Spoilersahead if you aren’t caught up onSkylanders Academy, which you can add to your wishlist now!
Big changes are coming for Activision Blizzard Studios' Netflix seriesSkylanders Academy. Next month, the crossover hit that features characters from the fan-favorite toys-to-life video game series will be bringing in all new names and faces both on the screen and in the creative team that works behind the scenes. CreatorEric Rogersis stepping down as showrunner, and he’ll be replaced by the showrunning duo ofClayton SakodaandIan Weinreichstarting with Season 3.
Having had a chance to see the new premiere before getting to talk with Sakoda and Weinreich, I can safely say the series is in good hands. The magical adventures that fans have come to know and love are still front-and-center, as are the hilarious dialogue exchanges and sometimes complicated character relationships that make the show such a joy. There are lots of surprises ahead as well, including both new and returning characters and some high-powered voice actors joining the cast. Find out what the Skylanders are in for in Season 3–which arrives on Netflix September 28th–by reading my interview with Sakoda and Weinreich below, but first, check out our exclusive new image from the new season:
Yep, it’s Dark Spyro in all his glory! We’ll get into the character much more in the following interview:
How did this opportunity come about for you to transition over to showrunners forSkylanders Academy?
Ian Weinreich: Well we were lucky enough to get to work on season two just in the capacity as writers. We had written a few episodes for season two and then fortunately Eric Rogers, who show-ran seasons one and two, who was awesome and really great, he had a competing project that left someone available for season three and so when that happened, Activision Blizzard was able to come to us and give us the opportunity to sort of carry the baton forward. It helped that we had already been involved with helping previous seasons.
You wrote the season two premiere, “Spyromania,” and “Belly of the Beast.” So what did you guys learn from the experience writing for the show that has helped ease this transition into being showrunners?
Clayton Sakoda: Before Skylanders we were staffed on a Disney XD show calledMighty Medthat was very much in the same tone, and kind of, it was like superheroes, and comedy and action, and so we brought that with us, and that really helped us just kind of segue right into the show, and it became such a natural fit. I think the biggest adjustment for us was learning the simultaneous limitations and freedoms of writing for animation, which is, you kind of think that, you know, you can write anything, you can create anything, but at the same time it’s very limited on what they can animate and how difficult it is. It kind of both freed us and gave us new restrictions that were a lot of fun to put on our writing, but at the same time it made it just a whole new challenge that we were prepared to take on.
How far into production or planning was season three when you guys took on this new role? Were there any storyboards or even animation already laid out, or were you there right from the get-go for this?
Weinreich: Well, what was nice was that Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger, and so there was already this sort of story line that needed to be told, into season three, and so we came in really early on, but it was nice that Eric had crafted this great story that we were able to sort of take and run with on our own and develop it the way we had seen it, the way we wanted it to go. But a lot of the legwork was already done as far as setting up all these threads that we got to sort of tie up together.
Sakoda: Yeah, it presented a challenge in that season two ended with this new uber-villain Strykore kind of materializing and turning everyone’s favorite hero Spyro evil, where he’s turned into Dark Spyro at the end of the season. And so it sort of left this huge cliffhanger like, “Well, now what? What do we do with an evil hero?” We kind of developed the idea that became season three: Strykore sends Dark Spyro back to the Academy to retrieve this ancient artifact that’s hidden somewhere in the school, but he sends him back as an undercover agent, so that kind of drove the whole season, which was this espionage tale of our hero; everyone thinks that he’s back to normal, but he really is up to no good. That created this great suspense and tension that we played with the whole season.
Can you talk about inheriting the character of Dark Spyroand how Jason Ritter fit into that role?
Weinreich: Since Dark Spyro looks different, we wanted him to sound different, and so we made the creative decision to hire the new actor to play him. Justin [Long] had done such a great job with regular Spyro, and so we wanted to give him something beyond just the look, to let the audience know that this wasn’t exactly the same Spyro. And so Jason came on board, and was so awesome, and does such a great job that it feels like a completely different character but at the same time the whole idea is that people still think that it is Spyro, so he has a lot of the same attitude and a lot of the same humor, and when the door is closed he’s able to turn on this sort of evil glint that wasn’t there before, and takes it in a whole new direction for a lot of the season. He really helped us sell that this is not just your ordinary Spyro anymore. That there’s this great dark side to him.
Sakoda: It was definitely a challenge, because people love Spyro so much that to turn him evil for a whole season was just finding the perfect balance for him. Jason brought that inherent heart to the character, and humor, that it made it easy to like him, so it was our challenge to make him sort of evil. This season, like Ian said, is this back and forth internally for Spyro to kind of remember the true hero that he really is. It’s all about the team throughout the season is going to help him as much as they can, to try and remember where he came from.
Fans are obviously going to be divided over the change. Is there a possibility, without giving away too much, that maybe both versions could ever coexist?
Weinreich: I would say there’s some surprises coming this season with Dark Spyro and whatever happened to original Spyro, and they should definitely stay tuned for a pretty big surprise.
Sakoda: Yeah, we definitely took on this season with the idea of “anything can happen.”
Can you talk about developing the arcs for Kaossandra joining up with the Skylanders, and the tension there? And also the awkward father-son relationship between Strykore and Kaos?
Sakoda: The other big idea and storyline that we wanted to introduce this season, that we love, is sort of this swashbuckling pirate adventure angle, which Kaos spearheads. Once Strykore is in the picture, and kind of takes Dark Spyro under his wing, Kaos feels a little left out, and wants to regain his status as the villain of choice in the Skyland. He takes it upon himself to become this evil pirate captain, sailing in a pirate ship with the Doom Raiders as his crew, and wants to wreak havoc on the Skyland. We have this simultaneous threat going on that is being fueled by Kaos feeling underappreciated by his dad. It’s like, “I’m going to show him. I’m going to prove him wrong.” Now the Skylanders have this whole new dual threat throughout the season of what to deal with.
