The Direct's Russ Milheim was on the red carpet premiere for Netflix's Love, Death + Robots Season 4, where creatives and talent discussed AI and the challenges they faced bringing these new episodes to life. For those unaware, the series is an animated anthology, with each installment offering a completely new sci-fi story—usually dealing with at least one of the topics mentioned in the title, or a combination of them.
The talented creatives and performers that The Direct spoke with from the show include Emily O'Brien (Voice Actor), Sumalee Montano (Voice Actor), Tim Miller (Creator), Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Supervising Director), Patrick Osborne (Director), Emily Dean (Director), Robert Bisi (Director), and Andy Lyon (Director).
Love, Death + Robots Creative Share Thoughts on AI
"[AI is] Not Figured Out Yet."
Editor's Note: The above image is not AI, and is from Season 4 of Love, Death & Robots.
- The Direct: "The tricky topic of the industry right now is AI. Was that something that you guys ever considered utilizing at any point in the process within the show?"
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: I think AI is something that, you know, it's gotta have–It's not figured out yet. You know, I think for us as a policy, we don't use AI. But if artists have used it on their own, I don't know. We have no idea, but we don't use AI.
Patrick Osborne: I mean, Blur definitely is a company on the edge of anything creative, like any new things. So there are always experiments in it.
You know, these were finished a little while ago, and I feel like the AI tools weren't quite wrangleable enough. Like, you couldn't quite get what you wanted out of that stuff yet. And still, maybe not. So it wasn't really used here.
But, you know, the other technologies that are part of the machine learning pipeline, a lot of the real time tools that Unreal Engine is using apply, I think, because, like, we've made both these and Unreal, they're both real-time. You could hit play and, like, move around them like a video game. If you wanted, they wouldn't look quite as good...
The fur in 'The Other Large Thing,' the cat fur, It's the first time any fur that long and that fluffy has been done in Unreal Engine, as far as we can tell. Pretty incredible work from the team at AGBO Visual Creatures to get that to happen.
Emily Dean: I don't use it currently. I'm not going to rule it out, just because the industry is moving that way, but I do prefer working with human people. So, yeah, I definitely [have a] preference for humans.
Andy Lyon: The new thing that everyone's talking about is obviously AI, which I feel like is either helping people or the robot, the giant robot that's gonna kill everything. You know what I mean. So, I think everyone's kind of struggling with that. I think we're just being nice to it so it doesn't kill us.
How They Would Expand Love, Death + Robots' Title With One Word
Philosophy, Drugs, and Cats are Just Some of the Expansions on People's Minds
- The Direct: "'Love, Death and Robots'–If you could add any fourth word to that title, what would it be?"
Emily O'Brien: 'Love, Death + Robots and a Pinch of Salt.' I don't know why. I just said a little salty and edgy, and I don't know [that's] the first thing that came to mind.
Sumalee Montano: 'Love, Death + Robots and Fucking!'
Tim Miller: I want to give you a good answer here. It's tough. 'Love, Death, Robots, and Philosophy.' That's what I–Because I think there are some interesting stories to be told about how people choose to live their lives, not heavy like I'm not that guy, but I think some of these are about the choices people make, and viewed through that lens would be good.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: And Cats... John Scalzi, he wrote many of the episodes across multiple seasons. I mean, he's one of the OGs, and he loves cats, and so it sort of sneaks in there.
Patrick Osborne: It's Probably 'Love, Death, Robots + Cats'... There are a lot of cats in the series, mostly because John Scalzi, the author of both of mine this time, and he likes cats a lot.
I am not a cat person. I hate cats. I'm allergic to them. I think the battle between us of love and disdain is in the episode, the other large thing, so there's only a cat in one of my episodes, though, the other one doesn't have a cat. Oh, no, shit, there's cats in both. Never mind.
Emily Dean: "It's got to be cats, right? I think, I mean, that just kind of rings true, right?"
Andy Lyon: Drugs...
Robert Bisi: I didn't know what it was until [Andy Lyon] said it, yeah, 'Love, Death, Robots + Drugs. It has to be drugs, for sure.
Most Surprising Challenge Faced on Love, Death + Robots Season 4
"I Wanted to Keep It As Authentic As I Could..."
- The Direct: "What would you say was the most surprising challenge you personally faced during the process?"
Emily O'Brien: I wanted to keep it as authentic as I could, this woman being in this dark period of her life, and, you know, connecting with this creature, and I was able to relate that to a very personal experience of mine. So I'm hoping that fans can see that viewers can see that I tried to replicate my personal experience on the screen. So, yeah, we'll see. I'm nervous to see how it came out. I think lots of tears on the real day.
Sumalee Montano: Working with Jennifer [Yuh Nelson] is such a gift. Like working with any brilliant director for an actor is already like everything. But then the fact that she's also an Asian-American woman makes it double happiness for me. She makes it feel so effortless.
So, I don't know if that there was like the biggest challenge, but— because it's so fun to collaborate with her... This is such a well-built, fantastical cyberpunk world, and the challenge for me as the actor is hoping that I'm playing it in such a way that pays homage to that, because every bit of this is so well curated, so well thought of, so well done.
And sometimes for an actor, especially with my part, it's literally like, just, you can't plan on it. It's like, just play. And sometimes I'll say to Jennifer, I don't know what's gonna come out, but I'm taking your direction. And here goes.
Jennifer Yuh Nelson: We have four seasons. We have all these amazing directors and amazing studios we've worked with before that we want to work with again and try to find, like, what's new, because we've already been working with all the people who have been doing the crazy stuff.
Patrick Osborne: Cat fur is the big tech challenge. On the appliances [episode], the initial pitch of it was a very low-fi, like the appliances would not even have faces. So just a video of an of a thermostat and a voiceover, very NPR, you know, version of it, kind of art film thing, just because that would be really cheap, but we're like, we can get another one, but then it wasn't as funny as it needed to be. And we realized if we animated faces and did a claymation look, it would get more laughs. So we'll find that out.
Emily Dean: The challenge was actually getting a huge story down into a short 12 to 13 minute piece, and keeping all the punches and fun of the original short story, and that was a major challenge.
Andy Lyon: I think the biggest challenge for us is always just trying to make a short [made entirely of] wides, like massive destruction in every shot, is like impossible on a budget, and somehow we pull it off, mostly. I mean, you'll be the judge when you see it... But that's always the biggest challenge. It's just like making it feel epic and funny at the same time.
Robert Bisi: And even though the humans are terrible, you still kind of root for them, but you'll see in the episode, yeah.
The full red carpet interviews, with even more fun responses, can be viewed here:
Love, Death + Robots Season 4 hits Netflix on May 15, 2025.
