Solar Opposites Producers On Ending The Solars, The Wall, and SilverCops Stories

This article contains spoilers for all 10 episodes of Solar Opposites season 6.

The announcement of Solar Opposites was met with initial skepticism that the sci-fi streaming sitcom would be able to get out of Rick and Morty’s shadow. Now, six seasons and over 60 episodes later, Solar Opposites stands tall as its own unique entity and Hulu’s longest-running animated series. The Solars have become veritable mascots for Hulu and it’s satisfying to see the sci-fi sitcom get the respect it deserves with a proper farewell season. Solar Opposites’ sixth and final season works hard to creatively reinvigorate itself, while still offering the same science fiction shenanigans that audiences have come to love. 

Solar Opposites’ final outing seeks to provoke and prompt growth in its main characters. However, the show has also always progressively expanded its boundaries to include a whole connected universe of absurdism that includes The Wall, SilverCops, and more. The series’s conclusion finally ties these disparate threads together and provides cathartic closure on this long-gestating genius. 

Solar Opposites’ co-creator and executive producers, Mike McMahan and Josh Bycel, get candid on pushing the series out of its comfort zone, the season’s stealth holiday special, and why Solar Opposites’ conclusion is really more like the end of three shows.

DEN OF GEEK: Final seasons are always so fascinating to me and Solar Opposites’ final season deals with the idea of removing the Solars’ sci-fi rays and other plot hacks to make matters a little more difficult for the characters. How did this idea come about and was it an attempt to challenge yourselves a little more creatively this year?

MIKE MCMAHAN: Yeah, it was a couple different things. Final seasons are very hard and what I’ve learned about them is every door that you close, you want to open up the offer of a new one that you could see going forward. The other thing is that we really wanted to be able to do stuff that we’ve been talking about or things that have been in the back of our heads. That accelerates a little bit of character growth. When you have a show that’s been around for 50 episodes, you can just assume that it’s going to go forever. Then, the second you find out that there’s an end date, it’s like, “Oh, we better start doing all this stuff and have our fun now while we can.”

Removing the Solars’ ability to spend however much money they want was a great way to get us to have the Solars doing things that they otherwise wouldn’t have been doing and forcing them into unexpected places. Having the replicants be try-hard smart kids was another great thing to dig into. As was seeing Terry kind of get a job, or Korvo getting used to the idea that he’s not the leader who barks missions anymore. There was all of that stuff, but then also this sort of meta commentary on it. We’re in a time in the industry where budgets are getting cut and you’re having to get creative. It was like, “All right, well, let’s cut the Solars’ budget and see how they deal with it.” What comedy can we get from that? For us, it was getting to do all the fun stuff and putting them into a place that they hadn’t been before, but also making fun of ourselves and the industry that we’re in. Everybody needs to be creative to get through those hurdles.

That makes a lot of sense. One of my favorite episodes from the season is “The Family Memories VHS Mix Tape,” which is such a densely packed and tightly edited episode that jumps between dozens of different events. Can you talk a little about that episode’s development and execution? On a plotting level alone, it’s very uniquely structured.

MM: You know, it’s funny because Josh and I right off the bat–That was an episode we came up with on one of the few days that we were all actually in person in the writers’ room. We were all sitting in a row with a whiteboard instead of over Zoom. And I remember–Josh and I grew up with VHS tapes that you had to like record over and over again because mom and dad weren’t buying new ones every time. And then mixing that with sketch comedy, but to also have meaning there and have it feel like a found artefact from the world with these edited problems within it; the imperfect editing and stuff like that. We immediately got really excited about it. 

JOSH BYCEL: The other thing is that we only had 10 episodes this year, right? So we knew we weren’t going to be able to do a special–every year we’ve sort of done – outside of The Wall – these special stylistic episodes. “99 Ships” was one year. “AISHA’s Day Out” was another year. So we knew that we wanted to have one sort of very special one for this year, especially going into the last season. I think that we also wanted to focus on the Pupa, focus on AISHA, and give them a great vehicle for exploring and expanding their characters. And then, to be honest, we’ve had so many bits that we wanted to do over the years. And by the way, most of them made it in. This was also a chance for us to just do these bits that we always talked about and throw them in because it has this sketch sensibility with this great throughline. I think that was what was so much fun to use about that episode. It wasn’t easy though. It took work. It has to be refined and refined because sometimes, with these episodes that are almost like a clip show, you can do whatever you want. When you have that blank canvas sometimes you really have to rein it in. 

MM: Also, the network hated that episode at first. They were like, “We don’t get why you’re doing this. This is a mess. We don’t like it. Nobody has VHS tapes.” But we worked on it. They weren’t wrong. It was a mess. Everything starts as a mess. But we kept going and ultimately those same people were like, “This is our favorite episode,” too. And I think that’s because it’s not just a clip show. Even just clip shows, as a concept, is something that new generations are clueless about. This was shit you’ve already seen that robbed you of an episode. It was always a money-saver tactic. There’s a whole generation of people, starting probably with Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker] who have subverted what a clip show is. You know, we did it on Rick and Morty as well. I kind of did it a little on Lower Decks too, but now a clip show has to be like your best episode. Now it has to not only be hilarious, but it also has to be like a love letter to your characters. 

I love that we were doing not just a clip show that’s based on the Pupa, but that it’s this unflinching look at this chaotic family. Yes, sometimes they’re chaotic, disastrous, violent, and ridiculous. But at the end of the day, their love language is shouting and arguing. They love each other. They love their family and that’s okay. Nobody is perfect, especially not the Solars, and doing a whole episode where there’s no outside antagonist that really drives the narrative – it’s just a dozen little moments of yelling – was very cool. I’m not saying that families should be violent to each other, but it works for the Solars.

It has such a great emotional conclusion to it. It really hits hard. And I love that you get to sneak in like a 4th of July special in there too. All that stuff is very fun.

MM: We showed that episode at Comic-Con and it got just the reaction that we wanted it to get. It was great. People loved it. 

To bring things back to the ending, the Red Goobler really plays a major role in the finale. Were you surprised at the role he ultimately played over the course of the series and how important to Korvo he became?

MM: The Red Goobler, going all the way back to before the show was even sold, we had talked about Gooblering. I was really pushing for what if we follow one Goobler that just comes out of Korvo’s head when he’s stressed and then we just stick with it forever. Bounce back to it forever and, you know, the Red Goobler is just having a journey. It was something we didn’t plan out, but we knew we wanted to tell an extended story with a thing that felt disposable. That’s a big part of Solar Opposites, right? 

JB: That is a huge part. We have done that so many times and I have to give Mike credit for that. Like that’s something that I haven’t seen on a lot of other shows. The Wall is basically that. SilverCops is that in a much bigger way. But here is this little character, that you think is a joke, who ends up coming back multiple times. And he doesn’t just come back, but he has agency, a love life, a story that– 

MM: And it’s ludicrous! He’s a weird-looking guy who sounds stupid and he’s a little piece of shit. I just rewatched the Red Goobler wedding two nights ago and it’s still so funny.

On top of that, Solar is a response to everything that Josh and I grew up with TV-wise where it would be a miracle if this sort of thing ever happened in a TV show back then. Things that are like, “Wait, that was something from three seasons ago and now it’s back.” That was something that you just didn’t do on a television show because you had to assume that you had a new audience or that people wouldn’t remember. But now, being on streaming and knowing that you can watch the whole thing in one sitting, means that we had the agency and ability to purposefully do this kind of stuff. And if you don’t know who the Red Goobler is, fine. It’s just like a red freak. But if you do know, it’s a part of the Solar experience. 

There’s a lot that goes down in the final episode, including a major revelation about the truth behind the Shlorpians’ mission and their connection to the SilverCops. I kind of love how this came together. Was this on your radar when the SilverCops were introduced or something that was retroactively connected together?

MM: I knew I wanted to do that with the SilverCops by the end of the “99 Ships” episode many seasons ago. That’s when we started laying down what the SilverCops are all about and also their relationship with Shlorpians and what other Shlorpian teams are experiencing out there. There’s this idea that Schlorpians are second-class citizens within the galaxy. We also meet these rich Shlorpians at one point who introduced the idea that not all Shlorpians are like Korvo and Terry. 

There’s a lot of the show that’s focused on the Solars learning so much about what was actually happening on Shlorp and the SilverCops being the ones behind all of it. That was definitely something that I knew we would be leading up to as soon as the SilverCops were introduced. I didn’t know we were going to have to accelerate it this fast, but I also enjoyed doing it. It was fun to get to have that drop and then free Terry and Korvo from having to exact this mission or else they’ll perish. Opening this territory up, if we ever did a movie or if we got more seasons of the show, could look at Korvo’s new mission where he tells other Shlorpians that they can actually do what they want. He’ll find other people who behave the way he used to and it’s a dream come true to be the guy who bosses them around. A bossy person’s dream is to boss around bossy people. Just ask Josh.

JB: I love it!

Solar Opposites builds to a really touching ending with an epilogue that teases these characters’ futures. The Wall storyline also features a radical 100-year flash-forward. There’s a tongue-in-cheek gag about someone else potentially picking up the series. Would that be something that you’re interested in or do you feel like this should be the definitive ending, at least for now? Are those teases sincere?

MM: No, we’re not playing with people at all.

JB: No, not at all. We’re being very sincere. We had an inkling that it was going to be the last season. We didn’t know for sure. So especially around The Wall side, we’re ready to tell that story….

MM: We have that mapped out. Like we know what the next season of Solar would be, with that in mind. For us, it’s more that just because the show ends doesn’t mean that the characters have to end. It doesn’t mean the stories have to end. For The Wall side, The Wall people got what they wanted, you know? In some ways, it’s the ultimate betrayal of Cherie being like, “Well, to protect my daughter, we’re not going to admit to people in The Wall why we’re getting whatever we want. They’re going to get Yumyulack working for them. People in The Wall are going to be happy. You know what I mean? It’s technically a happy ending, but the jumping ahead flash-forward is like, “Guys, if you are dishonest and controlling people, even if it’s for their own self-interest and it seems good on paper, it’s probably still worse than just being honest. 

The whole Wall story has always been this idea that if you take your eye off of fascism then it will always come back. There’s always something to contend with. You always have to be vigilant. Even if the good guys win in a way that’s unexpected, like Cherie and the gang do at the end of the season, you jump ahead and see that there’s always unintended consequences. You always have to be watching out. That’s why we wanted Cherie to win. We wanted her and her team to defeat Yumyulack, but then to also remind you that The Wall isn’t about happy endings. It’s about persevering. And that’s where that comes in. If we ever get to make that season, it will be awesome. But also like, on the Solar side of things, the replicants are going to college. We’re ready with stories about that. We knew we wanted to give Solar Opposites an ending. 

Like you said, series finales are so hard. We just really wanted that ending to be in a world where everything can still come back. We wanted to make sure that if it wasn’t the series finale then, down the road, we already have things we want to do. Comedy series finales are hard, too. Not every comedy has a built-in conclusion like The Good Place. Something will happen in a drama or movie. With comedy, you kind of want to be coming back in. We want to feel like these characters are still being funny and are still out there doing stuff. Solar Opposites was never about building up to a dinner where the screen goes black and somebody gets taken out. What we wanted to do with this finale is tell you that these characters are still happy and doing stuff. They’ve been freed from a thing that they were stuck in. They started as aliens who didn’t even know that TV isn’t real and now they’ve ended up as a family. They’ve picked up some of the good habits of humanity and some of the bad habits. Hopefully people have enjoyed watching them slowly progress and evolve throughout the series to this point. 

We’re not going to give a direct ending. It’s not going to say “THE END” in golden Disney script that appears on screen. We’re not doing it to mess with people, but to say, “Hey, we love this, too!” It would have felt even more disingenuous to put the big Golden End on it all.

All six seasons of Solar Opposites are now streaming on Hulu