Scott Pilgrim Takes Off Star Reflects on Netflix Anime's "Meta" Twist

The return of Scott Pilgrim proved to be one of this year's biggest surprises, with the release of Netflix's anime series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. The series brought back the entire main voice cast of 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World — only to remix the core story in a meaningful and surprising way. The show saw Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) seemingly die in his first fight against the League of Evil Exes, before pivoting towards the plight of Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and the show's other characters. In a recent interview with ScreenRant, Winstead reflected on the narrative of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, and argued that it took on a meta and meaningful context.

"Definitely," Winstead explained. "It was really meaningful for me to get to have Ramona be more of the focus and to get to explore her, emotionally, a bit more. I think we all really identified with our characters at the time when we made the movie, and there's something really personal about Ramona for me, so to get to look back at her as a character and also look back at myself at that time, and think about all the things that I would like to get to say to that character, or say about that character, or to myself… it was all very meta. The show feels [meta], obviously, but it felt that way making it as well. We were all sort of looking back at our former selves with this new lens and bringing all of that history to these characters, and who they were then, and where they're going. That was a very cathartic and emotional thing to get to do that I didn't really expect. I didn't really realize it was going to feel that way until I was actually recording it."

What Is Scott Pilgrim Takes Off About?

In Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Scott Pilgrim meets the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers, and discovers he must defeat her seven evil exes in order to date her. But this time, things get even more complicated. Based on the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley, the series revisits and reimagines the beloved cult classic, taking Ramona Flowers, her evil exes, Scott, and his friends off on a mysterious new action-packed journey to find love.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off also features the voices of Satya Bhabha, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, Johnny Simmons, Mark Webber, Mae Whitman, and Ellen Wong, all of whom return from the 2010 movie. The series is executive produced and written by franchise creator Bryan Lee O'Malley, as well as BenDavid Grabinski.

What did you think of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!