If Robot Chicken, Star Wars, Voltron and Power Rangers were all cut up into tiny little pieces then glued back together with love, satire and perhaps a little glitter, you might end up with the new sci-fi comedy show Titan Maximum — debuting on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim on Sept. 27, 2009.

Created by Robot Chicken producer/co-head writer/director Tom Root and Robot Chicken executive producer/co-creator/writer/director Matthew Senreich, Titan Maximum uses stop-motion animation to bring an ’80s-inspired action cartoon to life.

Set 100 years in the future, Saturn’s moon Titan is defended by Titan Force Five, an elite squadron of young, brash pilots whose spaceships combine to form the giant robot Titan Maximum. As the series opens, the team has been disbanded due to budget cuts, but must hastily reassemble when a former team member turns rogue and tries to conquer the solar system with an assault of giant monsters. Now, the fate of humanity rests in the hands of a team of dysfunctional misfits commanding a rustbucket robot.

StarWars.com talks with the show co-creators and writers Matt Senreich and Tom Root, as well as the executive producer and cast member Seth Green, and the rest of the cast Breckin Meyer, Rachael Leigh Cook, Dan Milano and Eden Espinosa.

What was the genesis of the show?

Matt Senreich: This is one of those concepts we’d be thinking about for way too long, not thinking it could ever be a reality. So in casual conversation we pitched it to Adult Swim and they said, “That sounds like fun.”

Tom Root: Just joking around we drew what our team would look like on the dry erase board here in the writers’ room and Keith Crawford from Adult Swim came in one day and he liked it.

You realize you’re implying that it’s really easy to pitch a show to Adult Swim, right?

Tom: But then came the hard part.

Matt: As in the 30-page show bible! But we initially interested them with our nice drawing and a lot of made up mythology.

What kinds of sci-fi movies and shows have influenced you as your were creating Titan Maximum?

Matt: We’re big fans and geeks of all the ’80s cartoons like Battle of the Planets and Voltron, and we just wanted to create something in that vein where the world’s most-trusted, elite fighting force is a bunch of stupid teenagers.

Tom: We grew up not only loving robots, but also all kinds of outer space shows with spaceships and battles. We talked a lot about the new Battlestar Galactica and how it got us excited about space and robots again.

Eden Espinosa: I’m a fan of Galactica too.

Seth Green: I was a big fan of Robotech.

Matt: We also had to one-up Clone Wars director Dave Filoni and integrate some CG into our stop-motion world a little bit. So we throw it back in Filoni’s court, and let’s just see if he can put some stop-motion into The Clone Wars now!

Are you proud that Titan Maximum may be the only sci-fi show on TV with the cheapest special effects?

Tom: Our effects look good enough that I don’t know why more people aren’t making awesome shows. We are on the thinnest of shoestring budgets here, and yet we tell the story we want to tell with the action we want in there and we have no money at all! We would much rather build something than create it on a computer because with our budget it’s going to look better that way — which is actually kind of fun because we get to have spaceships hanging all over the studio. We actually have models, and it feels like 1976 ILM around here.

Matt: Everything’s bigger too. The models are at a different scale. Whereas on Robot Chicken the figures are eight inches, on Titan they’re 12 inches, so the actual sets that they’re in are ginormous. There are shots in this thing that are amazing as they’re walking through it because the set is so detailed right down to the little scratches on the wall.

Since so much detail went into the puppets, does that mean we’ll be seeing Titan Maximum toys on the shelves?

Matt: That would be awesome! Tell the toy companies to call us!

Tom: One of the things that we have as an incentive to toy companies is the spaceships were designed on the computer and we were able to print them out as physical models, so we have computer-designed models ready to go to molds for any company that wants to pay us a lot of money to make Titan toys.

How do you actors feel about how your characters look like in Titan?

Eden: My character is a hottie!

Rachael Leigh Cook: They show us things in advance so we can get a vibe for the character and possibly bring that over in the voice part you need to do.

