Amazon Studios' Secret Level is an animated anthology series coming to Prime Video that offers fifteen different short stories set in the worlds of various beloved gaming franchises.
Audiences can witness the origin story of Mega Man, watch a poor human lab rat get tested on by corporations in The Outer Wilds all in the name of love, or even see Keanu Reeves suit up in a mech suit in the universe of Armored Core.
The Direct's Russ Milheim spoke with series creator Tim Miller and supervising director Dave Wilson in an exclusive interview about their new series and why the Pac-Man and PlayStation installments were so unique.
Secret Level Creators on That Wild Pac-Mac Story
"We Would Love Audiences to Wonder What the F*ck We Did With Pac-Man."
The Pac-Man episode in Secret Level is unlike anything fans of the IP would ever expect.
Instead of a friendly yellow ball who eats fruits and blue ghosts, audiences follow a lost soul (guided by a sentient metallic metal ball) whose purpose is to "eat" or "be eaten" as they struggle to survive a terrifying landscape.
Dave Wilson revealed that the extreme direction was actually a challenge from Bandai themselves:
Dave Wilson: Bandai challenged us out the gate. Their mission statement for the episode is, we would love audiences to wonder what the fuck we did with Pac-Man. And so we gave that brief, but we never quite got there. And J.T. Petty, our head writer, who loves horror, he writes a lot. He wrote the 'Outlast Trials' the game, and writes, obviously, film and television too. He just came back one weekend with the script after, like a conversation he had a line of dialogue in his head, stuck in his head, which was, 'You can eat them, but never their eyes.' And I think that sort of inspired his whole take on it.
When asked what episode was the hardest to pull off, Wilson pointed to the Pac-Man narrative as, oddly, being the easiest of the bunch:
Wilson: 'Pac-Man' was the easiest. Like, it was the hardest to crack a story for. We went through multiple iterations, but once JT came back with the script and gave it to Victor [Maldonado] and Alfredo [Torres], the directors, we didn't do anything. I mean, the story reel showed up in this beautiful, violent tone, Pac-Man, and it's barely changed since then. That was difficult development, easy execution.
For Wilson, that ease of execution didn't transfer over to every installment, such as The Outer Wilds, which had an easy story to pull together but a tough execution:
Wilson: Others, you know, were more complicated in the visual part of it, like 'Outer Worlds' was the easiest, I would say. Like, we got a great story, short story from Siobhan Carroll that was a fabulous adaptation from Heather and Campbell, who writes 'Rick and Morty.' And so that was easy. And then, like, capturing and getting the performances right was harder just because the sense of humor is a bit nuanced and everything. Eventually, we got it there, but it just took longer than something like Pac-Man did.
Tim Miller pointed to both the PlayStation and Mega Man episodes as being particularly tricky:
Tim Miller: 'Playtime' was a tricky one because it just kind of came together late. Who, who was going to be in [the short]. Kevin Hart and Heaven Hart, his daughter, and just what IP was going to be in that game. Since it had more than one, it was just a little tricky one.
And then we had a few, like the Mega Man episode. We went pretty far down the path with a different story and then turned around and said, 'I'm not sure that's going to work, so let's try something different.' But it's never easy. It's weird.
Why Was the PlayStation Episode So Different?
"There Were a Few Reasons" Why That Episode Was Different
While all of the other episodes of Secret Level focus on a specific story in an established world, their PlayStation-partnered installment did something different.
Instead, it follows an original story set in a world where people risk their lives delivering packages while adhering to augmented reality challenges. The story features lots of iconic PlayStation characters who make fun appearances, but they are never the focus of the story.
- The Direct: "Tim, the PlayStation episode, the 'Playtime Fulfillment.' I wanted to ask about that one because it's unique in that it's not a story within any of those franchises. But rather, it has a lot of fun nods to a lot of them. Why was that the case? Was Sony hesitant to tell specific stories in their worlds, and they had different parameters than some of the other IPs?"
Tim Miller: There were a few reasons. That was part of the equation. Because, you know, there's characters, there's a lot of development in the game space now in Hollywood. So there were certainly some issues around, like what IP or what characters and games we could get.
But some of it was who we have relationships with, and in that case, we had a relationship with not a specific developer, but someone who's one of the top guys at PlayStation, and they suggested doing something that was not just one character or set in one world, but do something that sort of covered the breadth of the PlayStation franchises.
And we liked that idea because it was different, was different than any of the other ones we had in there. Anytime somebody says, Hey, let's do something that's different. David, I perk up.
Dave Wilson then went on to share how different it has been with Amazon Studios and handling all of the various IPs that Secret Level deals with:
Dave Wilson: And it's so different in that, like, Amazon's amazing about this in that it's not like a land grab thing, that they don't own the rights to these characters or these video games, which is the typical process in Hollywood. And I think that people don't even—There's a God of War things in development. Like, just because they may or may not have an episode on our series doesn't mean that stops, because we don't...
Amazon isn't interested in just accumulating IP; they just saw an opportunity to tell an interesting, unique story set in the worlds of all these games without having owned them, which I think is very forward-thinking. However, because it's a new business, people don't usually do business that way, so there was a lot of trepidation.
Secret Level Is More Than Just Cool Cutscenes
"It's Less Commerce-Driven and More Story-Driven..."
- The Direct: "Can you talk about just the balance of making sure each [short] worked with being more than just a cool cut scene and having a nice little story to go along with them as well?"
Tim Miller: Well, first of all, what's wrong with a cool cut scene?... I mean, the origin of the story is really because Blur does a lot of cool cut scenes, and we have these relationships with all these companies over the years. And so we thought, how cool would it be if we told original stories, and it, often they're in support of a release of the game, or they're the marketing of the game, or they're trying to show off different game mechanics for a new release.
And we just wanted to do something that was sort of just pure story-driven. And, I mean, it's definitely what the publishers, when talk to them, the first thing we do is we say, what do you want to explore here. But it's less commerce-driven and more story-driven, for sure.
The Key Differences Between Secret Level and Love, Death and Robots
Secret Level Gets to Play Around in Established and Loved Worlds
- The Direct: "Now you also worked on Love, Death & Robots, which is basically, this almost feels like it's like a spiritual success or two. What would you say are some of the key pillars that make Secret Level unique from Love, Death & Robots?"
Tim Miller: Well, this was literally me saying one day to one of our sales guys said, 'Hey, what if we just did 'Love, Death & Video Games?' He's like, 'Oh, my God, I could sell the fuck out of that.'
With 'Love, Death & Robots,' we're trying to convince people to come watch a show with a bunch of different stories that they've never heard of, with characters they don't know. They're all great stories, but they're often obscure, things that only I know, because I read a lot.
But here it's different because we're asking you to come watch stories about characters and worlds that billions of people are really drawn to, have spent time with, and love. And so we're just saying, hey, come watch these characters in these worlds that you already are interested in. And it's a much easier task, I think, and people get a lot more excited about it. You know, that's the difference.
The full interview can be viewed here:
Amazon Studios' Secret Level is set to start streaming on Prime Video on Tuesday, December 10.
