It's never fun when you discover a great show that isn't on a commonly used streaming service, a problem which thankfully no longer troubles Final Space. The beautifully animated and truly hilarious sci-fi adventure originally premiered on TBS in 2018, but now original fans of the show as well as newcomers can not only watch the first two seasons on HBO Max, but enjoy new episodes of Season 3, premiering Saturday, March 20 on Adult Swim.
Created by Olan Rogers, Final Space begins with the introduction of Gary (voiced by Rogers), serving out his last days of space prison with relatively good humor. But his return to a free life gets upended when he meets Mooncake (also voiced by Rogers), an adorable squishy green alien who turns out to be a creature of intergalactic importance. From there, Gary's world becomes one of universe-saving chaos, one he only barely survives with the help of his friends and robot companions. It's a show which truly earns the description "epic," anchored by an all-star voice cast including Fred Armisen, Tom Kenny, David Tennant, Tika Sumpter, Steven Yeun, Coty Galloway, Caleb McLaughlin, Ron Perlman, John DiMaggio, Gina Torres, Shannon Purser, Keith David, Andy Richter, Conan O'Brien, Ashly Burch, Claudia Black, Ron Funches, and Jane Lynch.
Season 3, Rogers promised in a one-on-one interview with Collider, is "really thrilling... I think that there are some episodes that are so big, that you're like, This is a feature. What am I watching? What is it? This is not the sitcom thing that I thought I was watching." Rogers also explained how the pandemic affected their ability to bring in guest actors, why he now runs the show's social media accounts, and his hopes for more seasons to follow Season 3.
COLLIDER: Excellent. So it seems like a lot's happened since the show launched and I guess, just in general, how are things these days?
OLAN ROGERS: Yeah. I mean, things are going pretty good. I mean, I think as far as the life stuff goes, it's going to good. I mean, I think last year was tough for everybody. It's like, there was no way around that. I mean, I had a soda shop that got basically leveled by a tornado in Nashville, so that's one of the newer developments. And then obviously the pandemic hit us right at the point where we started [recording] Season 3. So we made this entire show at home, not really knowing if we could do it. I guess we proved that you can make a TV show at home. But yeah, other than that, I think it's good. It's as good as you can get, where we're at right now.
Absolutely. I mean, I remember in the early days of the pandemic, it seemed like, oh, animation's going to be something that can still be produced safely. But that's an observation you can make from the cheap seats, not really understanding how much physical one-on-one time helps with making something.
ROGERS: Yeah, that was something that we noticed. It wasn't right away, but everybody, at some point, just went through it: What are we doing? We're making a show right now? It doesn't feel like we should be making a show right now.
A lot of people, especially the storyboarders, they used to work right next to somebody and they would peek over and look at their art, and now they didn't really have that. So there were a lot of artists who would just need to have somebody stay on the call with them, just to talk, while they were boarding — because they were just so used to that physical engagement. And it was tough. A lot of people went through tough times. I mean, we got to make a TV show and that's always amazing, to get to do the thing that you really love to do and, and continue to keep working — I know so many people that were out of jobs. It was just a weird time to be doing TV, I will say that 100 percent.
Of course. So the show technically originated on TBS, but it's also an Adult Swim show, and now it's an HBO Max show. What has it been like on your end, just tracking all of these different elements?
ROGERS: I mean, it's an interesting one because obviously we're a TBS-owned show and we still are, but we premiere on Adult Swim and we're on HBO Max finally but we're not under the Adult Swim tab on HBO Max. And then we also stream internationally on Netflix...
I took over the social media for all the accounts, so for about two years, I've been running this thing and it's crazy to see how many people watch it on different platforms, and I don't have the information to give them about when it's going on Netflix, when it's going on here and here and here and here. And so it's cool that it's in so many spots, that so many people can watch it in so many different ways. I think that's one of the cool things about Final Space, is that it just works on a lot of different places. A lot of shows don't really have that capability, so that's a cool part about it, but it also is confusing because a lot of people don't really know where to watch it.
For so long, for three years, we really weren't on a US streamer. Now we just officially got on HBO Max, but yeah, it's a little confusing. The message gets a little confusing when you're like, hey, it's premiering on Adult Swim but you look at the comments and most of them are like, when's it coming to Netflix? And it's like, it's not really... It's going to get there, but it's not a Netflix show. But it's a Netflix original, why'd you go onto Adult Swim? Well technically, it's a TBS show that premieres on Adult Swim. A lot of this messaging gets confusing, going back and forth.
So you run the social media, which is something I don't think a lot of other creators do. Why did you take it over?
ROGERS: There was a point where, in Season 2, the ball got handed off to Adult Swim at the last minute. And it was something where if I didn't do it, nobody I think would, because I don't think there was enough money to have somebody run the social media. And so I was like, all right. I'll do it, because I love the show and I want people's work to be seen, and I want people to watch it. And then I realized, oh man, this is a really good opportunity just to really connect with the people that watch the show, but also try to grow it.
