The “Tales of Arcadia” saga officially comes to a close with the new DreamWorks Animation feature Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans. It premieres this Wednesday July 21st on Netflix. Executive Producer and co-writer Marc Guggenheim shares his thoughts on the end of a decade-long journey with this one of a kind franchise.

Jackson Murphy: Was a feature film finale always part of the grand plan?

Marc Guggenheim: No. Actually it wasn’t. We knew we wanted to bring all the characters from all three shows together for some type of climax. We just didn’t know what form that would take. There were a lot of initial discussions about, “Do we do this as sort of an extended season of Wizards or do we do it as a standalone movie?” And the thing is: when you do a standalone movie, it really does have to be standalone. You’ve got to write it and conceive it such that people didn’t have to watch all three shows in order to understand what was going on.

Marc Guggenheim: Ultimately, we decided the way to tell this story on the scope that we wanted and have the story be as big as we aspired it to be – that really meant doing it as a feature. We committed to that. We wrote a little primer at the beginning of the movie to indoctrinate people who haven’t watched any of the shows – and hopefully gave them enough information to at least not be confused as they watch the movie. Obviously if you’re a longtime fan of the shows and you’ve seen all the episodes, there are gonna be moments that resonate more strongly for you. That’s just the nature of the beast. But we really tried to do this so that watching the previous three shows wasn’t required viewing.

JM: Sure. And you have the great Kelsey Grammer [the voice of Blinky] doing a lot of that voiceover early on. What does it mean to you that this is the first ever DreamWorks animated feature directly made for a streaming service?

MG: You know what? I didn’t know that. (laughs) I didn’t realize that, but that actually makes sense. I’m excited because the whole Tales of Arcadia series, for us, has always been about breaking new ground and doing things that other people haven’t done before. The idea of taking a trilogy of shows and then wrapping them all up in a movie… I don’t think that’s been done before, either – in live-action or animation. It’s really exciting. From Guillermo [del Toro] on down, we all really get off on trying things that haven’t been attempted before.

JM: Yeah, I was gonna say in the way this saga has been released and from what you’re telling me and what I’ve watched… that this has felt very one of a kind in the animation world. As somebody on the inside, in terms of the production of all of this and getting the different series and this movie accomplished, how would you say the experience you’ve had has been one of a kind?

MG: Oh gosh. One of the ways it’s been one of a kind is just how gosh dark pleasant it’s been. For me, it’s about a ten-year journey. It’s been a blast every step of the way. I’ve gotten the chance to work with a lot of wonderful actors, artists, directors and writers. And a lot of them have been part of the trilogy since day one. For all of us to be able to continue to work together across so many shows and so many years, that’s really rewarding and super valuable. It’s also very nice to be able to end the story on your own terms. That’s not something you get to do in television all that often.

JM: You’re absolutely right about that. I’m a big fan of television series finales and just seeing how the episode – on its own – works. When you can wrap it up on your own, it does seem like they’re better and stronger. And this is a strong case for you guys. You start things off early on with a subway car sequence, which has been a location for many action scenes in a lot of movies lately. How was it for you kicking things off with an exciting subway car sequence?

MG: We really wanted to start the movie off with a statement of, “Okay, we’re no longer doing television.” We’re now in a brand new environment that we’ve never seen before on the shows. It’s a huge environment. It’s a big city. The nature of the subway going underground and above ground and elevated trains and crashing through our version of Times Square… that opening sequence is a laundry list of things we never would have been able to do on a TV series budget. It was important for us to start the [movie] off with a mission statement, if you will, a declaration that this is not going to be like the first three shows that you may be familiar with.

JM: I can see that. So in terms of the budget that you got for this movie and the timeline, what did you have to work on “Rise of the Titans”?

MG: We had a good chunk of time to play with. It’s a little bit the way the Star Trek Generations movie was produced right on the heels of the final season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where they rolled straight off of the TV show into the production of the film. But to do that we had to basically be conceiving and writing the movie almost in parallel with the writing and production of “Wizards”. But as a result, that gave us a good chunk of time. We were able to really kick the tires on every plot point. I think the ultimate, finished product of the movie actually bears very little resemblance in a lot of cases to the original story ideas that we were originally kicking around. It was nice to be able to stress test everything and really take the time to make sure, “Okay, this is the final story we’re telling with these characters. Is it the right story and is it being told in the right way?”

JM: Glad you had that luxury. The sequence in this movie when the gigantic creatures controlled by the titans actually rise… it is amazing. Were they some of the more challenging moments, visually, to put together?

MG: Yeah. Our directors, our artists, our animators did a simply remarkable job. Scale is something that’s very difficult to achieve whether it’s in live-action or in animation. The big breakthrough conceptually for us… it really unlocked a lot of things for us… was realizing that these titans aren’t just creatures. We have to not think of them just as animated creatures but also as environments. They truly do become their own environments. We’re having fights on and around and through these massive creatures. In animation and in live-action, there’s always sort of a church and state separation between “What’s an object? What’s a creature or a person? And what’s an environment?” Here to achieve the scale of the titans, we had to create a hybrid where in certain shots it’s a creature [and] in other shots it’s an entire virtual set.

JM: And also there are some moments that gave me real Pacific Rim vibes with some of the battles in the water. Obviously Guillermo del Toro has been a core part of this saga from the beginning. Was he key on getting those kind of “Pacific Rim” moments in this movie?

MG: You know, it’s funny. On the one hand, he definitely enjoyed the nods to Pacific Rim. On the other hand, we had a lot of conversations about, “How do we keep from simply repeating what he had done on Pacific Rim?” So it’s a fine line. But I like to think that we straddled it pretty well and gave you enough of a Guillermo del Toro uber Easter egg while at the same giving you something you haven’t seen before.

JM: Yeah. I would agree with that. I’ve already heard from some parents and families who can’t wait to see this movie. How have you personally experienced the reaction from families over the last 5-6 years of these shows being on Netflix?

MG: Honestly, it’s really terrific and very humbling. I got into this project really for two reasons: No. 1 – to work with Guillermo… and No. 2 – to work on something that my daughters could watch and enjoy. At the time I started “Trollhunters”, I was also starting “Arrow”, and “Arrow”‘s a very dark, violent show that’s not really appropriate for young kids. So to be able to work on something that kids of all ages can enjoy and families can watch together is really really gratifying. And Netflix over the years has been really terrific and very deliberate about when the different seasons of the shows would drop so that they could be enjoyed by the entire family, either in the summertime when school’s out or around Christmas for binging over the holidays. The shows have always been conceived of as a family experience. To see families embracing it is really intensely gratifying.

JM: And that’s gotta feel that Netflix cares that much. Marc, I’m gonna ask you the same final question that I asked Chad Quandt and Aaron Waltke when I talked with them last summer for “Wizards”. What are you going to miss the most about this “Tales of Arcadia” saga in your life?

MG: Honestly, working with everyone. It’s been a 10-year journey, and for much of those 10 years, it’s been the same writers and artists and producers and animators. To not be in day to day contact with all these wonderful people, that’s gonna be hard. That’s the end of a very significant chapter in my life. I hope we get a chance to get the band back together for some future project one of these days. That would be really lovely. But I’m gonna miss the people most of all.