[Interview] Scavengers Reign Co-Creator Joseph Bennett Creates An Intergalactic Chain Reaction

Sometimes a leap of faith is more than just a brazen gamble. Testing out uncharted waters can often be a necessity when it comes to survival. For Max’s brand new animated series Scavengers Reign, that idea is put to the ultimate test. Based on the animated short Scavengers, the series expands on the grotesque yet equally beautiful alien world first introduced in 2016. Created by Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner, Scavengers Reign is a sci-fi thriller that is unlike just about any show currently on TV. 

The show follows the events of a catastrophic accident aboard an intergalactic freighter. Helplessly hovering above an unknown planet, several crew members manage to make their way into escape pods and navigate their way down to the planet’s surface. But with limited resources and a dwindling hope of being able to call for help, the stranded crew members do their best to adjust to life on a new and very strange planet. The crew members must work with what’s available to them on the planet in order to ensure their survival. But that may be easier said than done. Developed by Green Street Pictures, Scavengers Reign features a cast led by Wunmi Mosaku, Bob Stephenson, Alia Shawkat, Sunita Mani, and Ted Travelstead. 

Co-creator Joseph Bennett sat down with Bubbleblabber to discuss the work that went into building an original alien world and the importance of exploring symbiotic relationships. 

Joseph Bennett On Starting The Chain Reaction 

For Bennett, animation wasn’t always the career path he thought he’d take in life. Starting out in the advertising industry, Bennett soon found himself venturing into the world of animation. It didn’t take long for him to find his new home. After creating a few animated short cartoons, Bennett reveals that he knew exactly where his heart was at. 

“I never took an animation class. I went to school for painting and thought that was going to be my career. Eventually, I just started making shorts more and more. And that’s the other thing too. I would post these shorts and nothing ever went viral or anything like that. But it was so fulfilling just to post online and feel like I’ve accomplished something. I told a story and put it out there.” 

Similar to his characters in Scavengers Reign, Bennett saw an opportunity without reassurance. There was no safety net. But it was something that he knew was the right move for him. To him, the risks were worth the rewards. He adapted on the fly and learned that animation was the missing link in his career. Bennett says that creating stories inspired him to take the plunge.

“There was definitely a certain point where I was like ‘I don’t care if I don’t make any money doing this. I love doing this.’ I quit my job in advertising and I just put all of my focus on making shorts. And it’s been a slow growth.”

Watching The Machine Turn  

The growth may have been gradual, but Bennett has now seen the fruits of his labor. After cutting his teeth by posting his own content, Bennett then partnered up with Adult Swim. His relationship with the animation heavyweight proved to be extremely fruitful.  

“We made [Scavengers] in 2016. I had been posting shorts online for several years and I had sort of an idea in mind at the time. I was thinking a lot about Rube Goldberg machines and the nature of the brutal effects of symbiotic relationships.”

Rube Goldberg machines are machines or contraptions that use a chain reaction to carry out a simple task. The machines are named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, who worked for publications such as the New York Sun and the New York Journal-American. Bennett says that developing Scavengers with Charles Huettner involved taking the concept of Rube Goldberg machines and applying an ecological connection.  

“It was just the idea of thinking about building a world where you’re almost emulating what already exists in nature, but sort of you doing your own version of it. I reached out to Charles and we made this short and it was great because we felt like it was a bit off the radar. [Adult Swim] were pretty hands-off.” 

Giving Birth To Scavengers Reign’s Strange New World

Taking the idea behind their animated short and expanding upon it for Scavengers Reign wasn’t a simple task, but Bennett relished the opportunity to build a universe from the ground up. It was a chance for Bennett to create magical sequences that pushed boundaries and elicited a newfound joy for visual storytelling. 