Seth I was involved in the design process, so I was really happy the way my character Gibbs turned out ultimately. Instead of having a very villainy goatee, he has a slappy soul patch. He has traditional anime hair and an evil eye-patch.

Do any of your relate to your characters on your show?

Seth: I have a lot of wide-reaching goals for universal takeover in the form of giant monsters and weapons. Fingers crossed! This show is a dry run for my big plans.

Breckin Meyer: I have my own theme song.

Eden: The bitchy side of Sasha I can channel into a little bit. That actually is why Matt said I was cast in the role.

Rachael: I totally identify with the Jodi character. I tend to play by the rules. She’s a great character. She wants to be a good leader even when she’s constantly challenged by her crazy co-workers. Playing her has been so much fun.

Dan Milano: It’s no challenge to play a nerd. I have a natural affinity for playing a dork. I was married in a Han Solo costume, and my wife was dressed as Princess Leia. We got married in Las Vegas at the Star Trek venue. So I certainly identify with my character, Willie. He’s sweet, well-meaning and tries way too hard.

Who would you recruit from the Star Wars universe to be on Titan if you could?

Rachael: I’m down with bringing Chewie onboard.

Seth: We could totally use that Wookiee! And we could use a few laser swords.

Aside from Billy Dee Williams who’s already on the show, are there any of the Star Wars actors you’d like to guest star on Titan?

Breckin: I want to get Peter Mayhew and make him stand inside our tiny booth.

Dan: He actually has a really distinctive speaking voice. I think he would be great.

Now that you are all associated with a sci-fi show, are you excited for fans to dress up as your characters at the next Comic-Con?

Rachael: I hadn’t even thought of that! That’s amazing!

Eden: Me neither!

Seth: On the Robot Chicken Skate Party tour we saw fans dress up as our Robot Chicken: Star Wars characters. Somebody was Private Perkins with that big Groucho nose. And someone was Gary the Stormtrooper. And there was a full-scale Darth Chicken.

Breckin: And there was a guy dressed as the Star Wars geek.

Seth: I would be thrilled to see any fan wearing a Titan costume at any convention.

Since you have Eden Espinosa, who’s a bona fide Broadway singer on the cast, when can we expect the all-musical episode of Titan Maximum — especially since Seth didn’t get a chance to sing in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical episode?

Eden: Yes!

Rachael: Absolutely!

Seth: Well, Rachel is the deciding vote!

Speaking of music, what exactly do the end credits of Titan Maximum mean since they’re in Japanese?

Matt: I wrote it. It’s all very elementary Japanese that I found online. So when we got our Japanese singer in she was a little baffled by what I thought was very accurate Japanese. (laughs) Though, I will say that in Episode 5 we have a different end credit theme song. The pilot and episode 5 have the character Sasha’s pop songs, which Eden sings.

So is Leon the monkey on Titan the same monkey mascot from your production company Stoopid Monkey?

Matt: The show takes place 100 years in the future, so it couldn’t be possibly be the same monkey. We just like monkeys.

Why do you think Star Wars, and sci-fi fans in general, should tune into Titan Maximum?

Tom: Other than the obvious influences, we don’t spend a lot of time doing parody. We take what’s fun about these genres and do our own thing with them, which is sort of a change of pace from Robot Chicken.

It’s not necessarily that we’re making fun of all these sci-fi shows and movies from our childhood as much as we wanted to have a show like them and make it really funny and fast-paced and exciting.

We’re aiming for the both of best worlds. We are having fun with the conventions of these shows that everyone knows, but it also stands alone if you’re not familiar with them.

Matt: This is a show that my wife can watch along with hardcore sci-fi fans.

Seth: I think this show shares a similar sensibility with a lot of the fans of Star Wars. It’s traditional and loving of underlying material but it has fun with it. I can’t wait for people to see it!

Breckin: What is this Star Wars you keep talking about?

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