Recently, director John Harvatine IV and producer Tom Root did a Reddit AMA interview together in regards to the 2nd season of their animated adult Hulu Series “Crossing Swords!” which stars various voices & celebrity talents such as Nicholas Hoult, Luke Evans, Seth Green, Adam Pally, Alanna Ubach, Tara Strong, Tony Hale, Adam Ray, Breckin Meyer, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Maya Erskine just to name a few…On the idea of making the show stop-motion. TR: We started with the look of the show before we ever had a story, so since it was always going to be these weathered chunks of wood that looked like children’s playthings from a bygone age, it really lent itself to stop motion as opposed to doing it with any other form of animation. We could have done it with CG but that would just be adding an extra step to make it look like the wooden world we wanted to build anyway.On how long it usually takes to make an episode. TR: Rule of thumb seems to be about 14 months to make an episode of stop motion television. That’s been true on both Robot Chicken and Crossing Swords. The pandemic, of course, changed the math a little bit :/On what makes creating the show so fun while making another season.JH: For me, the most fun has been the team aspect of it. We start with Hulu n’ Sony and get notes and feedback on the scripts from the very start. Then we hand off to the art team where we get to work with some of the best stop-motion artists in all the land. It’s working with all the different artists, producers, and voice talent for the common interest of making something different and funny. That’s the best part.JR: This was obviously a season created during the pandemic, so the most fun part of season two was actually how it forced us to keep our work family together long-distance and collaborate on something rewarding. We started writing season two before the pandemic even started, and now here it is Dec 2021 and it’s finally coming out. Crossing Swords has been one of the few enduring bright spots during these last few troubling years for me and hopefully everyone who worked on it with us.On how long it took to make this show and how they developed a nugget of the idea to actually sell it to Hulu and consumers. JR: This is going to sound like an exaggeration but it took literally 10 years. Harv and I decided we wanted to make a peg-person show prior to season 6 of Robot Chicken when Stoopid Buddy Stoodios was still setting up its offices. That’s when the creative started. It went through many many ups and downs before it found solid footing with Sony and Hulu.On the inspirations behind the show. TR: When we were first envisioning the show, which was a decade ago now, the opening titles from Game of Thrones were one of my favorite things on TV. It was like the show was telling you, “Here are all the places we’re going to go eventually, and they’re all going to be awesome,” and it was very exciting.I kept thinking, “What if our show had a map, but everywhere on the map was very stupid?” A lot of the show was born from a dry erase board drawing of a gigantic map with Merriman and Tulip’s castle at the center and then all sorts of ridiculous areas surrounding it that the characters could eventually adventure to.TH: For me, there were a few things that helped shape it. Game of Thrones was a thing at one time and when we were creating the idea that seemed like a fun world to populate…in peg form. It’s also a little bit like the Simpsons in the way there is a big world with people and buildings and the feeling that you can go anywhere at any time was a big part of it as well. Then when we got to shoot it Golden Girls was a big inspiration for how to shoot a comedy on a tight schedule.On who their favorite characters on the show. JR: Princess Blossom is a favorite character from a writing standpoint because she’s very proactive. You can drop her into the middle of any scene and she’ll immediately start making the scene about herself. Plus she’s voiced by Maya Erskine, so pretty much any line of dialogue we write for Blossom becomes funnier in the voice booth when Maya gets hold of it.JH: I love King Merriman by the amazing Luke Evans. Even though he seems like he should be an asshole..and he has his moments, he has a good heart and kinda good intentions, so it’s fun watching him evolve into more than just an idiot with a good job, but as someone who is slowly learning how to do the right things…slowly. I also LOVED Bungles until Root learned he was my favorite character and killed him off. But there’s a lot of winks to him in the second season that he didn’t even notice were put in 😉On the ideas behind The Simpsons “Couch-Gags”, the two previously did. JH: I’m sure Root’s got his thoughts on this, but Rooty n I have created a few of these now going back like 8 years. The first one was a Robot Chicken version where all the characters were toys and the world was like a big plastic playset. The second one we did was watching Homer leave his 2d world and walk around stop-motion sets as if he’s on a backlot tour at Warner Brothers. So this time around we wanted to do something totally different, so we pitched them on the idea of a complete wood world with peg people, they loved the idea so we made it!And finally On the creative process of writing musicals and why not give the character Patrick something to sing. TR: We write a lot of musical numbers that end up getting cut for time. At one point in season one, Broth had a teddy bear he’d grown too attached to and eventually has to put down like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, and I believe there’s a Broth musical number in there.I have a feeling Nick Hoult sings like an angel but the Patrick character sings like crap. We should find out one day.TH: Great idea. We love giving these amazing actors the challenge of singing, and it’s also really fun to shoot on the stages during animation. Sometimes it can slow things down so we can’t go tooooo crazy, but agree Patrick n’ Broth should be up next. Blarney would be fun to see as well, some sad song where he sits alone under a bridge with that troll from season one.Crossing Swords season two is streaming now on Hulu.