In 1981 Terry Gilliam's film "Time Bandits" opened a portal to a wild adventure through time and history. Later this month Apple TV+ launches a series inspired by that cult classic.
Anyone who saw Gilliam’s "Time Bandits" will remember the breathtaking moment a horse burst through a child’s closet and exposed holes in the fabric of time. Taika Waititi was six years old when he saw the movie.
"It freaked me out," Waititi recalled. "But I remember loving it, but also being a little scared for Kevin and thinking this idea is exhilarating, to be able to go off and time travel with a bunch of these cavalier strange bandits."
Kevin is the young boy whose love for history makes him the perfect time traveler in both the original film and now the Apple TV+ streaming show that Waititi co-created with Jemaine Clement and Iain Morris.
"This ordinary kid from suburban wherever makes the adventure and all the places you go so much more exciting because he's a history nerd," added Waititi. "He knows so much about all of these different places. So it's an informative adventure."
With Kevin serving as our enthusiastic tour guide marveling at the construction of Stonehenge or extolling the cleverness of the Trojan Horse.
"Just like the film, we wanted it to be his wild adventure going through time," Waititi stated. "One of the special things about that character is that he's the only one who really knows anything and he's surrounded by people who, on the surface, are expert thieves or they've got this gang and they're dangerous but they're bumbling around. So he really becomes the most valuable member of the team in a lot of ways."
"They rely on him because otherwise, they don't know where they are. They have to rely on this kid who they don't really want to be there," added co-creator Clement.
This new "Time Bandits" updates Gilliam's story, so now there are references to Wikipedia and moments when the accuracy of the history we know is questioned. The series also lets us spend more time getting to know Kevin before he goes off on his time hopping adventures.
One notable change involves Kevin's time traveling companions. In Gilliam's film the titular time bandits were all little people who were at or below Kevin's physical height, which allowed the film to present a different perspective on the world. For the streaming series, there are no little people cast as bandits. Instead we have a ragtag cast of new characters led by Lisa Kudrow's Penelope.
Returning characters, however, do include The Supreme Being and Pure Evil. Clement plays Pure Evil while Waititi takes on the role of the Supreme Being. The casting seems perfect but the creators say it was a choice made out of necessity.
"We couldn't afford to bring people in from overseas to do a few days work over six months," Clement said. "So we knew it should be someone local. And we were the most proximate people. But for a long time, we were going to play the opposite roles."
Join Pure Evil and The Supreme Being as well as Kevin and his ragtag gang of time traveling companions for "Time Bandits." The 10-part series premieres July 24 on Apple TV+.
