'Twilight of the Gods' Interview: Zack Snyder on Sigrid, Loki and Crabby Thor

"I fear no gods," says Sigrid, the protagonist in Twilight of the Gods. But it's understood that after watching the series, we should be just a little bit fearful. 

When the gods do wrong, Twilight of the Gods isn't afraid to call them out. It's an intentional move when you've spent years studying Old Norse mythology, and 2D animation was the right medium to tell this adult-level tale. Debuting on Netflix on Sept. 19, the TV-MA-rated animated show has gore, sex, and emotional outbursts.

Created by Zack Snyder, Jay Oliva and Eric Carrasco, the series introduces Leif, a human king who finds love with the warrior Sigrid after she saves his life. An eruptive visit from Thor turns their nuptials deadly, making the half-giant bride hell-bent on revenge. The two assemble a crew with various skills and set about to take on the gods. 

Sigrid is voiced by Sylvia Hoeks, with Stuart Martin as Leif. The cast also includes Paterson Joseph as Loki, Pilou Asbæk as Thor, Peter Stormare as Ulfr, Jamie Clayton as Seid-Kona, Rahul Kohli as Egill, Hjort Sørensen as Hervor, Kristofer Hivju as Andvari and John Noble as Odin.

Thor is a brutal menace whose wielding of Mjölnir is anything but nice (an unusual rendition of MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This plays it up in the show). Loki is the ubiquitous trickster but with emotional layers, and Odin is ... Odin.

CNET spoke with Snyder and executive producer Wesley Coller ahead of the series premiere about how the show came together, its characters, and how deep the ancient mythology goes. An edited transcript of our conversation is below -- be aware, there are potential spoilers. 

Thor and his mighty hammer.

Q: Xilam Animation worked on this project. Based on the trailers, some fans are comparing this show's 2D art style to Samurai Jack or Wolfwalkers -- can you talk a bit about the inspiration behind the animation aesthetic?
Snyder: I think the main thing that we were inspired by was really just going for the 2D look as much as possible, and just letting Xilam -- Xilam is an amazing animation studio -- but we all did the design in-house. So, all the character design and everything was done here, back in Pasadena. By the time we sort of settled on the look and sent it over to Xilam to animate, we drank the Kool-Aid of a full 2D freak show. And they really answered the call in an incredible way. The animators are so good, and the subtleties of performance are so beautiful that I'm really happy that we got them to do the show, because it's incredible.

I read that you started working on this during the pandemic. Were there any challenges getting this done?
Snyder: Yeah, there were huge challenges. The pandemic did slow us down a little bit, but I feel like we were constantly moving forward. We kept grinding it out, and in the end, it worked out well. I think we did some of the recording during the pandemic, and then some at post. There was some where people had to record at home, and then some, at a second session, they got to come and see them in the studio, so that was nice. They're all over the world, these actors, so it was kind of great in that way.

Coller: I think in the beginning it was sort of learning how to navigate that -- that remote world we were all figuring out at the time. But I think the process, in many ways, is possibly the most able to be moved into a remote version. So, we just had to sort of lean into that. And I think in the end, it was great to be able, by then, to get people back in the studio and to be doing things in person. It was definitely a journey, for sure.

This series really does a deep dive into Norse mythology -- even getting into the politics between the Aesir and Vanir. How much time did the entire creative team spend researching some of this Old Norse mythology?
Snyder: It literally was years in the making, as far as the sort of storyline and locking of the story. One of our writers, Peter Aperlo, has written a book on Norse mythology, so there was a deep knowledge of Norse mythology. I had my, what I thought was pretty good, knowledge of Norse mythology -- it turns out when you get with these scholars, you're like, "Oh, geez." Because I'm learning constantly, that was fun, and it was fun to learn alongside everybody. 

But I think that we had our human story, and it allowed us to sort of hang some pretty heavy mythology on Sigrid's story. We're able to, from a basic storytelling standpoint, go: "A horrible thing happens to our lead character. She wants revenge, so she puts a team of warriors together to go exact that revenge." From a basic story mechanism standpoint, it's pretty simple. But the Norse aspects of it are so weird and complicated and bizarro that they make the show really fun and crazy. And I love all that stuff.

This version of a certain thunder god, Thor, is really one that we haven't seen too often. Mythical Thor has a temper but loves humans. This show's Thor is a little bit different. How did you arrive at this version of him?
Snyder: Norse myth is very much adult-themed, and Thor is a known giant killer. He loves killing giants; in the mythology, he's constantly murdering the giants. We knew he fought daddy issues, and he's particularly powerful. The combination of those things could lead to something. Because the thing about Thor is ego. Obviously, it would be a problem if you were a god, a thunder God, and a warrior God, especially -- you could really end up getting into yourself a little too deep. That's kind of what we got with our Thor.

Let's talk about Sigrid. She's the central character, and despite her relationship with the love of her life here, she has pretty much a single focus for most of this series. She's one of the warrior women we meet. Can you share how you guys built her from scratch?
Snyder: I love the relationship between Sigrid and Leif, and how dedicated he is to her and how much he just loves her like crazy, and how much she loves him. But family is so important and family defines us. And I think in her case, she's overcompensated this revenge trip that she's on. She's sort of lost part of herself, and sometimes things that you take for granted that are right in front of you are "the why" of everything. That happens to our Sigrid a little bit in this quest. I think that her discoveries are that the thing she loves she's sacrificing for this kind of insane revenge trip that she's on. In the end, she kind of learns it -- spoiler alert -- a little too late, probably, but we'll see.

Coller: Just like any character that you want to connect with -- I think for me, it's the fact that I think we all have experienced things like that, where we've encountered something that in that moment, it becomes a driving force looking to get a reaction out of us. Or, pulling a reaction out of us, versus a more deliberate action; something that is less reactive. When you can relate to a character like that -- we've all been there -- but then also to watch the price she's paying along the way to exact revenge, I think makes her a very relatable character that we can all see a little piece of ourselves in. But also, as an audience member, leaves you on your heels waiting to see whether or not she will pull back at any point or whether she sees this all the way through.

This depiction of Loki was really unique. What was the idea behind it?
Snyder: Loki obviously is the trickster, pulling the strings behind the scenes. We also wanted to start to reveal the subtleties and nuances that drive him to make the decisions that he makes, like what happens to his kids and how he blames Thor. You sort of get a sense of why they fight and why there's a rivalry. It's not black and white, of course. Neither of them is without fault. 

Twilight of the Gods is another term for Ragnarök. What can you tell us -- in a spoiler-free way -- about the overall meaning of that for everyone in this series?
Snyder: We wanted to do a show that was headed toward Ragnarök; eventually, we'd get there. But we didn't want to go immediately into Ragnarök because we felt like it was fun to be in the day-to-day of the normal Norse mythological world without the endgame of Ragnarök looming over us. We knew that we kind of had our eye on it, and that was why you had this reference for Ragnarök within the concept of Twilight of the Gods.