After nearly a decade of viral success, Among Us has finally made its way to television, and the creative team sought to retain one key element from the source material.
Based on Innersloth’s video game of the same name, the Paramount+ animated series revolves around the crew of the Skeld spaceship, as their intergalactic mission is suddenly thrown into chaos when they discover some members are being killed by a shapeshifting alien. No longer knowing who to trust, and facing an increasing body count, they must overcome their hilarious dysfunctions to find the Impostor before it’s too late.
Hailing from Infinity Train‘s Owen Dennis, Among Us features a star-studded voice cast including Critical Role vet Ashley Johnson, The Residence‘s Randall Park, Community‘s Yvette Nicole Brown, Hazbin Hotel‘s Kimiko Glenn, The Terror: The Devil in Silver‘s Dan Stevens and Lord of the Rings alum Elijah Wood, among others. Having made a surprise premiere on June 5, around the same time as the Summer Game Fest, the show is earning rave reviews from audiences and has been in the streamer’s Top 10 since.
Ahead of the show’s premiere, ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan interviewed Owen Dennis, Yvette Nicole Brown, Elijah Wood, Randall Park and Kimiko Glenn to discuss Among Us. When asked about retaining the iconic game element of the Impostor hunt and murder mystery, while also doing it in a fresh way for the series format, Dennis explained that the best stories in the latter genre “are about character decisions and are character-based in every way.”
Where some games like Clue might be more about how someone was murdered, once that answer is found, “that’s the end of the conversation.” For Among Us and other murder mysteries, however, “the most important part isn’t that somebody was murdered, [but] why someone was murdered,” leading him to focus on really rounding out the Skeld crew’s personalities and motives to both keep things fresh and stay true to his game source:
Owen Dennis: When you say, “Why was somebody murdered?” Now it starts becoming more like, “Well, they felt this, and then that thing happened…” The way to keep it fresh, I thought, was to keep things very character-based and make sure that everybody has their own secrets. They have their own lives while this murder is happening, and you end up having to deal with everybody else’s secrets at the same time that you’re dealing with a murder mystery. That’s how you do it!
The Among Us Cast Avoided The Game Before The Show For A Unique Reason
ScreenRant: I feel like Among Us awakens in me a sleeper cell to this certain era of my life. When did you get into the game, and what were your favorite aspects about it?
Yvette Nicole Brown: I literally have played the game exactly once. I got in and immediately got back out, because the weight of having to do right by people and knowing that I could not make me say, “I can’t do it!” I enjoy the idea of the gameplay, I just can’t stomach it.
Elijah Wood: I’ve actually never played it. Not for lack of wanting to, I just never did get around to downloading it and giving it a go. But there is something about the pressure of having to fulfill your end of the deal for your team to not F it up that is a little bit stressful. I’m a big gamer, but for some reason that one eluded me. Even though you would have thought that I would have downloaded it immediately upon booking the role, I didn’t do it. I know, I’ve failed!
ScreenRant: I downloaded the game during quarantine, when we didn’t really have a ton else to do. It was a horrible time, but everyone got into a weird, niche hobby. What were some of the things that you were doing during that time?
Yvette Nicole Brown: Building Legos. I skipped the sourdough starter and went right back to my childhood and built LEGOs.
Elijah Wood: We had just had our son the September before, so he was about five or six months of age once we went into lockdown. He occupied a lot of our time, but my wife and I both played a lot of Animal Crossing. That was fun. Also, we did make sourdough bread!
Yvette Nicole Brown: Everybody did that starter. I just don’t have the bacon gene.
ScreenRant: Red does not seem to know how to Captain his way out of a paper bag. How did he end up where he is? What can you tell us about him?
Randall Park: Part of me, whenever I get a role that’s a bit incompetent, my first question is, “Why did they think of me?” But with that said, I think I really do identify with these kinds of characters. Particularly, the idea of being the captain of a ship and trying to put up a confident front, while internally not knowing what the hell I’m doing. That’s something that I very much identify with. They offered it to the right guy, because that’s definitely me in far too many situations.
ScreenRant: What was your favorite memory from the recording process, or your favorite aspect about tapping into your inner captain and inner gemologist?
Kimiko Glenn: I just remember leaving the day, being like, “That was so much fun!” It was ridiculous, and it had no business being so funny! Every character has something funny or ridiculous about them that helps endear the audience to them. I was just like, “This is going to be a success.”
Randall Park: It was an adrenaline rush, but I think I came away from each recording session maybe a tiny bit traumatized. There’s something about doing live-action, where you’re in a scene, and then you look around, and there are all these people. You go to craft services, and take a break, you know? Whereas with animation, you’re in a booth, so you’re really just with your imagination and in this like bubble. I feel like all the fear and the high stakes stayed with me, particularly with this show. Each session damaged me, for sure. [Laughs]
Owen Dennis Already Has Ideas For Among Us Season 2 & Beyond
ScreenRant: There has been many a meme referencing the capitalist (or anti-capitalist) themes of Among Us, and the series delves into those in a way that feels particularly relevant. Can you break down Mira HQ’s worldview vs. the crewmates?
Owen Dennis: The worldview of Mira HQ is probably the worldview of every sociopathic company that exists out there right now. They don’t like people! What is the perfect company? The perfect, ideal company is a company that makes nothing, but makes money. It has no employees, except for one, and that’s the CEO. Every company is just trying to be that company. They can never be that company, but they keep trying to be that company. People always say, “Why does nobody care that they’re laying off all these people?” Well, it’s because they’re trying to be the perfect company. Mira is like any one of these horrible companies that we all have to deal with every day, but everyone else is just trying to live their life. We all have to have a job, even though we don’t all want to have a job. That’s just life, unfortunately!
ScreenRant: The cast is stacked. When you were working on the show, was there someone that you wanted from the beginning? Was there someone that you couldn’t believe you got, or were surprised by when you got them?
Owen Dennis: I wanted Elijah pretty early on, and I’ve had conversations with him in the past, so I knew that he was a fan of Infinity Train. I was really thankful when he wanted to jump on. I was also really happy when Ashley Johnson joined. I’ve worked with her a bunch before. Certain characters come up often in certain writers’ work. There is an angry teenage girl who lives in my brain, and she sounds like Ashley Johnson. I’m always like, “Yeah, this would be good, let’s get Ashley Johnson for this character!” That comes up a lot. Dan Stevens was really, really surprising. I first saw him in The Guest, and I was like, “This guy’s awesome.” I was very surprised that not only did he come in, but he just nailed it so hard. He’s like, “Yes, I know how to do the sexy, hot doctor.” But all the actors were so wonderful, and I’m so happy about them.
ScreenRant: The episodes are so fun but so short, and one season doesn’t feel like nearly enough. What is your overall plan for the series?
Owen Dennis: We do definitely know of ways that we can do other seasons, and I would love to have the chance to do that. I think there are ways that people don’t expect other seasons to be done. I would love to do a few seasons. That’d be fun. It’s nice to have shows that have a couple seasons, because it lets you really work out the kinks and get real deep into stuff. That’s why we all like watching shows from the ’90s, where there were 200 episodes. Like, “Yeah, I’ll watch every episode of Xena. This is great.” We love shows that have a nice, long run. They’re fun.
The entirety of Among Us season 1 is available to stream on Paramount+ now!
- Release Date
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June 6, 2026
- Showrunner
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Owen Dennis
- Writers
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Aisha Atherly
- Franchise(s)
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Among Us