‘Solar Opposites’ EPs Josh Bycel & Mike McMahan Spill the Tea on Season 5’s Alien Love Story

This article was written for the August '24 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 342).

Since its premiere in May 2020, Solar Opposites — Hulu’s adult animated “silly aliens in suburbia” show has entertained audiences and surpassed expectations. This summer, the clever series is back for a fifth season, with what promises to be another glorious visit with Korvo, Terry, the Pupa and the rest of the surreal clan. Exec producers Mike McMahan and Josh Bycel were kind enough to give us the scoop on what we can look forward to this season.

“I think the big headline for the Solars’ story this year is that Korvo and Terry are now married,” says McMahan, who was also the creator/exec producer of Star Trek: Lower Decks and executive producer on Rick and Morty. “There were a lot of things we were able to look at that are about newlyweds. We were able to make fun of that fact that they are in love, so they can be total morons with each other. They’re the exact right of stupid for each other and that makes us laugh. It’s like having two Homer Simpsons. We’ve just doubled up on the lovably dumb factor!”

Fortunately, the show will continue exploring the world inside The Wall (hidden in Jesse and Yumyulack’s bedroom). “We have the continuation of the epic story of the little people in The Wall,” says McMahan. “They have this adventure in the backyard, and we get to explore a new genre with them. We also check in with the SilverCops and take that story to an unexpected place as well. So, as usual, one season of Solar Opposites is like grabbing a bunch of candy from a Halloween bucket and shoving them in your mouth all at once.”

Return of the Little People

McMahan says “The Wall” storyline was always part of his plans for the show. “It was in the original pitch for the show and has always been a part of the DNA of the series” he explains. “When we started writing the first season, we always knew that the seventh episode was going to be about the wall. Of course, we didn’t know at the time we’d be talking about Season 5 and that we’d go on to do it five times. But we tried to change the genre and really lean into it and build the serialized aspects of it, while still being so little, ironic and silly. We’re really proud of what we’ve done on that side of the shelf!”

And yes, there’s also a new cast member! “We added a new recurring character in the form of a little robot that they pick up, which just sticks around for the rest of the season,” says McMahan. “It was fun for us to say, ‘OK, now there’s a robot in the family. So what does that mean for the Pupa?’ We can’t wait to see how fans react to that. We even call out how TV shows add cute things in later seasons, as if our robot was demanded by the network. The truth is that our network actually loves the show and we get to do whatever we want to do.”

Bycel believes the series has been adept at further developing the sci-fi angle of its original premise. “We have a couple of really funny episodes that center on weird sci-fi devices,” he says. “In one of the new episodes, we have this ‘What If’ device, which can show you what would come about if this happened. The Solars are fighting about something, and they go to push the What If device and they realize that it has already been pushed, so they are actually in a ‘What If’ world.”

“We like to bend these classic situations,” McMahan says. “The series is about an alien family, but it’s also a show about all the TV shows that we’ve loved over the past few decades. So, what we do is take a classic TV trope and then break it and have our characters deal with the stupid version of that.”

Bycel says he gets a big kick out of how the show mixes and matches animation styles and genres throughout a season. “From an animation standpoint, I love the amazing work done by our design artists and animators,” says the exec producer, who has also worked on hit comedies such as Scrubs, Psych, American Dad! and Happy Endings. “We’re asking them to make three different shows in one, and they can go from the fun, big bright colors of the Solars to a very different, dystopic kind of a world with the SilverCops, and then a completely another thing with the Wall and the backyard this season. For me, it’s so much fun to be able to do all those things in one show. We’ve tasked our artists with what sometimes seems like impossible tasks, but they also come to play and they’re always so good.”

Fans can also look forward to a colorful slate of guest voices this season. Clancy Brown, Charlotte Nicdao, Christina Hendricks, Darren Criss, Donald Faison, Greta Lee, Jack Quaid, Ken Marino, Matt Walsh, Morgan Spector, Mikey Day, Kieran Culkin, Oscar Nuñez, Ron Funches, Jack Quaid, Stephen Lang and Tiffany Haddish are among the fifth season’s vocal star talent.

When asked about specific challenges on the show, McMahan says one big goal is to always stay fresh and never repeat what they’ve done before. “We want to keep it all exciting and thoughtful,” says the two-time Emmy-winning showrunner. “We are always trying to get a nice balance of classic-feeling episode that we can explore in a really new, comedic kind of way, and then doing material that has never been seen before. I feel like we’re not running out of steam. We really enjoy writing this show, but I think it’s also important that we keep true to the characters too. These aren’t the same aliens we met in the first season. On many family animated sitcoms, you don’t have to track the growth of characters, but we do. We embrace those changes and we have that in mind as we’re writing up to that, as opposed to just ignoring it and resetting. It’s a challenge, but it’s one that we embrace.”

Love and Marriage

Both McMahan and Bycel say they are thrilled with how fans have embraced the show over the past four years. “Our first season dropped at the beginning of the pandemic, and it was insane that we were able to accomplish that and everybody saw it,” says McMahan. “I loved the fan response to the ’99 Ships’ episode, and I loved that we were able to do an episode where everyone was just stuck in a line the whole time [‘The Pupa’s Big Day’]. I couldn’t imagine doing that on another show.”

“I loved our Valentine’s Day episode and the fact that our audience embraced Terry and Korvo as a couple,” adds Bycel. “They are a plant-based couple, without any human organs! That has been so much fun, and we just love that these two are together. I love the response when we try to top ourselves in ridiculousness. I mean, we did an entire episode because we love Daylight, that Sylvester Stallone movie from the ’90s. I loved watching people find their own little touchstones that they loved when they were kids.”

The fifth season of Solar Opposites (11 episodes + a special) premieres on Hulu and Hulu on Disney+ on August 12.