Weinreich: As far as the Kaossandra storyline as well, now our hero is evil, we’re also playing with this idea of the villainess you’ve been up against for two years is now good, and what does that mean? We like the idea of the Skylanders having to work with one of their biggest enemies. We wanted to sort of play out, how does that affect them? They have to trust this woman with their lives, and a few days ago she was trying to destroy them.
Getting to play with that idea, “can we trust her? Where do her loyalties really lie?” Some of the team is going to be on her side, some of them are going to doubt her, and needing her to prove that, so we get to learn through the season, we explore her past a lot more this season. So we get to see who she was before Kaos, and how that informed her as a character. The more the team learns about her, the more their trust either sways with her or against her. We sort of play with that idea through the season as well. Can we trust her as our ally when she’s been a foil for so long?
Sakoda: Yeah, there’s shifting loyalties throughout the whole season on both sides, with Spyro turning evil but playing good, and Kaossandra having been evil and is now good, and so in a weird way we kind of at some point mentioned that this feels likeThe Departedfor kids. If that makes any sense. It’s just like this kind of this fun, suspenseful, shifting of allegiances throughout that will keep the fans on their toes.
When you found out you would be shepherding the season three, what were the characters and relationships you were most interested in giving a little more screen time and development?
Weinreich: I know that we were really excited to bring in Captain Flynn, who we know is hugely popular in the games and so he’s going to be making an appearance this season. Patrick Warburton did the voice in the games, and we were so excited to have him come do the voice for the show. His character is hilarious. Because we have Kaos as a pirate captain for a lot of seasons, what we need to go after is a captain of our own. It seemed like this great character to bring into the show, and along with him we wanted to bring back Crash Bandicoot, who shows up in season one for an episode. We found a really interesting way that, without giving away any spoilers, we found a really sort of cool sci-fi way of bringing him back, where it feels different, but we know that fans love that character. So bringing Captain Flynn in, bringing Crash Bandicoot back, we really wanted to have fun with … Clayton, is there anyone else?
Sakoda: Bringing back a lot of other favorites of the past seasons, like Sprocket, and Cynder, and Glumshanks, we do a fun runner with Glumshanks that is pretty out-there, and as far as the existing core characters with Eruptor and Stealth Elf, we really wanted to create an emotional arc for them over the course of the season with this very arc-based season. What we sort of did was Elf and Eruptor kind of at odds overt trusting Spyro. It’s sort of like, these are the three best friends at the academy, and they’ll do anything for each other. It’s fun, and it’s emotional to kind of see just how much they all mean to each other, and that if they start to see that their best friend might have been turned evil, it’s sort of what’s going to happen next, and what can they do about it? That fuels a lot of the heart of our season.
There’s a lot going on in this season, but have you and your team already started laying more groundwork for future seasons, or do you just kind of focus one season at a time?
Weinreich: As far as moving forward, we know that it’s going to be a surprise, what’s in store for that season, but I know right now…
Sakoda: There’s plenty of groundwork for future stories.
Weinreich: Yeah, but right now we’re still focused on season three, getting that ready to go.
Ian, you wrote for a bunch of Honest Trailers episodes. I’m curious how that experience influences your frame of mind when you’re writing for a show like Skylanders.
Weinreich: From that, I guess the only thing I can really say is that in the back of my mind is, “How can I make this episode Honest Trailer-proof?”
Weinreich: Where there won’t be anything they would want to poke fun at or making sure there’s no plot holes, or all the characters are well serviced and the jokes hit. Just making sure that those guys can’t find any fault with what we’re doing.
Sakoda: All the pop culture jokes are his,
Weinreich: Exactly. You can lay them on me.
That would be fun if they actually called you out.
Weinreich: We’ll do an Honest Trailer for our own show.
There you go. Get ahead of it. That’s the smartest way to do it.
You guys mentioned that Crash would be coming back in an interesting way. I believe that Eric Rogers voiced the character before. I’m wondering, is he possibly coming back, or do you have kind of a way around that?
Weinreich: Because Eric was unavailable to work on season three, he wasn’t able to do the voice, but we were able to get Rhys Darby, fromFlight of the Conchords, so we have him coming in to do Crash, and he does an awesome job.
Sakoda: It’s a flawless transition, let’s just say that.
Weinreich: Yeah. He’s hilarious. We were so happy to have him come in. I think fans will not be disappointed in the direction that Crash appears in.
What else should fans keep an eye out for in season three when it premieres?
Weinreich: I think the first two seasons were incredibly successful, and we love them, and I think from taking over, our sort of goal moving forward was just, how can we deliver a lot of the same action and humor that’s already there that everyone loves, but sort of bring our own spin to it? All I can really say on that note is that there is going to be a lot of interesting sci-fi elements that maybe weren’t there before and there’s going to to be a lot of cool things, [different] structure, and so it might feel a little [more] different and unique than it has in the past. I think fans will be really excited by some of the interesting ways we sort of tinkered with what’s already been there and what’s been successful. And then just bringing a little twist to some elements that weren’t there before.
Sakoda: One thing I will say is the ancient artifact that Strykore has sent Dark Spyro to retrieve will point the way to a kind of famous character/thing in the game that we were so excited from day one to bring onto the season. It’s going to be so worth the wait.
Weinreich: It’s going to be a huge reveal at the very end, if they can hold out.
