The complete series hits Blu-Ray this week…but have we truly seen the last of Samurai Jack? Would series creator Genndy Tartakovsky ever consider returning to the director’s chair again?
SyFy Wire brought Tartakovsky in for an interview and he covers a lot of ground relating to the series and the fifth season in particular. Here are some of the interview’s most interesting quotes.
From the beginning, the goal for the season arc was to have Jack fall in love “From the inception of the arc, it wasn’t just about Jack going home. The story that I really was telling is love; going through the ups and downs. People not knowing that’s where we were heading was great. I know some people were frustrated [with the romance] but that was the whole thing. We were going to have Jack fall in love, for good or for bad. He’s never done it to this level. The challenge to us as filmmakers and storytellers was to see if we could make people feel something if we do it right.”
Genndy wishes he could have made the final episode longer “At the end of the day, we realized [the episode] should have been an hour and a half movie. We still like the episode and how it turned out but it’s one of those things where you realize to get the final, final, final satisfaction to make the battle as epic as you want it to be – as I said earlier, the best of Jack is a simple idea executed greatly – and this was really three episodes in one. It felt a little rushed in places and we kept opening it up in the end to take a breath.”
Why the show ended the way it did “I know there was some criticism from those who wanted a happy ending but there was no way in my mind it could be purely happy because that’s not a samurai’s lot in life. It’s bittersweet.”
On the possibility of bringing Jack back in the future “I know better than to say never say never. I watching this Disney documentary, and I’m not Disney, but I was thinking about Mickey Mouse and he became an icon. Walt moved onto other things but he made him exist. I was thinking, ‘Wow, is Samurai Jack my Mickey Mouse? Am I stupid to stop working on it?’ Yet at the same there was a good story told with Jack, so who knows in the future…”
Tartakovsky also gives his personal commentary on each episode of the fifth season. You can read the full interview at SyFy Wire.
