Replacing Justin Roiland on Solar Opposites Didn’t Just Save the Show — It Made It Better

The post Replacing Justin Roiland on Solar Opposites Didn’t Just Save the Show — It Made It Better appeared first on Consequence.

When Hulu cut ties with Solar Opposites co-creator Justin Roiland, following domestic assault charges, an immediate issue the show faced was who would now play Korvo, the hot-tempered alien who serves as a parental figure for his team of refugees from the planet Shlorp. Roiland has been recently cleared of the original domestic violence charges, but that hasn’t changed his employment status with Hulu. Thus, enter Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty and the Beast, a bunch of weird indies you haven’t seen), who was announced this June as the new voice of Korvo.

Within the context of the series, said new voice is explained in the opening moments of the season premiere as the aftermath of an accident involving the original dartboard from Cheers, “famous darts,” and a voice-fixing ray. The result is deeper and more British (including some actual British slang), and when Yumyulack suggests recalibrating the voice ray, Terry (Thomas Middleditch) says, “No, this is working for me.”

Frankly, Terry’s not wrong — it’s working so much better. And it might be exactly what Solar Opposites needs to reach new heights. In this post-#MeToo era, we now have multiple examples of productions finding new ways to go on after upsetting revelations emerged. The exciting ones are when those changes lead to true improvement: Replacing Chris D’Elia in Army of the Dead with Tig Notaro, or bringing in a classy British gent to curse and yell about humanity being stupid.

Co-created by Mike McMahon (Star Trek: Lower Decks), Solar Opposites has always been a show that’s much more under the radar than Rick and Morty (Roiland’s more famous co-creation) on a cultural level. However, since its premiere, the show’s writing has proven to be far more ambitious, especially with multi-season mini-narratives like The Wall pushing the boundaries of how to tell multiple stories at once within the same series.

To briefly explain The Wall: One wall of Yumyulack and Jesse’s room contains a bunch of interconnected terrariums, into which they dump humans who have been shrunk to the approximate size of army men figurines. First introduced in the series premiere, The Wall has become its own ongoing storyline as the residents inside have formed their own society, which by Season 4 has actually led to religious war between factions, as they scrape together survival…

Basically imagine if once a season, Rick and Morty devoted a full episode to the newest chapter of an ongoing post-apocalyptic drama — one, by the way, that stars Sutton Foster, Christina Hendricks, and other A-list talent. And this is just one of the wild narrative innovations the show has played with over the seasons — including the second spinoff-within-the-show, SilverCops, which features Kieran Culkin as a former Earth resident who was flung into space by his alien neighbors and became a space cop.

It’s not always the strongest in terms of ongoing character work — for example, Korvo and Terry are in a romantic relationship as of Season 4, but that was a development established off-screen between Seasons 1 and 2, and even still it’s hard to track how these two characters actually feel about each other on a given week. However, there’s genuinely bonkers stuff packed into each episode that deserves deeper appreciation — and maybe a change in the casting is what will do it.

Roiland has said in interviews that of all of his roles, Korvo was actually the toughest on his voice. And in rewatching earlier episodes, you can hear the strain of it — you can feel him trying to avoid Rick Sanchez mode with every line, gnawing at Korvo’s delivery until it reaches the point of repetition.

Stevens, by comparison, hasn’t lost any of Korvo’s intensity. However, he brings a new level of ease to it, perhaps because he’s leaning a bit on upper-crust British haughtiness to augment the effect. Add in the new use of British profanity, and a more nuanced delivery even in Korvo’s most histrionic moments, and exchanging Roiland’s brashness for Stevens’ dulcet tones proves to be an immediate upgrade on all levels. Most importantly, once you accept the new normal it’s not at all distracting, and actually augments the storytelling as a whole, making Korvo just a bit more of an outsider on Planet Earth.

Replacing Roiland’s voice work on Rick and Morty may prove to be a tougher challenge, as he voiced both of the title characters, but executive producer Steven Levy said at Comic-Con this year that the process was close to completion.

More importantly, Levy confirmed that the new voices would be “sound-alikes” meant to directly mimic both of Roiland’s original takes on Morty and Rick. This is probably for the best, given that Rick and Morty fans can be a little… intense. However, it’s a bit of a shame that the show isn’t exploring the same path Solar Opposites did — the opportunity to not just replace, but improve for the better.

Solar Opposites Season 4 (along with Seasons 1-3) is streaming now on Hulu.

Replacing Justin Roiland on Solar Opposites Didn’t Just Save the Show — It Made It Better
Liz Shannon Miller

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