The animated sci-fi series Scavengers Reign transports viewers to a fascinating yet dangerous alien planet, showcasing how its human and non-human inhabitants adapt to survive. Based on a 2016 short film, the show tells the story of the survivors of a crashed spaceship struggling to endure an unfamiliar world filled with exotic lifeforms.
Stranded Astronauts Utilize Peculiar Alien Ecosystem
Though there are a handful of human survivors at the core of its story, the real star of Scavengers Reign isn’t a person; it’s a planet. The animated series features a group of astronauts stranded on a bizarre alien world and follows them as they contend with the harsh, confusing, and downright odd environment around them.
There are flying creatures that can double as gas masks and giant monkey frogs that use psychic powers to lure in victims. Things only get weirder from there. But the fun of the show is seeing how the characters can use the strange plants and animals to their advantage.
“I think it’s a universally satisfying process to watch people try to survive with limitations,” says supervising director Benjy Brooke.
Instead of someone crafting things in the Australian bush, in the show, they’re forced to figure out how to utilize a completely alien ecosystem for survival. In the first episode, for instance, viewers see a man crawl inside a cow-like creature, pull a few gooey strings in its guts, and receive organic orbs that serve as a light source.
“I love the idea of the characters just knowing what they’re doing and being so familiar with these things,” says creator Joe Bennett. “On the assumption that they’ve been doing a trial and error kind of thing with each of these organisms.”
Balancing Realism and Imagination in Alien Worldbuilding
Scavengers Reign has a fairly serious tone, so one of the challenges was ensuring that these very useful alien creatures, which can be flashlights or gas masks, didn’t come across as too goofy.
“There’s a borderline silliness that’s allowable in the world,” Brooke says. “One of my favorite creatures toward the end of the season in episode 11 is this sort of furby-looking guy that has sharp claws, and there’s a humor in it and a silliness in it, but it’s just shy of dipping into caricature or a cartoon universe.”
One of the ways the team got around that was by ensuring nothing was easy; every process of utilizing the environment requires multiple steps and, in some cases, can be quite dangerous. It’s also often quite creepy, as in the case of an alien that can be used as a breathing apparatus when it slithers inside a person’s nose.
“Everything had to have a kind of alien, slightly unsettling, ‘get under your skin’ tone to it,” Brooke explains. “There might be something bizarre and silly about the little tendrils going into the nose, but it’s deeply unsettling, and it connects with you on some kind of reptile brain fear level.”
Nature as Inspiration for Alien Design
The ultimate inspiration, though, was nature itself: looking at plants and animals that exist in our world and shifting or changing them to fit in this new context.
“So much of it was emulated from what already exists in nature,” says Bennett. “We even came to realize that there was almost nothing you could come up with on your own that’s original, that doesn’t already exist in some form or fashion in nature, whether it’s a micro- or macro-level. So it’s a very fun thing to explore.”
Bennett says that the show’s concept art team, which included artists like Jon Juarez and Caleb Wood — would create detailed sets of images that would showcase the full lifecycles of the various creatures, which added a layer of authenticity to the endeavor since everything was thought out in so much detail.
As part of that, Bennett says the team was careful not to anthropomorphize the alien creatures. For the most part, they simply behave as animals do, with the same instincts and needs.
The one exception is a creature known as the Hollow, the aforementioned psychic monkey-frog, which forms a symbiotic relationship with a human survivor named Kamen. Throughout the show, Kamen’s humanity rubs off on the creature in the worst possible ways.
“It has these human attributes: selfishness, greed, gluttony, and things like that, which aren’t part of the animal kingdom,” says Bennett. “It’s behaving in really destructive ways because it’s in a situation that it wouldn’t normally be in its natural habitat.”
(The relationship between the two was inspired by the 1994 live-action version of The Jungle Book, with Mowgli and Baloo communicating without words.)
Harmonious Blend of Human Drama and Alien Discovery
Perhaps the best part of Scavengers Reign is that its two sides—the humans and the alien world—do come together organically and satisfyingly. As you watch the team find creative solutions to survive, you also learn about their lives before the crash and how that informs their actions afterward. (This is especially true for Kamen.)
That said, while Bennett says that the entire cast remains close to his heart, he would love to explore a story with them removed entirely.
“You know, I wish there was an episode where there were no humans and it was just exploring nature.”
By seamlessly fusing human drama with alien discovery, Scavengers Reign creates a fully realized sci-fi universe that feels genuinely lived-in. The showcases the resilience and resourcefulness of humanity, while also highlighting that our imagination in dreaming up alien lifeforms can never match the boundless creativity of nature itself.
Ultimately, it’s the bizarre alien world that takes center stage. The planet has its own internal logic and ecosystems that the audience slowly unravels, keeping them invested in learning more about this fascinating setting. Whether it’s gas mask creatures, psychic frog monkeys, or nameless oddities, Scavengers Reign promises a planet teeming with alien lifeforms – each with its survival strategies and lifecycles.
Brooke sums it up: “I think it’s a universally satisfying process to watch people try to survive with limitations.” By using the alien world’s own tricks against it, that’s exactly what the human survivors must do in this engrossing animated tale.
What is Scavengers Reign about?
Scavengers Reign is an animated sci-fi series featuring a group of astronauts who crash land on an exotic alien planet. The show follows them as they struggle to survive in this unfamiliar and often dangerous environment by utilizing the strange alien lifeforms and ecosystems around them.
What inspired the bizarre creatures and world of Scavengers Reign?
The creators drew inspiration from several sources like artists Hayao Miyazaki and Moebius, real-world plants and animals, as well as the YouTube channel Primitive Technology. Concept artists would create entire life cycles for the alien creatures, with the team ensuring they felt organic rather than overly silly or cartoonish.
How do the human and alien elements mix in the show?
While the alien planet takes center stage, the human drama remains pivotal. As the survivors adapt to use the alien lifeforms for things like light and breathing protection, we learn more about their lives pre-crash. The alien creatures mostly behave like Earth animals without anthropomorphic traits, except for one called ‘The Hollow’ that develops human vices.
What inspiration would the creators like to explore in the future?
Show creator Joe Bennett expressed a wish to have an episode focused fully on the alien setting itself without any human characters. This would allow them to highlight more of the peculiar ecosystem and survival strategies of the exotic fauna.
Where can I watch Scavengers Reign?
Scavengers Reign is currently available on platforms like VRV and Amazon Prime Video. You can also check out the original 2016 short film it was adapted from online to get a preview of the world.
