Love, Death + Robots: Tim Miller and Jennifer Yuh Nelson Talk Choosing Volume 3's Stories, Themes and More

Response to Love, Death + Robots So Far

ComicBook.com: Both of you were involved with [Love, Death + Robots'] previous volumes in certain ways, so how do you feel about the response to them so far heading into Volume Three?

Jennifer Yuh Nelson: I think that all of us working on it, and certainly people have been working on animation for any length of time, it's what we wished the response would be to when we're finally able to tell adult stories in animation. Because so much of the time, we've been told that people would not watch adult animation, that animation's mainly a family thing for kids to watch on their own. We as artists want to use animation as a storytelling tool to tell us interesting and varied stories as anything. And so for us, it's not a genre, it's a technique to tell whatever story we want. And finally, to have it recognized by audiences as being something they want to see is really gratifying.

Tim Miller: I love that the fans and professionals in our field love the show, but I really hope we can get some people that don't normally consider animation part of their regular diet to watch the show. It was like with Deadpool. I knew I was going to get all the comic nerds to come, but how do we get other people that wouldn't normally want to come to a comic book movie? That's how we broaden the audience for this kind of material. And that's how we keep telling bigger and cooler stories. Got to bring more people into the tent.

What's Different for Volume 3

CB: Speaking to all of that heading into Volume Three, is there something in particular that either of you wanted to nail differently this time to make it stick out more so than Volume One and Two?

Yuh Nelson: I think we just... Some of these took longer to cook. Some of these shorts took two and a half years. Some of them took six months. For us, it's a matter of, all these stories are interesting to us and it just was different pipelines for all these different studios.

Miller: But we're pretty excited about Fincher doing one. It's been a long time coming. He and I have been talking about it. He's a man with a lot of patience. We've been talking about doing something in animation for 15 years. And though he's been involved in the show, actually getting him to do one was, I think, pretty exciting. He wanted to do this "Bad Traveling" short story back when we had developed Heavy Metal. And so when the time and the opportunity came, he wanted to do this one. I also feel like the whole show for episode two and three is a different tone, because Jennifer is here, and together we pick the stories, and that has a lot of influence on what the ultimate show turns out to be. And I like that mix. Everything is different, and it can keep evolving in a very interesting way.

Choosing the Shorts for Each Volume

CB: Now, when curating the stories for Volume Three, is it that you want to work with certain creators or certain studios to deliver certain styles? Or is it something else entirely?

Yuh Nelson: It always starts with the stories, because we have a huge list of amazing stories, and trying to find ones that are different from each other but still have that geek joy to them. That's always been the start, but then we have to figure out the whole matchmaking process of what directors, what studios, what story might end up leaving the mix because we can't find the right director or studio. It's all this organic process.

Miller: Eventually, it comes down to Jennifer and I with our wrists tied together and a rusty kitchen knife on the other hand. And whichever one bleeds out first. [laughs]

Yuh Nelson: With our fist wrapped up with broken glass and bleeding. [laughs]

Overall Themes

CB: Is there an overall theme that goes into like, "Oh, okay." Yes, it's Love, Death + Robots, but with each volume, do you particularly want to take certain stories that deal with the same things or certain vibes that you want to tackle? That's what I've been curious about.

Yuh Nelson: There is no real theme. [laughs]

Miller: The theme is there is no theme. [laughs]

Yuh Nelson: The theme is there is no theme. I think that maybe just bring certain parts of the geek mind forward. I think that's pretty much it. Does it give you a certain feeling? Does it make you feel like you got to think about this? Or is that just cool? Sometimes we look at it as, "Does it have a robot, death, or love in it?" It's as random as that.

Miller: But it's interesting that the fans think that we choose the stories for that way, and when in fact, the name of the show was really just supposed to feel like a basket that was big enough to catch any story. And not specifically. Clearly, every story doesn't have love, death, or robots.

Yuh Nelson: Most of them have death in it.

Miller: But the chances are very high in it.

Yuh Nelson: Most have death in it. Somebody's going to die.

Miller: But we don't pick from that. No. I'm going to pick one next season that doesn't have any of those three.

Yuh Nelson: It'll throw everybody off [laughs].

Miller: [laughs] Yeah. It's going to have hatred, life, and organic things.

Love, Death + Robots' First Sequel

CB: This is the first volume with a sequel. Why was "The Three Robots" story in particular chosen for an update with a new story for this volume?

Yuh Nelson: I think it's a reaction for the fans, because people really love "The Three Robots." It's also because we love John Scalzi, and we've been working with him consistently. And he just had some crazy cool ideas about what to do with the three robot characters he had.

Miller: And also John seems like a nice guy, but let me tell you, he's somebody you don't want to disappoint. He could come for you at any time. He has a great facility with sharp objects. He could kill you with any-

Yuh Nelson: John's a sweetheart.

Miller: [laughs] I'm sorry. John's a really-

Yuh Nelson: We want to make John happy.

Miller: Yeah. It is nice that you get to work with all these great people. And then if you're lucky, you get to work with them more. And John's just so prolific. I don't know how he has time to do anything, but he comes regularly and visits us here in Los Angeles. And there's a bunch of his stories still up on the wall for future seasons.