In what has become a time-honored tradition, Netflix will not pick up its Scott Pilgrim Takes Off anime for a second season.
Original creator Bryan Lee O’Malley broke the news on his X/Twitter account yesterday while thanking fans for their support.
“It’s been one year since Scott Pilgrim Takes Off came out. It was an honor to work with all of the cast and staff around the world,” O’Malley wrote. “It was like conducting a symphony orchestra every day. From the moment BenDavid Grabinski sparked the idea, the project felt like a one of a kind miracle.”
In a series of follow-up tweets, O’Malley reiterated something anyone who watched the Science Saru anime’s eight episodes would know: they had no plans to continue the story from where the show left off. Though, to be fair, the show does have a stinger of Julie Powers and Gideon Goose (FKA Gideon Graves) laughing maniacally as if they were planning on stirring up more trouble in a would-be continuation. When asked what that was all about, O’Malley said it was a “happily ever after.”
“Anyway, we were recently informed that the show will NOT return. As you know, we only intended one season, and called in a lot of favors to make it happen, so making more would have been nearly impossible,” O’Malley continued. “Still, I Know some of you have been holding out hope. Sorry to all Matthew fans and Gideon fans, I know you will suffer the most.”
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is a unique anime in terms of adapting both its graphic novel and live-action film in that it acted less like a remake, and more like a sequel that was in conversation with the original source material. Rather than adapting its story of the comics, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off pulled a Rebuild of Evangelion by changing up major story beats in its original “beat up Ramona Flower’s evil exes” premise to have instead Ramona confront her exes and reach some closure. This swerve was pretty ingenious, given how much of the show’s promotional material obfuscated the entire premise of the show. It was also inspiring to have fans join in on a more mature and nuanced re-contextualization of Scott Pilgrim.
One of the major favors O’Malley alluded to was the show bringing back its crew of Hollywood actors from the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Seeing as how its cast, comprised of Chris Evans, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Michael Cera, and Golden Globe award winner Kieran Culkin, have become prominent marquee actors since their time with the cult classic film, it would’ve been hard to wrangle them back up for a second season. Hell, getting them to reprise their roles in the anime wouldn’t have happened had the crew not kept their email chain alive all these years later. The only other time the cast got together was during a live table read of the film during the height of covid. If you haven’t watched it yet, we’d highly recommend you do.
Another wrinkle preventing the anime from being picked up again is Studio Science Saru’s busy schedule. Key among them is the Dan Da Dan anime and its upcoming Ghost in the Shell series. Getting them to take the time to double back and dedicate manpower to a second season would likely be just as challenging as getting the band back together.
O’Malley’s nail-in-the-coffin series of tweets wasn’t all doom and gloom for Scott Pilgrim fans. In response to fans, O’Malley shed some light on when they could expect a physical release of the anime, saying fans can expect news once Netflix’s exclusivity period is up. O’Malley also took some time to thank the anime’s Latin American viewers for “carrying the fandom on your backs.” O’Malley ended his farewell tour of the Scott Pilgrim Takes Off anime by encouraging fans to make their sequel if they feel so inclined. The less artistically inclined bunch of us will be rewatching Scott Pilgrim Takes Off on Netflix.
Thank god they won’t ruin this one