‘Fired On Mars’ Brings Irreverent Corporate Culture To Space: Talking With The Creators And Cast
by Gary Catig
Fired on Mars is an upcoming adult animated series that will premiere on HBO Max later this month. The story follows a young graphic designer named Jeff Cooper who works for the start-up, Mars.ly. In order to pursue his career, as you can imagine based off of the title and the company name, Jeff uproots his life to settle on the Red Planet. When his bosses eliminate his role, he finds himself unemployed and unable to return back home to Earth. Now, he must reinvent himself to adapt to this alien yet familiar corporate world.
We had the opportunity to speak with the show’s creators, Nate Sherman and Nick Vokey, and cast member Sean Wing to learn more about this existential and irreverent comedy at WonderCon 2023. The trio had plenty to say so let’s get into it.
Fired on Mars Origins
Fired on Mars began as a short back in 2016. It drew a little bit on both Sherman and Vokey’s experiences since they too were graphic designers at one point in their lives. The pilot, which they showed at WonderCon, and the short hit many of the same beats. That’s fine for one episode, but how would they stretch the material for an entire season?
Initially the creators considered taking the series into an entirely new direction than the short. However, after speaking with HBO, Sherman and Vokey decided not to, and they think the current show, which followed the original premise, worked out.
Wing, who was involved in the short as well shared his thoughts on the end product. “This is so much bigger and more expansive than I would have ever imagined it becoming. It’s really interesting, it just takes all these different turns.”
Fired in Mars Explores Corporate Dynamics
Viewers will find the culture at Mars.ly very familiar, but there isn’t a single company it drew inspiration from. Vokey said:
“There’s this traditional corporate world and then when we started making this short, it was more of the rise of start-up companies and tech companies. I spent a tiny little bit of time doing that so kind of fusing those two things together. And now it’s ubiquitous.”
Sherman added about companies:
“They’re all bad in the same way if that makes sense so it’s an amalgamation of all this stuff. It doesn’t start in the last five to ten years. It’s forever. We were consciously trying to avoid really pointed satire at a specific company.”
The Current Feel of Fired on Mars
With all these billionaires in the real world flying into space, and all this talk of colonizing Mars, the show seems prescient when it was first conceived as a short. Sherman jokes:
“This whole time, it’s been gestating for almost a decade at this point, we’re like, please don’t let them land on Mars.”
Furthermore, in the pandemic and post pandemic era, we see more and more people working from home. The series looks into that as well with Sherman adding:
“And the rise of remote work. Sean’s character, Brandon for example commutes from Earth to Mars via a zoom robot basically, the chief operating officer of Mars. I guess we’re a little ahead of our time.”
What to Expect from Fired on Mars
Vokey was excited about the journey viewers will experience:
“What’s fun, we’ve been talking about this earlier today, is that there are so many places to go in the show. The pilot episode really keeps you kind of in the colony in this one specific place. As the show moves on, you get to explore all over the colony and outside of the colony. So there are a lot of fun surprises ahead for people who decide to keep watching.”
Don’t miss Fired on Mars when it premieres April 20th on HBO Max.
