Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement discuss the new series “Time Bandits” with Lisa Kudrow – Orange County Register

This image released by Apple TV+ shows, from left, Tadhg Murphy, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva, Lisa Kudrow, Kal-El Tuck, Kiera Thompson and Rune Temte from the series “Time Bandits.” (Matt Grace/Apple TV+ via AP)

By Kaitlyn Huamani | The Associated Press

Adapting a cult classic into a television series is a daunting task, but for Lisa Kudrow and her collaborators on Time Bandits, the challenge only meant there was more room for new discoveries.

“The series version of a movie means you expand the world and really go into detail, and that’s what excited me,” Kudrow said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “It was really fun.”

“Time Bandits,” an Apple TV+ series available to stream starting July 24, is based on the 1981 film of the same name, which Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam directed and co-wrote with frequent collaborator Michael Palin. Both the film and the series follow a ragtag band of time-traveling thieves, led by Kudrow as Penelope, who team up with their newest recruit — an 11-year-old history buff named Kevin — as they travel through time to save the boy’s parents from evil forces.

Although the series stays true to the original in several important details and parts, Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, who created the series along with Iain Morris, said it was important to them that the show did not feel like an imitation of the film.

“We had to do things differently to avoid simply stealing or tracking what they had,” Clement said.

The biggest departure from the original film is that the bandits are not played by actors of short stature – a decision that the duo said was quickly criticized by the short stature community when the cast was announced early in the show’s development. Abbie Purvis, the granddaughter of original actor Jack Purvis, condemned the casting decision on TikTok, saying, “For a generation that places so much importance on talking about inclusivity and diversity and making sure everyone is heard, this whole casting decision just seems absurd.”

Waititi said he and his co-writers originally wrote the script with the idea that some of the main characters would be short, but he did not believe the film “should be defined by the presence of short people.”

Ultimately, they settled on other actors. Clement said the creative team wrestled with the casting decision, pointing to “two big sides of this debate”: “Whether it’s right to stereotype little people as magical beings, and whether not doing that is taking jobs away from smaller actors.”

After the cast was announced, Clement said they had “responded to the complaints and added roles for some smaller actors,” adding that those roles would be featured more prominently if the series was renewed for a second season.

Waititi and Clement both appear in recurring roles on the series themselves. The duo is known for their work on “What We Do in the Shadows” – a film and an FX series – and Waititi has also directed and starred in major films, including “Jojo Rabbit” and two “Thor” films.

The child actor who holds the show together as Kevin is Kal-El Tuck, who had appeared in a handful of short films before being cast in the series’ lead role. He said he hadn’t seen the original film because he didn’t want it to influence his portrayal.

“I wanted to be my own Kevin, nobody else’s Kevin,” Tuck said. “I wanted to be Kevin in my own way.”

Kudrow praised her young co-star, calling him a “generous actor” and noting that many of the bandits’ jokes and banter were improvised. The former “Friends” actress also said she was initially nervous about working on the project.

“I was scared, of course, like, ‘Uh oh, they think they made a mistake,’ because there’s nothing you can do about it, you’re unsure and you’re like, ‘Do I have the right tone for this?’ and all that, but it was just fun,” Kudrow said, noting that she felt like she was “acting” on set.

While Time Bandits deviates from the beloved film, it brings the story to a new generation while attempting to retain the humor and soul of the original.

“There’s always pressure to do something, but of course we don’t want to upset the fans of the original film,” Clement said, before Waititi joked, “We’re afraid of the fans.”