Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur Producer And Actor On The Show’s Authenticity [Exclusive Interview]

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Pops is very highly regarded in the Lafayette family. With Lunella looking up to him and the rest of the family, what qualities do you think she inherited from Pops that you’re proud to see her exhibit as Moon Girl?

Williams: I will say that one physical thing that she got from me is the ability to skate, because my character was a champion skater. King of the skaters. She is always in her skates, so she clearly got that from me. Also, he is a bit of a tinkerer. Pops likes to do things. He fixes skates up to be better than new. So even some of her tinkering, those kind of skills that she also got from him.

One of the great things about the show is the authenticity. It really feels like you’re in the Lower East Side of New York, especially with things like the blackout in the first episode to the community’s response to it. What other aspects from the real-world issues did your team look into in order to provide that feeling in your show?

Flynn: That’s something that was really important to us. Every episode we wanted to use as much authenticity as possible. We got a lot of our inspiration [for the first episode] from this documentary called “United Skates.” It deals with the Black community, what they went through at that time [when their skating rinks were closing around the country], and how there’s such few rinks left. But as you go through our series, every episode deals with so many issues involving social media, bullying, [and more]. We’re trying to make a show that is entertaining and bright and colorful, but also that deals with real life things and issues that kids today are having to deal with. So yeah, we really thoughtfully put that through the entire series.

Williams: Even the artwork. That whole street painting look of it, the look of this show. The look of it is so fascinating to me. And then when I was told, “We were borrowing from artists from the Lower East Side and New York in general,” it’s amazing. All that stuff is so nicely woven in there. It has such a different feeling than anything else you’ve had your eyes on.

Flynn: We took real murals. We used real graffiti artists and incorporated them into the show, so it’s fully authentic to the real environment. We’re very proud of that.