Exclusive: Final Space Producers Tease Elements of “Interstellar”, “BoJack Horseman”, And Like Nothing Else You’ve Seen Animated

There’s a lot going on here.

As I’m writing this, I’m just finishing up watching the new Spielberg documentary on HBO and I couldn’t help but see the parallels between Olan Rogers’ story and Steven’s. In Olan’s case, it’s what I think Steven WOULD’VE gone through had there been Youtube in the seventies and that story certainly came to pass at NYCC 2017 as Olan Rogers was on stage talking about nearly giving up on his dream of producing content after 12 years on Youtube, “Eventually I told myself I had to keep going” which of course led to him one day being in the parking lot of a grocery store on a rainy day when he presumably swiped his smartphone screen to see an email sent to him by Conan O’Brien who had apparently had seen Rogers’ work and wanted to discuss with him more about it. Rogers would recount literally crying whilst reading the email, and a couple of years later, here is Olan, his pal Coty (the lone holdover from his original concept pitch), Mike Roberts (with credits that include BoJack Horseman, though he notes that the producers at Shadowmachine were huge fans of us writing about their work on TripTank), and Matt Hoklotubbe.

But when I talk to Olan and the rest of his rag-tag Final Space bunch that largely comes from all walks of life, I don’t see anyone here ready to rest on their laurels as a result of the short-term success that they’ve achieved, most notably that of Olan who remarks that the real work starts now that this series has been picked up on TBS and he had spent the last couple of years producing it. Starting in early 2018, it’s showtime and he knows it.

For those that don’t know, Final Space is an upcoming animated dramedy series that follows one Gary Space and his pal Mooncake through the treachers of space. Though animation fans that are expecting another take on say Futurama and Rick and Morty, let me be clear, you’re looking in the wrong direction, “in terms of size and scope of the production, we’re more influenced by Interstellar, Blade Runner, and Sunshine” surmises both Roberts and Rogers, “while we like those other shows, we aren’t commenting on sci-fi cultures like Rick and Morty or Futurama.”

Sitting at the table is Mike Roberts. Mike’s had a busy year. He recently sold a series to Youtube Red called Dallas and Robo, directed quite a few episodes of the recently aired second season of F is for Family, and also counts the likes of Greatest Party Story Ever, TripTank, and BoJack Horseman as part of his credits. Those last two shows are important because Mike counts those franchises as “parts of the puzzle”  for what would eventually become Final Space’s visual presentation, which is being done more like a theatrical blockbuster and less like an animated series. Fellow producer Matt Hoklotubbe would take that BoJack comparison and run with it noting, “BoJack Horseman helped give us an audience that we can play in in that, we’re counting on the maturity of the fans that were inflicted from that series would enjoy Final Space. They couldn’t be more different technically, both franchises deal with the “heroes’ journey” of putting the star characters through hell and back.”

This hell doesn’t sound fun AT ALL. As Olan would note, Gary Space will have to deal with bouts of loneliness that will eventually come to pass when he finally teams up with a soon-to-be-best friend “Avocato ” voiced by Coty Galloway, “as we went through the ten episodes, we were able to create this colorful character. By the end of the series, you’ll see that Avocato and Gary need each other.”  Joining Coty, Final Space employs a stellar cast of who’s who including David Tennant (as the evil “Lord Commander”), Tom Kenny, Ron Pearlman, John DiMaggio, and a slew of others, but even with Olan having voiced Gary for a number of years dating back to the original Gary Space short, the show creator/producer notes that over the course of producing the first season of Final Space, he really had to dig in and learn the nuances of the character.

Olan notes that while some shows dip their toes in emotional animation, TBS has been fully supporting Olan Rogers’ vision and teaming him with showrunner David Sacks (Pig Goat Banana Cricket) , the two having had a pow-wow sessions where reportedly, the two were in a room for days hashing out the details of the beginning and end to the series with important plot points along the way. When it was time for the writer’s room to convene, Olan notes that it was a real challenge to alter the talents of Hollywood writers that typically pitch sitcom punchlines to those that offer more grandiose visions, “I kept saying no, no, no, to pitches and then every once in a while we’d get a little sliver and I’d be like “Let’s go there”.

Hoklotubbe notes that during the course of the show’s first season, events will arise that could have ripple effects not only during the course of the show’s first season but in additional seasons to follow. Mike notes that Gary will experience failures, successes, and consequences as part of the DNA of Final Space, “we want fans to invest in our space opera”.

Last but not least, we decided to wrap our conversation about Final Space on the topic of the proposed VR adaptation. From a technical perspective, Michael Roberts notes that looking at VR similar to that of the film is a mistake and instead noting VR is the opposite of film. With that said, Rogers notes that the application is exciting and is an opportunity to tell a Final Space story that fans can experience as opposed to just watching on television, “there’s something really exciting about space that dabbling in VR makes possible, and there is definitely a way to tell a story that hasn’t been done before.”

How Spielberg of him.