Scavengers Reign

Scavengers Reign
Genre	Adventure Drama Science fiction
Created by	Joseph Bennett Charles Huettner
Starring	Sunita Mani Wunmi Mosaku Alia Shawkat Bob Stephenson Ted Travelstead
Composer	Nicolas Snyder
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	12
Production
Executive producers	Joseph Bennett Charles Huettner Chris Prynoski Ben Kalina Antonio Canobbio Sean Buckelew James Merrill
Editor	Jason Klein
Running time	23–27 minutes
Production companies	Titmouse, Inc. Green Street Pictures
Original release
Network	Max
Release	October 19, 2023 (2023-10-19) – present

Scavengers Reign is an American adult animated science fiction drama television series created by Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner for Max, based on their 2016 short film Scavengers. HBO Max announced the series in June 2022, and its 12-episode first season premiered on October 19, 2023. Since the show's release, it has received critical acclaim, praising the acting, plot, animation, and atmosphere.

Synopsis

The series follows the survivors of the damaged interstellar cargo ship Demeter 227 who are stranded on Vesta, an alien planet bustling with flora and fauna but filled with dangers. The survivors start separated in three groups: Azi and her robot companion Levi, Sam and Ursula, and the isolated Kamen, who travels with a telepathic creature named Hollow. Over time all their paths converge towards the crashed landed Demeter.

Cast

Main

• Sunita Mani as Ursula, a crewmember in the Demeter's horticulture lab; stranded on Vesta with Sam.
• Wunmi Mosaku as Azi, a cargo specialist on the Demeter; stranded on Vesta with Levi.
• Alia Shawkat as Levi, a robot from the Demeter; stranded on Vesta with Azi.
• Bob Stephenson as Sam, commander of the Demeter; stranded on Vesta with Ursula.
• Ted Travelstead as Kamen, a crewmember on the Demeter who is struggling in his career and in his marriage with wife Fiona; while stranded on Vesta he forms a bond with Hollow, a telepathic and telekinetic creature. Co-creator Bennett stated that Kamen's presence has "introduced human greed and gluttony into this animal kingdom," which causes Hollow to become more sinister.

Guest

• Alia Shawkat as Fiona, the Demeter's robotics engineer; and Kamen's estranged wife.
• Sepideh Moafi as Mia, a passenger on the Demeter who forms a romantic connection with Azi.
• Skyler Gisondo as Charlie, a passenger in cryofreeze on the Demeter.
• Pollyanna McIntosh as Kris, the leader of a scavenger group from another planet; intends to loot the Demeter.
• Freddy Rodriguez as Terrence, a member of Kris's scavenger group.
• Dash Williams as Barry, the youngest and least experienced member of Kris's scavenger group.
• Masha King as Mascha, a healer that Ursula and Sam meet in their travels on Vesta; part of a group that was stranded on Vesta many years prior.
• James Kyson as John, a member of Mascha's group.

