Since television was created, families have been gathering together in front of that magical moving picture box. When Philo Farnsworth invented the first fully functional all-electronic TV, there’s a good chance that he called those who he held near and dear into the room to see what he had created. Decades later, after doing the same thing with shows like ‘I Love Lucy’, ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’, ‘Mork and Mindy’, and many more, there are members of the viewing audience that still assemble to watch their favorite programs. Sure, we may binge on one, two, or seven episodes at a time, but often we hear about people coming together to watch ‘Fresh Off The Boat’, ‘Master of None’, or whatever singing or dancing competition show is all the rage at the time. But nothing says good, old-fashioned, family programming like a feel-good animated series, like the upcoming ‘Trollhunters’ on Netflix from the mind of visionary filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro. Also, ‘The Walking Dead’. Wait, what?
At this year’s New York Comic Con, Del Toro appeared at the Theater at Madison Square Garden to introduce the world premiere of the pilot for his latest project, which is based on the young adult novel of the same name that he wrote with Daniel Kraus. He was accompanied onstage by cast members including Steven Yeun and Charlie Saxton, who play a bully named Steve and protagonist Jim’s sidekick Toby. But during the press roundtables beforehand, Yeun and Saxton discussed how fans of their previous projects would receive their latest endeavor. It was then that the actor best known for bringing Glenn Rhee from the pages of Robert Kirkman’s acclaimed comic to one of AMC’s highest rated shows of all time described ‘Trollhunters’ and ‘The Walking Dead’ as “family programming”.
Obviously, Yeun wasn’t referring to the extreme blood and gore (as seen in the season seven premiere earlier this week), but he meant it in the sense that both shows contain aspects that are relatable to everybody. Additionally, the duo mentioned the differences between voiceover and live-action work, the differences between the Netflix series and the book, and working with Del Toro. You can check out everything that they had to say in the video below:
‘Trollhunters’ starring Anton Yelchin, Kelsey Grammer, Ron Perlman, Steven Yeun, Charlie Saxton, Jonathan Hyde, Lexi Madrano, Amy Landecker, and Fred Tatasciore premieres on Netflix on December 23, 2016.
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