Scott Pilgrim Anime Adds Lots Of Netflix Product Placement
The new animated series Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is premiering on Netflix and prominently name-checking the streaming service, though there was a question as to whether it would be allowed to do so. In this follow-up to the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Ramona Flowers is a courier for Netflix, meaning the streamer’s name appears frequently throughout the series. You can see a clip below.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off twists the original story, this time, Ramona works for Netflix, which means plenty of product placement for the streaming service.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off is not a retelling of the original film or comic but a fresh “reimagining” that will add new twists and significantly expand the character’s backstories. Also returning for the series is Michael Cera, along with many of the original film cast, including Jason Schwartzman, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, Chris Evans as Lucas Lee, Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim, and Satya Bhabha as Matthew Patel. The cast also features the returns of Aubrey Plaza as Julie, Kieran Culkin as Wallace, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona.
When Scott Pilgrim Takes Off first got underway, Ramona Flowers was going to have a job as a delivery person for Amazon, but this quickly ran afoul of Netflix. Amazon is one of the company’s major streaming rivals, so they did not take too kindly to having their competitor’s name featured prominently in one of their original series. But franchise creator Bryan Lee O’Malley and executive producer and co-showrunner BenDavid Grabinski came up with a solution they thought would be perfect: make Ramona a DVD courier for Netflix.
Parts of the original early-aughts setting will remain in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, including Netflix offering DVDs, a service that only recently came to an end.
This seems like an ideal way for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off to satisfy the Netflix legal department, but the idea was initially met with a surprising degree of hesitancy. While it is well known now as the progenitor of the streaming age, Netflix started out as an entirely DVD-based service, allowing people with subscriptions to rent DVDs through the mail to view and send back. However, earlier this year, the company ended its DVD service, which had continued for some 25 years.
This made representing Netflix as a company that sends DVDs to people in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off a bit of a concerning proposition. Netflix higher-ups were concerned about giving people the impression that their company still offered this service, especially after people who still rented DVDs through Netflix were vocal about their disappointment when the service was canceled. But less cautious perspectives ultimately prevailed, and Netflix has moved ahead with the change, seeming to finally allow themselves to be in on the joke.
The original cast of the live-action movie returns for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, which now includes an award-winning star on HBO, two Major Marvel heroes, an Arrowverse star, and Michael Cera.
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off will drop eight episodes on Netflix on November 17th. While it is not yet known if there are plans for more episodes to be released later, perhaps in a second season, Michael Cera and the rest of the cast are surely happy to be returning to these beloved roles. Anime studio Science SARU is responsible for the design and animation of the spin-off series, which is overseen by O’Malley (author of the graphic novels on which the franchise is based), Grabinski, and Edgar Wright, who co-wrote and directed the live-action film.