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"The Signal"	Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner	Joseph Bennett, Charles Huettner, Sean Buckelew, James Merrill	October 19, 2023 (2023-10-19)
An interstellar cargo named the Demeter 227 is heavily damaged, with no chance of rescue. Several escape pods fly to the planet, some of which explode. A pair of survivors, Sam and Ursula, are trying to contact the Demeter, but they need a battery from another pod and Ursula nearly dies collecting it. Elsewhere, survivor Azi has been growing crops with help from robot Levi, who is exhibiting perplexing behavior from a strange, yellow goo. Hostile wildlife destroy their homestead and heavily damage Levi. Another survivor, Kamen, is trapped and losing his mind after his escape pod becomes trapped in tree branches. He is freed by a creature with telekinetic and telepathic abilities, named Hollow, and it guides him away using visions of his estranged wife, Fiona. Sam and Ursula remotely execute the Demeter 227's emergency landing protocol, and the survivors see it descending through the atmosphere.
2	"The Storm"	Jonathan Djob Nkondo	Joseph Bennett, Charles Huettner, Sean Buckelew	October 19, 2023 (2023-10-19)
Sam and Ursula set out to find the ship, hoping that the crew members in cryostasis have survived and that the Demeter is still operational. A flashback shows Azi's life on the ship, where she receives romantic interest from Mia, another crew member. In the present, Azi and Levi depart to find the landed ship. Azi finally learns that the yellow goo is integrating with the mechanical components of Levi's body, who is experiencing compulsions to wander around and cultivate the local fauna. Kamen is under the influence of Hollow, who uses telepathic visions of Fiona, to direct him. A storm that rains crystals approaches, forcing the survivors to find shelter. Ursula and Sam find safety in the protective egg sac of a large aquatic creature but must fight a predator to survive, Kamen almost gets sucked into the storm when he is taken to Hollow's cave, and Azi and Levi find refuge in a garden in a large tree stump that Levi has been cultivating.
3	"The Wall"	Vincent Tsui	Joseph Bennett, Charles Huettner, Sean Buckelew	October 19, 2023 (2023-10-19)
Ursula and Sam's journey takes them through an underground forest and they reach a large, gray wall that separates the forest in half. While traversing the wall, Ursula stops to observe a small blue creature that controls the wall, but Sam is upset that they become separated. While arguing with Ursula, he is suddenly snatched and carried away by a local predator. Levi continues to exhibit increasingly independent behavior, and Azi grows further concerned. However, Levi's seemingly intuitive understanding of nature saves them during a stampede of alien animals. Hollow manipulates Kamen into providing it food, which happens to be meat instead of fruit. Kamen starts hunting and killing, and Hollow begins consuming meat, and growing larger and stronger.
4	"The Dream"	Rachel Reid	Sean Buckelew	October 26, 2023 (2023-10-26)
Azi attempts to clean up Levi's hardware and learns that Levi can now experience pain, and doesn't want to be shut down again. Ursula mimics the behavior of wildlife to find Sam. She finds him near a crashed escape pod, where they bury the dead crew that died from the storm's crystal rain. Kamen uses traps to continue sourcing food for Hollow, which has grown larger and more demanding. Hollow expresses displeasure after a failed hunt, and Kamen begins crafting weapons. It is revealed in a flashback that Kamen caused the crash of the Demeter 227 by rerouting to a faster but riskier flight path, against Sam's orders.
5	"The Demeter"	Christine Jie-Eun Shin	Jenny Deiker Restivo	October 26, 2023 (2023-10-26)
Local wildlife infiltrate the damaged Demeter 227 and begin preying on passengers trapped in cryosleep. Charlie, a young man in cryosleep, wakes up and narrowly escapes the ship, finding himself lost and dazed in the hostile alien landscape. After walking for days, getting injured by the dangerous fauna, He runs into Kamen, but Hollow kills Charlie, and for a split second, turns into Fiona, and it is shown that Fiona died when Kamen left her behind on the exploding Demeter. Kamen tries to leave to find Fiona, but Hollow reminds him that he is responsible for her death. In despair and guilt, Kamen begs for help and Hollow absorbs him into its own body, where he enters an unconscious, dreamlike state. Azi's wounds from being attacked have festered, causing a painful rash. She finds a solution in aquatic creatures that feed on the infection and also begins to respect Levi's new-found autonomy and personhood. While traversing a forest, Sam is bitten by an alien pod's spikes, and Ursula notes that the area is littered with the dead bodies of many different animals.
6	"The Fall"	Diego Porral	James Merrill	October 26, 2023 (2023-10-26)
Sam's bite, now infected, is from a creature that creates a genetic clone but poisons the original victim. Sam hides the infection and teaches Ursula how to continue without him. When the copy of Sam attacks Ursula, she kills it with fire, but it destroys their remaining supplies. Sam, now dying, gives Ursula his Captain's credentials. An unknown woman arrives and leads them away. Elsewhere, Azi and Levi lose their bike and must cross a large canyon. They are attacked by Hollow, which rips Levi into hundreds of pieces. Azi attacks Hollow and discovers Kamen inside, but she is thrown into the canyon. She sends out a distress call, which is picked up by humans on a nearby moon.
7	"The Cure"	Jonathan Djob Nkondo	Charles Huettner	November 2, 2023 (2023-11-02)
