Unicorn: Warriors Eternal creators on the animated series 20 years in the making

Watching The Eternal Warriors of the UnicornGenndy T. Tartakovsky, the acclaimed director and animator (Samurai Jack, PrimacyIt’s almost as amazing as seeing an actual Unicorn grazing on a parking space in 2023. The era of reboots and sequels is over. The Eternal Warriors of the UnicornIt’s a rare and precious thing: an original, unrelated animated series created by one of America’s most prominent animators. Even Tartakovsky feels like it’s a small miracle it’s finally here.

“For me, it’s a new type of storytelling,” Tartakovsky told Polygon over Zoom. “It’s everything that I’ve kind of trained for throughout the years, doing all these different shows, culminating into this one thing.”

While Tartakovsky has established a reputation for creating animation that’s as conceptually ambitious as it is visually idiosyncratic, The Eternal Warriors of the UnicornThis film presents a challenge to the veteran director, as it places an emphasis on emotion-driven storytelling. “With every project I’ve learned more and with every project I hope I’m getting better at telling stories,” Tartakovsky says. “It took awhile, but by the time we got here and somebody finally bought it, I felt like Oh, now it’s fate; it’s destiny because I never gave up on it.”

Cartoon Network Studios/Williams Street

It is a production that produces The Eternal Warriors of the Unicorn dates back as early as Tartakovsky’s time working on Samurai JackCartoon Network Studios has been around for over 20 Years.

“It started around the end of JackYou can also find out more about the following: Clone Wars,” Tartakovsky says. “I was thinking about what’s next for me. “I wanted to move away from that flat, stylized look. Dexter, PowerPuff Girls” Samurai Jack. I wanted to do something more volumetric.” Around the same time, Tartakovsky was tapped to write and direct an unproduced animated feature based on Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka’s iconic sci-fi boy robot. The experience of working on that film fed directly into Tartakovsky’s thought process on The Eternal Warriors of the Unicorn.

Darrick Bachman is the writer and editor for The Eternal Warriors of the Unicorn and a long-time collaborator of Tartakovsky’s, has his own recollections as to when the series was first conceived. “He had just shown me Howl’s Moving CastleHe loves. Castle in the Sky,” Bachman told Polygon. “We both thought there was something amazing about that Victorian style world. In his office, he was scribbling this version of Copernicus that had been in his mind when he left for home. He showed me a sketchbook the next day, full of pictures he had drawn. Then he told me about his rough concept about warriors who reincarnate throughout history. The whole thing was fascinating. We just started throwing around ideas and yeah, I think that was literally 20 years ago.”

Cartoon Network Studios/Williams Street

Image: Studio Ghibli/Toei Company

Image: Tezuka Productions

Image: Top: Unicorn Warriors Eternal, bottom left: Castle in the Sky and bottom right: Astro Boy

It is easy to recognize the influence of Max Fleischer and Osamu Tzuka in The Eternal Warriors of the Unicorn: a sci-fi fantasy adventure centering on a trio of immortal warriors – Melinda, a powerful sorceress; Seng; a cosmic monk with the ability to traverse the astral plane of existence; and Edred, an Elven warrior prince and Melinda’s lover. The warriors fight together against an evil force that spans space and time. Their robotic companion Copernicus reincarnates them from generation to generations in order to protect humanity.

The 2003 Samurai Jack episode “Birth of Evil” by way of 2010’s Symbionic Titan, it’s not a coincidence. For Tartakovsky, The Eternal Warriors of the UnicornThis is the pinnacle of his career in animation and directing. Tartakovsky, however, says that he also drew from his personal experience as a dad watching his kids grow up. The Eternal Warriors of the Unicorn.

“So I was trying to sell it for years, and in that time I had three kids,” Tartakovsky tells Polygon. “And what I really witnessed was the kids growing from kids to teenagers, teenagers to adults. All of a sudden, your baby daughter is 12, and then she’s 13 and she’s a completely different person. That’s amazing to me, and that connected right into what I was doing with Unicorn. Because the story is just a big metaphor for change, of finding out who you are through change.”

