Genndy Tartakovsky has surprising plans for the dinosaur fantasy’s future.
Warning: This article contains spoilers forPrimal’s season 2 finale.
After a nearly two-year hiatus,Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primalreturned this summer with an astounding second season.
Courtesy Adult Swim
Also, maybe, the devil?
(The whole season is currently streaming on HBO Max.)
“Echoes of Eternity” begins with a rare triumph.
Adult Swim’s ‘Primal’.Adult Swim
Mira successfully returns to her village, a somewhat advanced civilization with no clear place for barbaric Spear.
The resurrected Chieftan, now a vengeful fire giant, tracks his prey down.
And then Spear vanquishes the Chieftan by tackling him down a mountain.
It’s an awesome act of self-sacrifice.
Burnt to a crisp, Spear can barely mutter Mira’s name one last time.
Call them all a blended family, with an older Fang still going strong alongside her two children.
“I think if I killed Fang, I would be hunted,” laughsPrimalcreatorGenndy Tartakovsky.
He spoke to EW about the bold finale and what it means for the show’s future.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Talk about the decision to kill off your main character.
In my mind, he’s a samurai, that’s his lot in life.
We can’t just all be happy.
For this, going into it, I had an idea of where I wanted it to go.
The whole scope of the series is about [Spear’s] evolution.
He’s kind of like the last caveman, the last Neanderthal.
So his evolution, in a way, is continuing his family.
He’s facing this villain that’s supernatural powered.
It’s not just a creature.
It’s something that’s beyond man.
I felt like if they beat them, it’s not right.
So why not go out in a blaze of glory?
He’s doing everything to protect his family, like usual, but it’s too much.
You want it to be realistic, even though this is the most unrealistic show ever made.
You want it to be believable character-wise.
To continue on with his daughter felt like the right thing.
So is the show specifically about Spear’s daughter going forward?
Or do you seePrimalas becoming more about Spear’s family?
I see it ending.
[laughs] I don’t want to do this story further.
I feel like this season we’ve done it all, in a way.
Low-dialogue, high-emotion, survival, rawness, visual storytelling: All that stuff, but with different characters.
There’s more things I want to do withPrimal, not necessarily Spear and Fang.
I’d have to really think about it.
I was really moved to see Spear paint his entire life story on the wall.
At what point did you decide that would be part of his final act?
He feels like the outsider.
It’s for sure connected.
It was a little bit of a reset.
I loved the feeling of giving the show a little verbal context, slightly, in this horrific episode.
Can you comment on that?
Absolutely not in the future.
Aaron is really funny, and I wanted to give him something because I love his voice.
He’s done some voices for me forUnicorn, he’s doing a voice for me forFixed.
I’m trying to use him as much as I can besides just grunting.
He’s actually a really good actor.
I’m curious: Doyouhave a name for who that entity is, or where that place is?
People kind of associated it with the demon guy.
Whether it’s the Devil or Satan, it’s the demi-god of Hell.
I like when the audience make it their own.
Some people were saying that it’s the god of revenge, and that works too.
It’s definitive in the story, but you might classify it the way you want to.
The show, I’ve always said, it’s pulp.
There’s man and dinosaurs, so you know you’re historically not accurate.
Then we’ve got witches, magic, vampire man-bats.
Getting dragged to the underworld to empower yourself for revenge is all part of it.
And then your daughter voiced Spear’s daughter!
Was parenting a key theme for you?
She’s about the right age.
It felt poetic to me.
I usually don’t do that.
My wife always yells at me, “Why aren’t the kids more in the shows?”
It’s about the sincerity and the honesty, not just about getting my kids an extra buck.
But my daughter kind of was into it.
It’s just one yell.
And the familial part of it, it’s just about character building.
Conan, that was the one thing, he never grew.
He’s still the same old dude.
Which is great for reading the short stories!
But doing this more episodic tale, we wanted more.
And of course I didn’t want to just rip it off.
You want the feeling of it, the coolness of it.
[Spear’s daughter] is the future.
She’s the next step of evolution.
What’s next for you?
Is there a release date forUnicornyet?
We’re looking at maybe sometime next year, maybe at the end of this year.
And then I’m working full-on onFixed, that Rated-R feature for New Line.
And then starting development on season 3.
I have an idea that I’m really excited about, one idea that’s rising to the top.
If I was going to do it again, what would I do?
That’s why I was so excited aboutPrimal.
I haven’t done caveman style fighting.
He’s got no skills, it’s just rawness.
To choreograph fights like that was really fun.
Pushing it into a season 3 ofPrimal, if it gets there, what’s different?
What can I do that I haven’t done?
If you’re tired of battles, you could always spend more time in the dinosaur maternity ward!
Storyboarding the birth of the eggs was some of the most fun I’ve had.
Youdoneed to see it!
That’s what makes it new!
When can you actually find something that really hasn’t been done, especially in animation?
That’s when storytelling gets exciting.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
