Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is what happens when creator Bryan Lee O'Malley rethinks the story, he reveals

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is, at once, the ultimate Scott Pilgrim story and very much not what fans of the graphic novel series — or the 2010 movie adaptation — will be expecting. Co-written by Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley and filmmaker BenDavid Grabinski, it’s an expansion of the world (and worldview) of everyone favorite (least favorite?) member of Sex Bob-Omb that stays true to the spirit, if not the letter, of the original.

To say more would be to spoil it, but Popverse’s Graeme McMillan talked to O’Malley and Grabinski at New York Comic Con about the show, the ways in which it’s different — without spoiling anything, I promise — and why O’Malley used to be a snob about movies. Read on to find out why Takes Off might be the best version of Scott Pilgrim yet… and why BenDavid Grabinski should do more promotional interviews.

Popverse: Bryan, you just announced the 20th anniversary editions of Scott Pilgrim [the comic], and here you are doing the anime. This is a story that you have been living with for more than 20 years, because you worked on it before it came out —

Bryan Lee O'Malley: That is true. I lived it.

What is it like doing what is, it feels like, the ultimate version of Scott Pilgrim? The anime is based on the comic in a way that the film isn't, but it's got the actors from the film, and it's got elements of the game in it as well…

O'Malley: It's kind of corralling everything into the new thing. And also the fandom, the years intervening. It's all kind of here now, yeah. I mean, it's cool. It felt good. I was very scared and nervous at first — “reticent” is a good word. I didn't want to retread the same exact territory. I didn't want to pretend I'm 25 again. But then I had dinner with BenDavid and, I said, "Netflix wants me to do an anime,” and he was like, "Well, you just do this and this and this." I was like, "Wait, what?" It was completely something I had never thought of.

BenDavid Grabinski: I would say that the concept of the show and the initial thing all came from my dumb brain. But then after that, it became a hybrid, two dumb brains thing. Bryan still loves Scott Pilgrim, but also when you're doing the same story for 20 years, you want to feel like, “How can I have a new way to tell it?” And I blurted out a bunch of ideas that became the concept for the show, and Bryan really responded to them. And I think my job was to always have a fresh perspective on something that in his head had sort of become concrete.

O'Malley: