The trailblazing showrunner on theFuturefinale, therapy, and the dark side of selflessness.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Six years after it premiered,Steven Universeis leaving the world of television much better than it found it.
In theFuturefinale, Steven finally comes to terms with himself and his lack of direction after saving the world.
The final episodes deal with a lot of serious material, even more than usual.
Hes not doing that anymore.
He just doesnt have the bandwidth.
That was always intended to be a flag telling you that Steven is struggling.
My therapist told me to stop doing that this week!Oh, no!
Doing what, prioritizing other peoples problems at the expense of your own?
Yeah.Itll come back around.
We wanted to explore what it means to spend your childhood working.
I wanted to talk about the intensity of the burnout I was experiencing.
In the last episode, Steven mentions that he has a therapist.
Did you consider showing him in therapy?I really did not want to show that.
I really wanted the character to finally have privacy.
As an audience watching the show, and as us writing it, were complicit in Steven feeling exposed.
The idea of being in that space and watching him unpack it felt like a violation of his privacy.
Ive been at Cartoon online grid for a decade now.
Ive seen the whole entertainment landscape change.
Its been a tumultuous experience.
It is for any showrunner, but I think we were ambitious in ways that made it particularly tumultuous.
In a way,Futureis the beginning of a reflection on that.
Its hard to imagine a time when there werent episodes about each of those ideas yet.
Like A Single Pale Rose, the idea of going into Pearls pearl was a season one episode.
When Lars turns pink, his line changes to be pink.
If Lars is going on a Gem adventure, then Sadie should be going on a human adventure.
People would ask me, What was the most hotly contested thing in the writers room?
It was the idea of Perfect Steven, which was a powered-up version of Steven.
He would be as big as Rose, he would be pink, and he would be really powerful.
I had a doodle of it back in 2013.
The Fragments episode feels like the turning point ofFuture.
And in that moment, he really dislikes himself, too.
He really needs someone to confront him.
He wants someone to fight him.
Shes a very self-destructive person and hes becoming a very self-destructive person.
Theyre a very dangerous combination because theyre both struggling with their own self-worth.
He hasnt really gotten the support that he provided to other people.
There were several things like that.
I really wanted to go a little more into Gem mythology.
Its a very teen idea of freedom.I was talking about Steven driving the Dondai before we started.
In terms of him driving away, we needed to create all new packaging forFuture.
And that was the ending you planned when you first started onFuture?Yeah.
Hes so worried that everyones going to go their separate ways, but he can do that, too.
He can explore the world.
Its also that hes taking his dads advice.
Even though hes doing it his way, hes also really reconciling with Greg.
Thats true for Greg, too.
He didnt see how much he would be able to bring to the table for Steven.
In retrospect, Rose seems like the secret villain of the show.
Rose is her own worst enemy literally, she fought herself.
One thing I find really interesting is that the way she idolized everyone around her was very sincere.
She thought everyone around her was so much better than she was.
It was a tragedy.
Basically, shes love-bombing everyone around her.What is love-bombing?
How did you conceptualize that?That was definitely something we had on the chart.
I had read this book recently calledThe Deepest Well, by a doctor named Nadine Burke Harris.
I wanted to showcase that.
Its physical, how much help they can do.
A lot of the show was inspired by what Ive been through.
Its critical for a persons health to know that.
I needed that foundation.
I needed to respect myself.
And I began to realize that its not one moment of epiphany and then you love yourself.
Your relationship with yourself takes maintenance.
You have to keep being kind to yourself.
And if you dont, youll struggle again.
There is not one clouds part moment and then youre good, eternally.
It can get cloudy again.
So I wantedFutureto focus on that.
Im hoping to refill my well and reconnect with the world.
Absorb instead of produce.
I say that now, but Im not sure if Im going to be able to do it.
I dont know how to process what Im going through if Im not creating something.
Ill probably be working again sooner than I think I will.
But I want to take a little time to reflect on what this has been.
Ive changed a lot.
Ive grown up a lot.
I want to see where my head is at now.
