of what you like.
DK: The Pupa has always been a presence in the series, but this season really makes him a proper character with more storylines and a coming of age arc. Why did it feel like the right time for that and are you excited to continue to explore the opportunities with a more developed Pupa?
JB: The actor that played the Pupa threatened to walk off the show and into his bedroom!
MM: It was a combination of things, really. When we first started making the show, my son Sagan, who voices the Pupa, didn’t have as much language. Now we’ve been making the show for four or five years and he’s a chatterbox. It scared me that my cute boy was growing up and getting older—you never get that back. Doing an episode where the Pupa got to do and say more, and how that freaked out the Solars, is the same reason that we first cast Sagan. When Josh, Justin, and I were first developing the show, Sagan had just been born. I never knew what this feeling was like and this fear that you could have at all times over someone. We added the Pupa to the lineup because you want them to love the Pupa, but also fear it because it’s going to consume them one day. Treating the Pupa like this in the finale gives us a version of the character who isn’t quite himself because he’s so bratty.
You’ll see that going into season four, everybody needs to continue to acclimate. The show becomes an office show for season four because they’re so determined to protect the Pupa. I think there’s a middle ground where the Pupa can say a little bit more, but still—less is more with the Pupa in a really fun way. That balance is a lot of fun and there’s much more of it in season four, but in the meantime it was just great to have the Pupa spouting off in the finale. My son loves doing it.
DK: Finally, is Little Buddy going to stick around and if so are you excited to draw deeper from that well?
MM: Oh yes, he will. Did you recognize that voice? It’s Tony Hale!
JB: And “Little Buddy” is all that he says! He has that “I am Groot” thing. He’s such an amazing actor that in one session he literally did like 60 different takes on the phrase.
MM: In the sound mix there were discussions if Tony’s voice should be pitched up to sound weirder or anything. I was always adamant that he sounds perfect as he is. He’s Tony Hale!
Season three of ‘Solar Opposites’ is available to stream on July 13th, only on Hulu
