Giambrone, Middleditch 'Solar Opposites' characters back to old selves

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- The Solar Opposites characters revert to their alien selves in the premiere of Season 5, streaming Monday on Hulu. In the Season 4 finale, the aliens transform into humans and move to planet Clervix-7, where they begin Season 5.

Thomas Middleditch, 42, voices Terry, the husband of Korvo (Dan Stevens), and Sean Giambrone, 25, voices their replicant son Yumyulack. Giambrone said he was initially alarmed the characters were still human at the beginning of the season.

"It's like wait, is this just what the show is going to be now?" Giambrone said in a recent Zoom. "It almost seems like it could be Solar Opposites style to keep it going for a long time."

Middleditch said he trusted creator Mike McMahan and the writers to return to the original character designs.

"You couldn't just have them be human now for the rest of the show," Middleditch said. "It was fun to see."

McMahan said the plan was originally to explore the characters living as humans for longer. However, after producing a Valentine's Day special in which Korvo and Terry married, their marriage became more interesting to McMahon.

"Plans always go out the window when you find something you like better," McMahan said. "We really wanted to get them back on Earth and start telling stories about them going on honeymoons and being married."

McMahan also committed to the Korvo/Terry marriage for the duration of the show, which has already been renewed for a sixth season.

"Now that they're married, we never want them to get divorced," McMahan said. "Being in love and being married isn't a bit that we're playing. It's in the DNA of the show now."

Terry and Korvo still apply their alien technology to their marriage. In the Season 5 episode about their honeymoon, the newlyweds learn that honeymoons only last one week, but find a way to prolong the honeymoon phase.

Korvo extends Earth's orbit to make a week last more than seven days, but the rest of the world has to cope with a never-ending week. In another episode, Korvo wants to relive a day to undo his mistake, using technology based on the Tom Cruise movie Edge of Tomorrow, aka Live. Die. Repeat.

Like the movie, Korvo's device sends him back to the beginning of the day every time he dies. McMahan said popular movies like that help Solar Opposites explain science-fiction plots in half-hour episodes.

"You don't have to spend 10 minutes explaining what the sci-fi concept is," McMahan said. "You can just say, 'We're in a Live. Die. Repeat.'"

Stevens joined the voice cast in Season 4. Middleditch and Giambrone have voiced Terry and Yumyulack since the beginning.

Both said the creators rejected their initial takes on the voices, ultimately arriving at the current incarnations. Giambrone said he initially took on a lower register to make Yumyulack more antagonistic.

"It didn't really stick," Giambrone said. "It's mainly my regular voice but just slightly perturbed."

Middleditch initially thought of Terry as a California slacker. However, the producers demanded more energy and faster speaking from Terry.

"It was less slacker and more like oblivious, manic Muppet," Middleditch said. "I was fighting them a little bit. We got there in the end."

Giambrone said he did rely on some of the skills he acquired filming the live-action sitcom The Goldbergs. Yumyulack is growing up on earth just like Adam Goldberg did, but Yumyulack's experiences are less nostalgic or heartwarming.

"Some of the sincerity of that show kind of plays extra ridiculous [on Solar Opposites]," Giambrone said. "He's so sincere when he's killing someone or he's wiping someone's brain out."