Over the past two years, I've been able to double the following where it was at, at the end of Season 2, and so it's been cool to really connect with [fans] and really see that engagement, but also talk to them just to see who's watching the show. It's been a great learning experience, but also just a great experience in general.
I think that's the big thing with running social media, is that, if you don't have a really active social media account, it just looks like the show's dead. And it's like, no, it's not. We're in production. So that's what I've been doing, is just trying to create an experience and show people the process of what it is like making a TV show. Showing some art, teasing them and keeping this engagement growing and growing and growing. It'll be interesting to see if it does anything different, but I mean, if I didn't do it, I don't think anybody else would, at this point.
I think that's sometimes the way it has to work. It happens, but also, it's no one's fault. It's just like, if you're the child of multiple parents, sometimes one parent thinks the other parent is taking care of the problem.
ROGERS: Yeah. Yeah. And that's the gist of it, is that it's hard to know who's paying for what. But essentially, Adult Swim runs the marketing for our show, but it's still owned by TBS, but I think they pay. It's so confusing and I'm so confused by the whole process of it all. I'm assuming it's not like this for all shows, but for mine, it's navigating that.
But also, there is something cool that comes out of it, where the message is very clear on social media. Other creators don't really get to market their own show, and so the marketing gets a little bit muddy in how they want to present this show. With me, it's like, no. This is what it is. This is straight from the horse's mouth, what it is. So that's cool, but it's definitely a symptom of being a kid going to so many different houses right now.
Right. What's interesting is that in thinking about the show, on the one hand, it feels like a pretty simple show to describe — and on the other hand, it feels incredibly complicated. So I feel like having you so personally involved with the marketing makes sense, just because if anyone knows what the show is, it's you.
ROGERS: Yeah. 100 percent. I think that was one of the things I was talking to a lot of the overseas people. And they said, the first image that they see, they feel like it's a sitcom, a sci-fi sitcom. And I'm like yeah, no, it's not. It's not that at all. It's a pretty epic interstellar, galactic, animated sci-fi show. So I think it's good to get that messaging out, and I think more people have come to the show because of that.
So one reason I'm excited about the show being on HBO Max is that because HBO Max has no option whatsoever for disabling autoplay, so it's very easy to just keep rolling from episode to episode, and it really does play as this big, long epic story as a result.
ROGERS: Yeah, absolutely, and it's actually doing pretty well on HBO Max. Right now it's the top animated trending show on that platform, so it's doing well. Because it's really never been on a streaming service, so now they're getting to binge it and they're realizing, oh, this is actually a bingeable show. And yeah, I think it's cool to see people tweeting, "I just ate through half a day watching Final Space and it's great."
That's how it was designed to be watched, was to watch in this one sitting, really digest it and then go about your day. But I think with how it premieres on Adult Swim, it's a serialized thing and you're getting piece by piece, by piece. It is exciting, but when you get to watch the full thing at once, you're just like, oh, it's so good. It's just a little bit different.
So entering Season 3, how are you feeling about the balance you've found? Do you feel like you've really figured out how to make sure you've got comedy, you've got character and you've got a pretty significant amount of plot?
ROGERS: Yeah. I think we found a really, really nice balance in Season 3. I think it's probably the best it's been at. I mean, that's after two seasons of trying to figure out that perfect balance. I thought we had it in Season 1 and we sort of did in Season 2, we went a little too hard on the comedy I think, and a little bit too hard on the drama. like too much of both at specific times. Season 3 is more confident in what it's trying to be — I think it's found its footing in a really nice way, but it also plays and you just are along for the adventure. You're never thinking, oh, that was a joke. You're just like, oh, that was really funny. I know these characters now.
Wonderful. So you're on Season 3 now — is there a six year plan? Is there a 10 year plan? Because these days we're seeing a lot of shows all of a sudden announce, oh, it's our third and final, or fourth and final season.
ROGERS: Yeah. I mean, that could be the Final Space tagline at the end of the day. Who knows? I mean, it's such a mystery right now with the entertainment industry. But also, there is a plan that I would love to do five to six seasons, like most creators would — they have an ending that they have in mind. At this point, I don't really know what that future is, but if we are going to be that headline, then I guess we are, but we fought that valiant fight for as long as humanly possible. I mean, hopefully they figure it out and they want to do another season. And it seems like TBS has always been a really good supporter of the show and it works on a lot of different places, so maybe they'll figure it out. I would love to do another season, if not two or three, but I think it's up to them.
Meanwhile, in rewatching the show, I'm so extremely impressed by not just the amount of voice work you do, but the number of different characters you're playing. I'm also very worried for your vocal chords.
ROGERS: Oh yeah.
How often are you blowing out your voice while working on the show?
ROGERS: It's crazy. This season I added another character, Biscuit — not by choice — and basically, he is the hardest character for me to do. I haven't blown out my vocal chords yet, but they are starting to hurt after records. I just started really spacing out these characters, in multiple records now.
Is Mooncake relatively simple?
ROGERS: Easiest one. Mooncake's a joy, an absolute joy. The easiest one for me to voice. Gary's pretty easy too. And Tribore is a little difficult to do, but Biscuit... that little tiny tiger just kills me. It kills me.
