Samurai Jack Featurette Reveals Jack’s Arc and New Art Style

While we’ve been a bit whatever about the amount of revivals coming out, there’s no question that Samurai Jack coming back to Cartoon Network is super hype. In this short behind-the-scenes for season 5, the team behind Samurai Jack talks about their excitement and what we can look forward to later this year.

Creator and director Genndy Tartakovsky says he wants to keep most of the details on the down low, but he did mention that there’s no connection to the last episode. So, you can marathon Samurai Jack before the new season, but it’s not necessary. The story will pick up after “a lot of drama that’s happened,” and the director promises a “cool reveal of everything.”

Writer Darrick Bachman gives us a few more details about what kind of arc the samurai will embark on:

I think we’re going to see him in a new light…in the original series he was a very heroic person on a very rigid quest and now we pick up with him and it’s many years after the fact—and he’s a little bit lost. So it’s a story of redemption, and him trying to find who he is again.

Art director Scott Wills calls the new series “more intense” and “more emotional.” While Tartakovsky says there was a bit of a challenge moving from CN to Adult Swim, he assures us Jack is still the same badass. Character designer Craig Kellman calls him a “little more heroic, less cartoony” as the samurai rocks a new beard.

You also hear from storyboard artist Bryan Andrews, layout designer Lou Romano, and more about how they worked on preserving the series’ iconic art style while incorporating new mediums that they didn’t have a decade ago.

Phil LaMarr, the voice of Samurai Jack, also shares what he loves about the role and the team also talks about how they’ve reworked Aku after the passing of voice actor Mako Iwamatsu.

The enthusiasm the team has for Samurai Jack is contagious, and it’s clear the team knows what fans loved about the original from the humor, to the art style, to the amazing action. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for season 5!

(via Polygon)

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