Azi's distress call is picked up by Barry, Kris, and Terrance, a trio of spacers who are motivated to respond only after realizing there may be loot for the taking. They land and designate Kris as their leader. While they are away exploring, Hollow destroys their spaceship, trapping them on the planet. The stranger who found Sam and Ursula takes them to her crash-landed ship and successfully treats Sam. The woman then pukes out a black seed, which she injects into Sam while he's sleeping. Sam and Ursula run when the woman turns out to be cooperating with a massive telepathic alien, who almost kills Sam, but strangely stops.
8	"The Nest"	Vincent Tsui	Jillian Goldfluss	November 2, 2023 (2023-11-02)
Azi and the scavenger group find their destroyed spaceship. They decide to use the escape shuttle that is likely on the Demeter. Terrance is fatally mauled by hostile vegetation, and Kris kills him to end his pain and Barry destroys Terrance's birthday gift, due to guilt. Sam demonstrates superhuman physical capabilities after his recovery. While Ursula is asleep, he becomes hyper-focused on building a nest for himself. Ursula confronts him, and they both discover that Sam is infected by a heart parasite when he sees that his skin is loose.
9	"The Mountain"	Rachel Reid	James Merrill	November 2, 2023 (2023-11-02)
During a flashback, it is revealed that another group crash-landed on the planet decades prior, including the woman who helped Sam and Ursula. The woman's spouse becomes infected with the same heart parasite that afflicted Sam - she kills him in self-defense, but she is also infected, days later. While traveling, Ursula and Sam find a mountain with a river passing through and they use a makeshift armadillo boat. As they are being stalked by a pack of hostile creatures, they fall into the river because it is too steep. Ursula is wounded in her leg by one of the creatures while underwater, and Sam kills it with a knife. When Sam is helping Ursula, she catches Sam trying to infect her as well, and she confronts him. Azi, Barry, and Kris also climb a mountain on their way to the Demeter. While climbing, Kris deliberately exposes Azi to danger, as a form of having Azi lose her fear of the planet's creatures. Kris wants to abandon the Demeter's crew without waking them up and Azi argues with her, but they continue their journey.
10	"The Decision"	Christine Jie-Eun Shin	Jenny Deiker Restivo	November 9, 2023 (2023-11-09)
Various lifeforms gather Levi's parts and reassemble its body. In a flashback, Azi is shown drinking with Mia, and they end up kissing. Azi, Barry, and Kris cross a stream using an adhesive fashioned by Azi, but Azi sabotages Kris. Azi and Kris fight about waking up the crew. Azi is knocked out, tied up, and left behind. Sam and Ursula travel on the back of a large creature. Sam coughs out another infectious seed, but he throws it away and tells Ursula to get her knife for self-defense, which she reluctantly does. They make it within sight of the Demeter, but Sam gives up and tears out the parasite, fatally wounding himself, and Hollow reaches the Demeter first.
11	"The Return"	Diego Porral	James Merrill	November 9, 2023 (2023-11-09)
A flashback shows how the yellow biological matter infiltrated Levi's body via a glowing flower shown numerous times that grows on dead matter. Ursula frees Azi from her bindings and finds Levi, who is now partly biological and has self-awareness. Kris and Barry explore the Demeter and decide to take the shuttle without waking up the passengers. Kamen realizes he is trapped in a dream and demands to be released, but when explosives are set off, (from Barry and Kris trying to fend off Hollow) in Kamen's dream, the Demeter explodes and he begins falling back to Vesta.
12	"The Reunion"	Vincent Tsui	Sean Buckelew	November 9, 2023 (2023-11-09)
Ursula and Levi begin the cryo wake-up process. Azi subdues Kris but lets her go to defend Ursula against Hollow. Barry wants to help the Demeter's crew, so Kris betrays him and launches the shuttle alone. Levi unleashes his mysterious powers against Hollow, and in Kamen's dream, he finally falls back to Vesta, landing on Hollow. There is then a sequence that shows a timelapse of the universe, planet Vesta, and all of its species. Levi's powers manage to save Azi and free Kamen, and Hollow is turned back to his original form. Some time passes, and the survivors have built a colony. Levi has found a way to reproduce, Ursula looks back on Sam and tries to honor his memory by wearing his clothes and putting his keycard in her notebook. Somewhere in space, the Demeter shuttle is overrun with vegetation, and Kris is almost dying from thirst. A giant ship docks, and masked robed figures come aboard. The figures find that a baby Levi has somehow found its way onto the shuttle.

Production

Joseph Bennett and Charles Huettner created the original 2016 Scavengers short film for Adult Swim, where it aired as part of the Toonami block. The eight-minute animated short contains no dialog and depicts a pair of humans engaging in an intricate series of interactions with alien creatures. From 2018 to 2019, Bennett and Huettner expanded the concept into a series pilot that did not go forward at Adult Swim, though the show was later picked up by HBO Max. The twelve-episode series was produced over two years by Titmouse, Inc. and Green Street Pictures with a crew including international animators working remotely from locations including Mexico, Spain, Portugal and France.

Reception

The series has received critical acclaim. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an 100% approval score with an average rating of 8.7/10, based on 16 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Disturbing and wondrous, Scavengers Reign presents a vividly realized world that beckons exploration by its marooned characters and television viewers alike." James Poniewozik of The New York Times called it "a lush, magnificent, hypnotic story of human survival in a place that feels, in a way that sci-fi planets only occasionally manage, truly otherworldly." Andrew Webster of The Verge deemed it to be "equal parts beautiful and brutal, and it might be the most original piece of science fiction of the year."

External links

• Scavengers Reign at IMDb
• Scavengers Reign at Rotten Tomatoes