Emma is an upcoming bride living in Victorian London when she discovers, to her surprise, that Melinda is her reincarnation. As the series’ protagonist, Emma struggles not only to control the extraordinary new powers foisted onto her, but with the tension that comes with reconciling her past self (as well as her past lives) with who and what she is now.

“Going through life, you constantly question who you are,” Tartakovsky tells Polygon. “And as you grow, you begin to ask: Am I growing into the person that I want to be or am I growing into something less than what I want to be? Am I unhappy with how I’m growing?”

Cartoon Network Studios/Williams Street

The director of The Eternal Warriors of the UnicornThis question is also a reflection of his experience as an animator navigating Hollywood.

“Hollywood is kind of screwy with some of the characters we run into,” Tartakovsky says. “As I got into Hollywood, there was all this craziness around me, and so I started to question myself. There were times I tried to be more than myself so that people would go, ‘Wow, look at Genndy, he’s so creative and out of his mind,’ and I hated it because it wasn’t sincere to who I was. This question also stems from comic book fans, who wonder what you should do with your newfound powers. The whole thing went into Unicorn; I’m never outside of myself, I’m always trying to be sincere in my storytelling and not just putting cliche stuff just because it feels like that’s what needs to be there.”

Despite, or perhaps unfortunately because of the novelty of Tartakovsky’s vision, The Eternal Warriors of the UnicornStudios were unable to secure a new series because they preferred the proven bankability of established franchises. “He’s pitched it many, many times since he first came up with the idea,” Bachman told Polygon. “We had talked about this, and it’s always there; it always kind of percolates itself back to the top.”

Cartoon Network Adult Swim Netflix HBO Max went through several phases of pitching, pre-production. This was either due to the studios’ disinterest, or because they had other obligations. “I think there’s like, about four different versions of the show that have existed up to this point,” Bachman says. “It’s kind of like the team, it just keeps on getting reborn over and over.”

One aspect that’s remained a constant throughout The Eternal Warriors of the Unicorn’s development is the setting: An alternate version of 19th century London filled with semi-sentient automatons, flying dirigibles, and fantastical gas-powered technology. For Bachman, the appeal of the series’ Steampunk setting is attributable to what it represents to audiences engaging with it in the modern era.

“I think it’s because it’s the birth of modern technology,” Bachman says. “It’s a time when so many different forms of technology: the combustion engine, refrigeration, high-speed rail travel, and indoor heating became a part of our everyday lives. As a result, people were enamoured by the concept of the future. Today we view it as a past and the origins of all the technological conveniences that are available to us today. There’s a romance to it.”

Cartoon Network Studios/Williams Street

It’s taken nearly 20 years for The Eternal Warriors of the UnicornTartakovsky is planning to tell more tales about Melinda Seng Edred and their adventures throughout time.

“It’s a gigantic world, it’s designed as a big franchise,” Tartakovsky says. “We could go to the future, we could go to the Middle Ages. There’s another story that lines up right next to it, it’s just that this one has to be successful before we can do that next one.”

Bachman, in a conversation with Polygon he suggested that future stories could explore a steampunk-style version of the 1920s Chicago. “That would be an awesome era to explore because Genndy lived in Chicago and I love that Roaring ’20s aesthetic. And I’d love to be able to explore across Europe, you know, this fantasy version of Europe and into Asia and the Middle East. It would be amazing to be able to play with the terrains of those different locations.”

The future is uncertain. The Eternal Warriors of the UnicornTartakovsky is committed to stretching the limits of not just what his audience expects from him, but also those of his artistic ambitions. “I do wantThe following are some of the ways to get in touch with us: push myself,” Tartakovsky says. “Even going from Samurai to PrimacyYou were like? OK, he’s not going to have any sword action; the fight has to be in a caveman style and he’s going to rely on a spear. I don’t want to repeat what I’ve done before.”

Unicorn Warriors Eternal will be available every Monday on Adult Swim, HBO Max and HBO.