Exclusive: The Men Behind Space Junk Embrace a New Creative Frontier

If you’re craving an inventive and funny community-driven adult animated series with a trippy twist, look no further than Space Junk. The new series arrives from Toonstar, the innovative Web3 story studio that gave birth to the likes of other adult animated endeavors, such as The Gimmicks and House of Chico. Written and created by Dominic Russo (co-creator of Workaholics), and starring Tony Cavalero (sexually charged Keefe on The Righteous Gemstones) and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite, Blades of Glory), the series marks a number of firsts.

For starters, and perhaps the thing that may generate plenty of buzz, is that Space Junk is the first animated series to feature a character voiced entirely by AI voice-generated software. Meet the robot, “Wellbecca,” thoroughly unique. The twist? Viewers will be able to interact with the robot throughout the series’ run. The story itself takes a hilarious peek at a very serious dilemma: space junk. That’s right.

But while the story revolves around offbeat characters in a debris-in-space, the creator and star are quick to assure us that this outing, developed, produced, and financed by Toonstar, wonderfully blends technical milestones with a story audiences can warm up to. Dominic Russo and Tony Cavalero shared more in this exclusive MovieWeb interview.

Dominic Russo Makes Some Space Junk

Here’s how one quirky fixation can actually make a difference. Dominic Russo, who made a dent with Workaholics, just couldn’t get the idea of space garbage out of his mind. “I was obsessed about it,” he admitted. “I started reading about it and couldn’t get off the idea. I thought to myself, ‘This would make a great commentary here.’”

The more he developed it, he couldn’t shake it off. Who could blame him? Space Junk eventually morphed into a tale about trash collectors in space. Early on in the series, we read: “The garbage men and women of space neutralize L.E.O. trash fields to protect the planet. They are our heroes.” When Russo partnered with Toonstar, the company pitched him the idea of Web3, an extension of cryptocurrency, using blockchain in, as reported, “in new ways to new ends.”

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“I was super excited about going that way. Because they said, ‘Hey, we can sort of skip the traditional studio route of pitching and selling TV shows,’ which I’ve done a lot of, and we can go straight to an audience. That way, we could make it our way and cast the people we like. I’ve known Tony for a bunch of years, and I wanted him for the main character name, Hank Nimbus.”

Web3 and AI? Bring it On

That’s a great feat, but so is the AI voice-generated software here. Say hello to Wellbecca. You may even have an opportunity to interact with her. “We were creating characters and figuring out this show in space, and one of the characters I really wanted to create was this AI robot character that’s part of the squad,” explained Russo. He continued:

Fortunately, the AI programs the team was able to use were exceptional. In fact, Russo thought it sounded “too human.” The team went on to create a robot filter over the voice, so that it was clear that it was a robot’s voice.

“it was a new way of directing,” said Russo. “You’re directing prompts for what the computer does and says back to you, as opposed to talking with a human. You kind of massage it in a way where you figure out the emotion you need in the scene, so it’s this new process, I think it works really well because we have an AI plane or robot, so it makes sense. I’m sure people are going to be worried about AI taking over in the future, and that’s going to be a topic of conversation. But in this scenario, I felt like it was a safe application, and I won’t get yelled at too much from SAG.”

From Religious Devotee to Garbage Guy

If you’ve enjoyed The Righteous Gemstones, surely you’ve appreciated Tony Cavalero’s hilarious take on Keefe, the mullet-sporting, shorts-wearing, overtly devoted man servant of Adam Devine’s flamboyant Kelvin Gemstone. In Space Junk, Cavalero lends his voice to Hank, the garbage man at the forefront of the series. The goal: clearing space junk, of course, and escaping calamity along the way.

“I thought of Chris Pratt and Guardians of the Galaxy, or the character of Lone Starr in Spaceballs, these lovable loser types of characters that happen to be captains of a ship or something like that,” said Cavalero of what he hoped to bring to this role. “The key here is this guy thinks he knows it all and he has a bit of a chip on his shoulder. But he’s a total bumbling idiot. I do think his heart is in the right place, and I’m a little more relatable to that character in real life, than I’d like to admit.”

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The actor also appreciated working alongside Dominic Russo and actor Jon Heder, who plays the character of Thackery here. “I was also excited because this was my first foray into the NFT and Web3 space.”

Let’s unpack that for a moment, shall we? Although anybody can tune into the series online, Toonstar’s unique storytelling model gives digital token holders (or NFTs) the opportunity to participate in narrative development, meaning they can create their own characters and storylines, and engage in unique fan experiences. It’s a rare participatory Web3 storytelling aspect that truly expands the entertainment playing field.

“As soon as I read the material, it was right up my alley,” Cavalero shared. “Some of the characters I’ve played in the past, they’re always these lovable losers with a heart of gold. I’m trying to bring that same kind of thing to Hank in Space Junk.

And the sky’s the limit as far as Cavalero is concerned. There’s no telling how Space Junk will take off. “Personally, I think this is cool, like independent filmmaking, but for a series. There’s all this new technology out there, and the Web3 adds cool new elements. I think it should be embraced in the same way independent filmmaking is embraced. It’s like, ‘Hey, we could just put this whole show on our back and do this ourselves.’ And there is a community for it, much like there was a community that decided to blow up Gamestop and Blackberry and that community is also searching for content and series, and the neatest thing is that there’s a sense of ownership with the audience where they can purchase NFTs and give their input more than anything in traditional media. We’re on the cusp of something really cool here.”

No doubt. There’s one last bit of fodder to take in: Recently, the issue of space garbage generated media attention when an international team of researchers estimated there are more than 100 trillion pieces of floating debris in space. To that end, Toonstar collaborated with an aerospace engineer to ensure the looming space junk dilemma was depicted accurately on screen.

Catch Space Junk on Fridays on spacejunkies.xyz. New episodes drop biweekly.