“I’m very used to working with dialogue and working in comedy. This was just a breath of fresh air. Just trying something totally different. I think there were just a lot of big swings throughout the whole process of this, and I’m all for it. It was a very ambitious show. I mean even the fact that the majority of the show, you’re just traversing across an entire planet, so every episode is essentially different. It’s new art. You’ve got systems that you’ve got to build out yourself, you’ve got to really do a lot of research. It was an absolute massive feat, but I don’t regret it.”

Finding a reference point for his alien world was vital to the entire process behind the show.  As the machinations of this otherworldly tale took shape, pieces started to fall into place. Bennett believes that once the groundwork was laid out, the real fun began.

“I think that the idea was just that ‘let’s explore every kind of possible part of this planet that we can, and explore all the different ecosystems and all that stuff.’ Developing the planet itself… I wouldn’t say it was necessarily the easiest, but I would say it’s the most fun. There was a moment that happened where I realized that it was almost impossible to come up with an organism or a creature that doesn’t already exist in nature on Earth.”

Trusting The Process 

Instead of attempting to redesign the wheel, Bennett and his animation team decided to use nature as inspiration. While many of the creatures and the flora in Scavengers Reign will seem bizarre to viewers, there will be an odd sense of recognition as well. 

“The idea was to sort of cherry-pick from those creatures and build these Rube Goldberg machines. These characters use these tools and use these plants and [creatures] as a utility, it’s a function. It was just the idea of telling a narrative visually. And this process that you can follow these characters and see where this is actually leading to. You’ve got to understand that they just want to have a small taste of humanity at the end.”

Being able to form a connection from concept to design would sometimes prove to be difficult for Bennett, but he was more than ready to accept the challenge. For him, the challenge was all part of the game. 

“It was very fun. A lot of the time it was a little cart before the horse where we would think about the utility and then sort of go back and retrofit what the function was. What purpose does it serve on the planet? That stuff was just a blast.”

Despite straying away from his comedic roots, Bennett felt right at home developing the show. To him, the blood, sweat, and tears poured into the series are a testament to the thoughtfulness and emotional appeal of Scavengers Reign. Bennett believes that animation fans will be able to appreciate the fine details that he and his team stressed over. 

“The big thing in the making of the show was that I understand that not everyone’s going to like it. That’s totally fine. But we put a lot of love into it. I was so fortunate to have such an incredible team working on it. One thing that I’ve just been reiterating is that we really didn’t take any shortcuts. We all come from an animation background and really love to do animation the old way. This was very much a hands-on project. A lot of love went into this and I hope that’s at least some sort of appreciation for that.”

Getting To The End Result

Like most beneficial relationships, Bennett knows that his show would not have been possible without his team behind him. In order for Scavengers Reign to flourish, ideas needed to be meticulously cultivated. Something that Bennett takes a lot of pride in.   

“We worked with a big international crew from all over the world. Mexico, Portugal. Spain, France…it was just amazing. And this was being made during the pandemic as well. Everybody was working remotely. So we were just on these really big Zoom calls. But the creative process was so fun because one artist would come up with a design or do a rough animation and then we would share it with the team. And so then you would see everybody is so motivated and so excited and jazzed about it. And you’d feel that kind of motivation throughout. So it really became sort of a beehive mentality. Everybody was in tune with the show. It was a blast. I worked with a lot of people that were just so much better than I was in animation and it was very inspiring.”

For fans hoping to find new content similar to Bennett’s earlier work, you can rest easy. Besides Scavengers Reign, Bennett has already been hard at work on another new series. And he promises that the show will be more aligned with his comedic roots featured in his animated shorts. 

“I have a new show coming out called Common Side Effects for Adult Swim. It’s about Big Pharma, mushrooms, the DEA, and the politics that are behind it all. The [main] character is someone who finds this sort of a mushroom that’s like a cure-all medicine. So then you have all these external forces that are like trying to take them down and it’s way more comedy-focused. It’s been really fun.”

Whether he’s telling a funny joke or creating an alien world, Joe Bennett is chock-full of imagination. His vision and style are unmistakable and he appears to just be getting started. 

Scavengers Reign premieres on Max on October 19.