Primal Creator Genndy Tartakovsky Explains Why He Returned To Spear & Fang For Season 3 [Exclusive]

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The following contains spoilers for the season 3 premiere of "Primal."

Genndy Tartakovsky has helped redefine American animation for the past four decades, never delivering the same kind of movie or TV show twice. Tartakovsky's magnum opus recently arrived in the form of "Primal," also known as "Primal: Tales of Savagery."

The show is set in a pulpy world where dinosaurs, witchcraft and human civilizations co-exist. It follows Spear, a Neanderthal who teams up with a Tyrannosaurus rex to survive a cruel environment and fight all sorts of creatures, monsters, and even early civilizations. "Primal" is extremely violent and gory, with plenty of skull-crushing, bone-breaking, guts-spilling, blood-flowing savagery. And yet, the action and violence serves to tell an often emotionally devastating story about found family and community. 

After two brilliant seasons, Tartakovsky is back for "Primal" season 3 with a rather surprising change in format — or lack thereof. You see, the new season still stars Fang and Spear, despite the teeny tiny problem of Spear dying a rather definitive on-screen death at the end of season 2.

For Tartakovsky, who had previously said "Primal" would turn into an anthology with different characters each season, this is a surprising choice. During an exclusive interview with /Film's Ethan Anderton, Tartakovsky explained why he decided to bring Spear back. "I realized, 'What did I just do? I spent 20 episodes working so hard to introduce this relationship and these characters for the audience to like him, then I kill off the main character and then I end it.'"

The solution was obvious. "I think as a joke, I go, 'Oh, he'll be a zombie now.' And I was like, 'Wait, hold on a second.' And it felt really good in my gut and the instinct of it was right."

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"I wrote down 10 ideas of what would happen, right? And the idea that [Spear is] not who he is, but then little flashes, almost like 'Bourne Identity' or something, starts coming in," Genndy Tartakovsky continued. "Then, him getting his humanity back through death sealed it."

This is the core of "Primal" season 3, and the magic trick Tartakovsky and his team at Studio la Cachette pull off. Technically we're just following the same character yet again, after coming back from the dead in a move that would feel cheap in any other show. Rather than coming across as a cop out or something that lessens the impact of the ending of season 2, this development feels fresh, new, and exciting. Spear being a zombie makes for some utterly hilarious moments of physical comedy — like constant cuts from something thrilling to a dead-eye Spear with a blank expression. The way Spear's body slowly falls apart while still managing to withstand all the damage is funny and gruesome.

Yet having Spear be a zombie also gives the show a version of that anthology format Tartakovsky wanted for this season. Rather than introduce a brand new character in a brand new world that the audience would discover alongside the new protagonist, Spear serves that purpose. "Primal" season 3 takes place in a new continent, with new locations and creatures. As a zombie, this Spear has zero memories of his past, nor any knowledge of the world. He is essentially a newborn child discovering everything for the first time, and he is wide-eyed about everything. Through zombie Spear, "Primal" gets to have its cake and eat it, too: having an old character act in new ways that keeps the world surprising.

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The other thing zombie Spear brings to "Primal" season 3 is an even stronger emotional throughline. This is a show that started with a T. rex mom losing her kids, and it's only become more emotionally devastating since then. Zombie Spear, though, brings something different. Again, because this Spear is completely unfamiliar with the world around him, everything is new to him. That means him developing bonds with living beings that are annihilated by the cruel world they inhabit.

We see this in episode 3 when Spear finds a cricket and becomes attached to it, before tragedy strikes. Genndy Tartakovsky recalls: 

"When we started doing that and it had all that emotion and the horror and the action and everything, it was like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, this feels so right [...] The hope was like, 'Oh, you guys know this character already' [...] So now he's something else, and I was hoping, 'Oh, I hope the audience cheers for him to get back to who he is.'"

Zombie Spear may be a brutal, nearly indestructible killing machine, but he's also a sensitive boy who likes bugs and drawings. In its third season, "Primal" continues to surprise with new layers to its world and characters. If you haven't seen Metacritic's highest-rated adventure-horror TV series, you'd better catch up, because "Primal" season 3 is a wild ride.