Son of Zorn might be largely set in Orange County, but it establishes a decidedly more fantastical world from the get-go in its pilot. The show's titular barbarian hails from the land of Zephyria, an island animated nation which, according to executive producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, exists "under the 'A' in the Pacific Ocean."
Zephryia is a realm straight out of '80s action cartoons, comparable to He-Man's Eternia, and much of the fun of Son of Zorn is seeing those fantastical elements meld with our own more mundane world. The second episode of the show sees Zorn using the Stone of Sight to help his son Alangulon get the girl he's been pining after, though the episode is also loaded plenty of nods to other Zephryian secrets waiting to be discovered.
Lord and Miller credit Zephyria feeling like a fantasy realm you want to explore to Son of Zorn creators Eli Jorne and Reed Agnew, who "really took the world of Zephyria seriously." "They figured out who Lord Volgizor was and what they wanted and what the world of it was," said Miller. "In order to be able to not talk about it, you have to know what that stuff is so it can leak in. You build a crazy, giant universe and then you only see little windows of it."
It's a universe that the cast members had still only seen little windows of when they were filming the final episode of Season 1. Because Zorn is an animated character and voice actor Jason Sudeikis records his dialogue after the scenes get filmed, the stars of Son of Zorn have spent most of their time acting against a stand-in. Zorn's world is as much a mystery to them as it is the viewer, and that's what they consider much of the fun of the show.
The Zephyrian storylines get sprinkled into Son of Zorn's first season, like with the Stone of Sight playing a major plot point in "Defender of Teen Love." Later in the season, one of Zorn's Zephyrian friends comes to visit only for everyone to realize he has a drinking problem, so the episode becomes about alcoholism; another sees Zorn getting angry after a sitcom makes fun of Zephyria in an especially meta moment. It's gotten to the point that even the cast members sometimes need extra insight to make sense of how a Zephryian fits into our world -- something the writers are always able to deliver.
"There's points in the show where we need to ask the writers about logic questions, like can they break laws in America? You can't kill something. [Zorn] can -- and he doesn't kill any human beings, but he talks about it, because in Zephyria you can," explained Tim Meadows, who plays the new fiance of Zorn's ex-wife.
The balance of Orange County storylines to Zephyrian ones changes episode-to-episode, but Artemis Pebdani, who plays Zorn's boss Linda, feels the show pops the more it gets to know Zorn. "After you really get introduced to the characters, you get to also experience the quirks of Zorn," she said. "We haven't been to his homeland -- I wouldn't say yet. What if that happens? It's got to."
Son of Zorn airs Sundays at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.
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