Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley on taking ‘another run’ with new game
It’s been a busy few years for Scott Pilgrim. Following a live-action film and the conclusion of the comics in 2010, the series has slowly been coming back to life. First, in 2021 Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game was rereleased on modern consoles after years of being inaccessible. Two years later came an even bigger surprise: Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, a Netflix anime that remixed the story with an alternate take on Scott’s battle with seven evil exes. This was followed by a giant box set to celebrate the comic’s 20th anniversary, and now the series is back again with a game called Scott Pilgrim EX.
According to Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, there hasn’t been any grand plan for a series resurgence. Instead, each project naturally flowed from the last. “It just so happened that we did the show, and Universal was like, ‘What else do you want to do?’” he explains. Around the same time, O’Malley had been talking to the team at Tribute Games about potentially doing another game, so the choice was easy. “We’ve always wanted to take another run at it.”
On the surface, Scott Pilgrim EX is similar to its predecessor. It’s a side-scrolling beat-’em-up like Streets of Rage or River City Ransom set in a pixelated Toronto. But instead of retelling the original Scott Pilgrim, which follows the titular slacker as he battles his new girlfriend Ramona’s seven evil exes, EX builds off of the story from Takes Off, which largely shifted Scott to the background to focus on the rest of the cast. “Where the show ended gave us some room to play with the exes and rearrange the cast,” O’Malley explains. The new game follows Scott and a cast of playable characters as they attempt to rescue Scott’s bandmates. This involves fighting off rival gangs — robots, demons, and vegans — and also traveling across time and space.
For fans of the series, one of the more exciting parts of the anime was how it brought back together the same creative team from the live-action film: Takes Off featured the same cast, director Edgar Wright served as a producer, and O’Malley was writer and showrunner alongside BenDavid Grabinski. Metric even make an appearance.
EX does something similar. The first Scott Pilgrim game was developed by Ubisoft, and much of the original team went on to found Tribute Games, which has made a name for itself with beat-’em-ups like TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion. EX also includes a killer new soundtrack from chiptune rock band Anamanaguchi, art from Paul Robertson, and while O’Malley was only partly involved in the original game, here he says he’s much more involved in the day-to-day production. It’s this element of collaboration that has made returning to Scott Pilgrim so rewarding, he says.
“It was such a warm, life-affirming thing to do that show with all of those people,” O’Malley says of Takes Off. “It’s similar on the game. I’ve known these guys since we were way younger, and it’s 17 years later or something, and we’ve all grown up and see the world in different ways. When you’re doing comics, you’re all alone, and pretty much in your head all day. But over my career I’ve met so many people, and get to work with so many interesting people, and it’s always cool when I can revisit those relationships down the line.”
While Tribute is developing the game, O’Malley has been focused primarily on the story, which is more expansive compared to its predecessor. He even drew a mini comic setting up a new character — Metal Scott — which was his first time drawing a Scott Pilgrim comic since 2010. “I take what they want to do and try to turn it into a story that makes sense for Scott Pilgrim each step of the way,” he says of his role on EX. “I feel like I’m the catcher in a sports analogy. People are just throwing stuff at me and I’m trying to figure out what works.”
One of his goals with the game, and all of the more recent Scott Pilgrim projects, is to be welcoming to newcomers. The Scott Pilgrim story has now existed for two decades in various forms across comics, games, film, and television. That can make it seem intimidating from the outside. “I want everything I do to be accessible,” O’Malley explains. “Maybe it’s from growing up with comics. They’d always be telling you who the characters are, and you’d be able to catch up really quick. That’s my ethos nowadays for Scott Pilgrim. It should make sense to the faithful, but it should also be a clean entry point for anyone.”
It’s unclear if or how Scott Pilgrim might continue to evolve in the future after the launch of EX. But for O’Malley, after years of getting to dabble in new formats and collaborate with old friends, he’s looking forward to returning to his roots. “I really want to get back to comics,” he says, “because I miss having all of the power. It’s been really fun to collaborate with so many talented people, but at the end of the day I miss when I just did the comic and no one really told me what to do. So hopefully I’ll get back to that soon.”
Scott Pilgrim EX launches March 3rd on the Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
