‘Strange Planet’ Creator Nathan Pyle on the Joys of Animating Well-Adjusted Aliens (New Clip)

This article originally appeared in the Sept./Oct. '23 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 333)

The summer of 2023 may be the perfect moment for the new animated series Strange Planet to launch on Apple TV+, as interest in extra-terrestrials and their experiences on Earth has never been higher! The charming 2D series is based on Nathan Pyle’s popular webcomic, which became a global hit on Instagram — it had 250,000 followers within its first three weeks in 2019 and it currently has 6.6 million followers. The new animated series, which premieres on August 9 with three episodes, offers a hilarious look at a distant world of blue aliens.

Featuring the voices of Hannah Einbinder, Danny Pudi, Tunde Adebimpe, Demi Adejuyigbe and Lori Tan Chinn, the show is co-created an executive produced by Pyle himself and the always-busy Dan Harmon (Rick and Morty, Community). The show is executive produced by Alex Bulkley (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio) and Corey Campodonico for ShadowMachine (BoJack Horseman, Tuca & Bertie), Lauren Pomerantz (Saturday Night Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show), Amalia Levari (Over the Garden Wall, Harvey Beaks), Steve Levy (Rick and Morty, Community) and Taylor Alexy Pyle.

This week, the brilliant man behind the comic series and the animated show was kind enough to answer a few of our burning questions about his clever new series:

Nathan Pyle: Absolutely! I started drawing Strange Planet as a webcomic in 2019: I did one comic a day for a whole year, and it became pretty popular. Back then, it was just me and my wife. I’d tell my wife Taylor about an idea, and she might pose for a reference photo. Eventually, I got to pitch the TV show idea to Dan Harmon and Steve Levy, and they liked it, ShadowMachine liked it, and then Apple liked it. It became a work in progress over the past three years, and now it’s airing on Apple TV+ this month. It did happen kind of magically, and I’m so thankful for all the help I’ve gotten along the way. It’s very gratifying to hear from people who follows the strip on Instagram and Facebook, because it did all start from pretty basic media social media beginnings.

It’s funny that you ended up pitching the show to Dan Harmon, because your work first got attention on his show Community. Can you tell us about that connection?

Oh yes, I had designed a shirt for Threadless that ended up being worn by Danny Pudi’s character (Abed) on Community. He was really sweet about highlighting artists that he liked through his wardrobe on that show. On the season six finale of the show, he wore a shirt that I had drawn, and it was a real full-circle moment for me when we were able to cast him on our show. It was really fun to have that actually materialize.

You studied theology in college and taught high school theology for two years before moving to New York to pursue your artistic career. How did that tie in with your interest in comics, aliens and animation?

Well, the common thread there with theology is that I’ve always been interested in what else is out there. I think we’ve all seen the images of deep space that have come out recently. I just think the number of galaxies out there is much higher than we can even add them. I think there’s so much mystery about who else and what else is out there, and that was that was a big part of my interest in theology.

When it came to animation and illustration and comics, I would stay the interest all began with The Muppet Babies. I grew up on Muppets, and I think the Muppet Babies was the first time I realized that here we had an iteration of The Muppets where they all live in the same place. So there were multiple lines of lore about these characters. I found out that this version was different from The Muppet Movie, where they all don’t live in the same place. I loved Kermit and DuckTales and TaleSpin. Again, you had Chip ’n Dale who became the Rescue Rangers. They were all modular and could be plugged into a new show, and they’d be detectives. I just love that about animation, and how many different iterations of the same characters we could have.

What do you love about your animated series which follows these hilarious creatures, holding a mirror to our own crazy lives on Earth?

I love this planet full of Beings who all go to therapy, and I imagine that they’re all quite emotionally vulnerable and honest. They just enjoy existence because there’s so much to enjoy about being curious, about learning from each other and experiencing new things. And of course, facing your fear at times. We are so proud of this world because I think it’s a very inviting world.

We’ve been so fortunate to be around artists and animators who are so talented and what they make is a level that’s so far beyond what I can draw as a webcomic artist. It’s almost like a just it’s like a three-dimensional version of it. The folks at ShadowMachine on the West Coast, which is the studio that did BoJack Horseman and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, are so incredibly talented. Apple is also really great at world building, with shows like Severance and Silo. So, it’s been really fun for me to be part of that. We’re also making a new world for people to step into.

As someone who’s been drawing cute blue aliens for the past few years, what is your take on the recent revelations about UFOs and whether the U.S. government has been withholding info about ETs?!

As I mentioned, when you look at the number of galaxies seen in just that tiny little portion of the sky from the Webb deep space telescope, I think there are obviously beings out there. To think that any of them would want to visit Earth is quite an honor, I don’t know if that’s actually true or not. But if they do want to visit earth then then that’s that is truly remarkable because we are one of many planets and to be visited by any other beings has to be quite a feat for sure. I’m fascinated to find out more.

Excellent, and one last question: What do you hope animation fans will get out of your show?

I think talking about your emotions is actually what Beings do well, and that’s something we can aspire to. To be able to be honest about our emotions and to think of a world that’s slightly better than ours, that’s something we can all aspire to, and that’s what I hope people get out of our show.

The first three episodes of Strange Planet premiere on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, August 9. New episodes will debut weekly every Wednesday through the season finale on September 27 (10 episodes total).

• Episode 101 – “The Flying Machine” — A popular band splits up, throwing their lives — and their fans’ lives  — into chaos. Elsewhere, an air comfort supervisor’s new role creates turbulence.

• Episode 102 – “Greyscale Finger Bandit” — A lovelorn being offers to take care of their crush’s vibrating creature. Next door, a small being insists on adopting an outside creature.

• Episode 103 – “Careful Now” — While at the tumble scrub, a being has a chance encounter with a stranger that leads to an unexpected but exciting opportunity

Check out the new sneak-peek clip below or click here for the previously released trailer.