What goes into the decision-making process of which characters you voice?
ROGERS: It's usually David Sacks. It usually will come up with a character and I'll just goof off and say, "What if he sounded like this?" I remember for Tribore, I was messing around. It was Season 1 and he was like, "Oh, that's so funny. You got to voice this guy." I'm like, "I don't. David, I don't want to voice this guy." And we got to the table read and I did the voice because we didn't have any other actors yet. And he was like, "Yeah, you're voicing it. It got laughs. You're voicing Tribore." And I'm like, oh man. And then I remember we pitched Season 3, back before the pandemic, and we were out getting breakfast with executives and I did the voice for Biscuit and they all laughed. And [Sacks] was like, "You got to voice him." I'm like, "We can get actors to voice. We can do it similar." It's like, "no, you've got to. It got a laugh. It got a laugh. You're doing it." I'm like, oh man. So, it's usually David Sacks, honestly.
In general, has the process of bringing in voice talent changed from the beginning? I mean, because you started off with already a pretty impressive roster but adding folks like Jane Lynch in Season 2, that feels like a big step.
ROGERS: Yeah. I think it was interesting because Season 3, the pandemic happened, and we had people that we really wanted to reach out to for guest spots and everybody was shut down and we had to keep going. So we basically just used a lot of our in-house talent, like Tom Kenny, to voice a lot of our guest spots. Season 2, we added a bunch of new characters and I wish we could have done that for Season 3. That would have been awesome.
In general, what can you tease about Season 3?
ROGERS: I think it's a really thrilling season. And I think that there are some episodes that are so big, that you're like, This is a feature. What am I watching? What is it? This is not the sitcom thing that I thought I was watching. And then there's a lot of episodes that go really small and that are so emotionally raw... Your heart's going to be torn out of your chest because it's just so sad, because we put all of that frustration and stuff from the pandemic into the show, and you can see that everybody just brought it up more and more and more. The artists, the music, everything is just firing on all cylinders. So I think it's going to be a really, really awesome season.
Yeah — I'm glad you mentioned the music, because I think it's a really defining element of the show.
ROGERS: Yeah. And this season it's Jake Sidwell and Andrew Goodwin. We got two guest composers, which are Casey Edwards and DoTi, who's a UK artist. The music this season is just absolutely stellar. It's so, so good. It's unreal how good it is.
I've never heard of a show having a guest composer.
ROGERS: I think I might be the first person to try to do something like that. I don't know. But I mean, what I've realized is that, if you can give these composers enough time to really focus in on those things that they are really passionate about, it just turns out better. Because a lot of times, composers are trying to burn through to make the deadline. And I'm like, if they had more help, than the music is only going to be better.
Are you bringing in specific people for specific episodes, thinking that they have the right skillset for whatever the story is in particular?
ROGERS: Yeah. Well, Jake actually scored the proof of concept on my YouTube channel forever ago, so I knew him. And then Andrew was a composer that I had used for a lot of my earlier stuff as well. So I was just like, let's just get you two together. But yeah, I mean, they definitely... I knew they had the skillsets to do it, just because Jake can find those emotional moments really well, and Andrew's really good at the action stuff. So it's just finding two people that are really good at certain things and then putting them together and you have this really complete picture.
To wrap up, when it comes to hitting the big emotional beats, for you both as the person making it and also the voice actor, what's been key about trying to find that right tone?
ROGERS: Yeah. I mean, that's probably the most difficult thing because the voice acting element is the thing that I'm still working on to try to improve and get better. And the same thing with writing. The journey for me, every step of the way, is how do I make this better? How do I get this better? How do I act better? How do I do this? And I think with this season, it's just been really finding the confidence to be like, hey, we don't have to put a joke here. It doesn't have to be here. You can lighten the mood up in certain ways, but you don't want to kill the drama of it. So it's been really nice trying to find how to keep that intact and not try to take a note from a network that wants a joke, to basically release the steam almost. It's like, you just want to keep it going. I think we've found a really, really nice balance this season.
Excellent. Yeah. I mean, I'm always a big fan of a sci-fi show that secretly, the whole time, is a love story. And so I've gotten really invested in the Quinn and Gary relationship, even though it's had such weird, wild turns.
ROGERS: Yeah. And honestly, that's a big part of this season. We didn't really get to do it in the way that we wanted to in Season 1, because it was played like a movie. It was really fast, there wasn't a lot of time to sit back and do whatever. We had 10 episodes, it was a smaller season. And then Season 2, we had this idea to bring in Nightfall and all this stuff. And they wanted, basically, a more episodic story. So we couldn't really tell a lot of the serialized stuff that we wanted to tell. And then Season 3, we're back to being that serialized show, but with more episodes. And so we have this ability to really dive into the relationship and really, it plays it so well. It's just enjoyable. Every time you see them deal with the relationship, you're just like, well, yes, finally. Throughout the entire season, you just get more and more and more of it, and it's really nice.
Final Space Seasons 1 and 2 are streaming now on HBO Max. Season 3 premieres Saturday, March 20 at 10:30 p.m. ET on Adult Swim.