Of all the things fans were expecting from Scott Pilgrim Takes Off on Netflix, an anime “adaptation” of the graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley and film by Edgar Wright, there’s one element nobody could have predicted, that is making everyone lose their minds: Straight Wallace, voiced by Griffin Newman.
If you don’t know, Wallace Wells is Scott Pilgrim‘s (Michael Cera) roommate. He was performed physically by Kieran Culkin in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. He was also performed vocally by Culkin in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. Wallace is Scott’s openly gay roommate, sugar daddy, whatever you want to call it. He’s caustic and funny, and in the books is technically Scott’s fighting coach. In the movies, he’s mostly his jeering section, offering help far too late actually to be any, you know, help.
However, as those who have seen Scott Pilgrim Takes Off know, things go in a wildly different direction at the end of the first episode, “Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life.” After Scott is seemingly killed, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) heads off on a search to find who kidnapped him. Meanwhile, the “real” story of Scott Pilgrim gets adapted into a major Canadian motion picture titled… Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life.
When we first encounter the production in Episode 4, “Whatever,” Lucas Lee (Chris Evans) is playing Scott. Wallace Wells is played by an unnamed actor. He is, however, credited as Straight Wallace, and is voiced in real life by Griffin Newman. Straight Wallace is aggressively straight, leering at Ramona’s butt, creeping on everyone, and asking if he’s being gay enough in scenes.
Straight Wallace Social Reactions: “Burn In Hell”
Anyway, everyone lost their minds. “Straight Wallace is cursed,” said one X (formerly Twitter) user. “May Straight Wallace burn in hell as he deserves,” said another. A third simply posted, “I hate you Straight Wallace.”
For his part, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off co-creator BenDavid Grabinski is loving all the Straight Wallace hatred, posting, “Straight Wallace tweets are so funny.” He also posted a video of Newman recording dialogue to animatics from the series, which is pretty fun.
Other than his repeated appearances on Comic Book Club’s live show, the thing Newman is definitely most famous for, he co-hosts the popular Blank Check podcast, and the live comedy show The George Lucas Talk Show as Watto. He also appeared as Arthur in Prime Video’s late, great reboot of The Tick, the voice of Pip in Disney’s Disenchanted, Orko on Masters of the Universe: Revelation, and many more.
And one last note: in the Japanese voice cast of Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Straight Wallace is voiced by actor and singer Gakuto Kajiwara, who is probably best known for voicing Asta in Black Clover. Griffin Newman x Gakuto Kajiwara team-up, when?
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Love Scott Pilgrim? Then perhaps you would also enjoy Scott Pilgrim vs. The Podcast. Every episode we break down a volume of the book series, discuss the feature film, and it’s all leading up to Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, the new Netflix series.
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