Ryan Quincy on going from “Out There” to REALLY Out There with “Future-Worm”

The show is good but given Ryan’s resume that isn’t a surprise.

Time travel. An industry all its own has also been well-represented in animation. Ever since Futurama featured its protagonist coming out of cryo-sleep all those years ago, franchises like Rick and Morty, Gravity Falls, and “insert anime here” have helped to revolutionize the principles of sci-fi animation and we’re all winners for it because more is coming.

Enter Future-Worm, Ryan Quincy’s first project since his foray on IFC with Out There, an animated series that really doesn’t place a whole lot of weight on your knowledge of time travel. It stars Danny, whom after inventing a lunch box time-machine, befriends a worm from the future named Future-Worm or “Fyootch” for short. Fyootch sports crazy abs, shades, and a beard that can repel bullets. “The name Future-Worm” was actually inspired by my wife’s email address,” says show creator Ryan, “with her blessing, she let me really investigate WHO he is.

Inspired by 80s wrestlers, Future-Worm is the more brash of the Danny/Fyootch combo, “but even though he has Titanium reinforced abs, he still gets his ass kicked all the time.” Danny us more of the problem-solving type, thing MacGuyver or MacGruber minus the celery, Danny takes some of his stylistic cues from his creator, “ when I was a kid, I was heavy set and really into comics and movies and despite being kind of nerdy, I really wanted Danny to exude a confidence about him even if he might have a lot working against him. I wanted him to have an optimism.”

The lead roles of Future-Worm and Danny are voiced by James Adomian and Andy Milonakis respectively, though the latter was a challenging pill for Disney to swallow given Andy’s controversial career. But, having both Andy AND James on as the show’s stars, has helped Ryan take advantage of the actors’ natural ability to be funnier, “I MUCH prefer getting James and Andy to record together because, I’ll be trying to write funny jokes for a few months and then when the script is done and I give it to Andy and James, they always come up with way funnier shit which leaves me thinking, “What the fuck was I doing this whole time?”  

To help get those kids excited about Future-Worm, Ryan has taken on a slew of really great guest stars on tap including Jeff Ross, Justin Roiland (Justin was actually the impetus to the idea of Future-Worm in that Ryan was inspired by the producer’s take on time travel when discussing time travel as a potential crux for Rick and Morty), Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Chelsea Peretti, Brad Neely, Selma Blair, and Bill Nye. For season two, Ryan’s got a REALLY cool name in mind, “I’m trying to get Trey (Parker from South Park) for an episode. I really wanted to get a bunch of my friends together and just get a chance to hang out with them.” Also, look for more of Paul Williams’ take on Danny with “Future-Danny” a pseudo spin-off that was brought on during development, but with an upgraded Robo-Carp and the possibility of a Future-Future-Worm, it’s an idea that looks to take on a life of its own.

Those expecting Future-Worm to be a similar work to Ryan’s past successes with South Park and Out There would be re-missed to see nothing of the sorts in his new Disney XD series. “Out There was such a slow burn. This time I wanted to do something really fast-paced like “BOOM!”, “BOOM!”, “BOOM!” which was very cathartic for me after losing Out There. “

This execution includes a different kind of 30 minutes than what you are typically used to. Instead of adhering to your typical dual 11-minute or your standard variety 30-minute episodes, Future-Worm employs a variety-show type deal where we typically get THREE different episodes. “Some episodes are just silly trailers, but we also have longer episodes with A and B plots and story arcs where during the course of the season, and especially near the end, the main characters start to feel the effects of their time traveling and realizing that doing all of this really does take a toll and helps Danny and Fyootch to be a bit more battle-tested as time goes on. This is something we want to explore further in season two.” For those thinking this means that we are coming away from the whole, ‘Don’t take time travel too seriously’ mantra from before, do not fear. Future-Worm employs a number of features to make sure you don’t forget that the bottom line is to “Laugh not think”, “Robo-Carp is going to die every episode. He’s a mix of K-9 and Kenny from South Park in that he’s a robot that doesn’t do much, but he dies every episode.”

“What’s cool about Disney XD is that they see shows like this and Pickle and Peanut serving the kids in the back of the class that are staring out their windows and not really paying attention in class. That’s who I was. Earlier Disney shows probably appealed more to the kids who sit at the front of the class. They’re very cool and supportive of us”

Future-Worm returns September 19th only on Disney XD, check your local listings.