In 2023, CBS officially announced that its next animated series will be adapted from Innersloth, the hit 2018 space murder mystery video game. Between us. Now, three years later, there is a show An assembled cast of Hollywood actors also called an emergency meeting Summer Play Festresulting in a surprise premiere of all 10 episodes on Paramount+.
Between usPortrayed by Titmouse (Star Trek: The Lower Decks), follows the monochromatic variety crewmates on a space junk ship. An alien hides among them, taking them out one by one. Their task is to gather the collective noggins and determine which of them is the impostor without any crewmates left.
In the future Between us‘ we spoke with showman Owen Dennis at the premiere (Infinity Train) about how the series landed its eclectic cast, as well as the philosophy of adapting a video game into a TV show nearly a decade after it became a global sensation.
Between us has a fully assembled cast, spanning video games, animated shows, and comedians. Starring Yvette Nicole Brown (Community) as Orange, Kimiko Glenn (Spider-Man: To the Spider-Verse) as Cyan, Liv Hewson (Yellow jackets) Black, Ashley Johnson (Our last) as Purple, Wayne Knight (Seinfeld) as Lime, Phil LaMarr (Samurai Jack) as Brown, Randall Park (Blue Eyed Samurai) Red, Dan Stevens (Solar contradictions) as Blue, Debra Wilson (Metal Gear Solid: Guns of the Patriots) as Yellow and the Computer, Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings) like Green and Patton Oswalt (the goat) as white. Assembling the right group to bring his little jellybean-looking crewmates to life proved no small task for Dennis.
“One of the hard things about casting Between us so all the characters look the same. They have different clothes, but they look pretty similar, so (you have to) make sure each voice definitely sounds like a different person,” Dennis said. “For us, there’s no mouth movement and no face. So if you have a whole group of people and they’re all standing there and one of them is talking, you have to know which one of them is actually talking without moving their mouths.”
He continued, “It was very important for us to make sure we got actors who were really good and could express everything, be it comedy, drama or whatever direction we needed. Also, their voices are so unique that I know exactly which person is speaking at any given moment.”
And the instructions for why Between us It was clear what it took to assemble the cast to portray his larger-than-life jellybean friends, which Dennis admits was a challenge even then, so he’s especially grateful they had the assembled cast they did.
“When we landed on who we were, it all felt very natural and very good. I’m very happy with who we got,” he said.
With the show’s announcement coming three years after the peak of gaming’s pandemic era, internet memes making their way into the internet’s collective conscience, and video game adaptations being a hit-or-miss venture for mortals, it’s impossible to guess that some fans might find the CBS show particularly uncomfortable. on time. And radio silence since 2023 (with shadowing) was even in development until today’s surprise announcement for fans who had half-forgotten the series.
When asked if he or the writers’ room was worried about it Between us‘ cultural moment had passed — and whether or not that added pressure to produce a visionary show, not likely in 2020 — Dennis said he didn’t let the noise get in the way of doing his job. The job, he said, was to “make an animated show based on this video game that was supposed to be funny.” He then followed that response up with a comment that felt like a modus operandi that any showrunner adapting a video game would be wise to follow.
“Comedies are a product of their time. All media is a product of its time. Everything is a product of its time, no matter how much people try to pretend it’s timeless or that it can go on forever. You can’t escape that. But what can really make something a product of its time is a lot of referential humor. And references are the lowest class thing, because it’s not really somebody’s joke.” Being like, ‘I know that.’ This is not a joke. It just says something that someone knows.”
So Dennis made sure of it Between us the reference was not based on humor. Instead, the show tried to create jokes that made sense for its characters, situation, and comedic tone, with an emphasis on “big specific references or something like that.” Plus, Dennis noted that he tries to incorporate pop culture memes, especially in hand-drawn shows. Between usfirst of all it’s a fool’s errand.
“Animation takes so long that if you try to reference something now in pop culture, when it comes out, as soon as you start doing it, it’s going to be history because it’s going to be years before it comes out,” he said.
“I want (Between us) to stand alone. I think it’s important when you’re adapting anything, it has to be something that fans of that thing will like, but also that it can stand completely on its own without knowing the previous works or the meta-narrative around the work or whatever. It should be something all its own. If you can do that, then you can achieve something. But if you don’t, you end up with something that feels weird, empty, and weird. I would hate to work on something like that.”
All 10 episodes Between us It airs on Paramount+.
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