Is CROSSING SWORDS the Successor to GAME OF THRONES? Stars of the Stop-Motion Series Ponder the Power of Peg Pals!

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede A challenge was issued to Seth Green, Breckin Meyer, and Yvette Nicole Brown, three of the many stars lending their voices to the new stop-motion series CROSSING SWORDS. Would any of them be willing to declare that CROSSING SWORDS is the natural comic successor to GAME OF THRONES? A little background: CROSSING SWORDS, which debuts Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on CTV Comedy Channel and Crave, is from the team behind the EMMY®-winning ROBOT CHICKEN. Following the foibles of a good-hearted peasant named Patrick (voiced by Nicholas Hoult) in a Medieval world of kings, queens, jousters, jesters, wizards, and squires, CROSSING SWORDS is populated with “peg pals,” which many people remember as beloved childhood toys. But just to be clear, CROSSING SWORDS is definitely for adults! Hearing extreme and outrageous things coming from the mouths of “peg pals” is a good chunk of the fun. So during a virtual interview with Green (who voices a wizard named Blinkerquartz), Meyer (who voices Glenn, Patrick’s father), and Brown (who voices Sgt. Meghan, trainer of the knights), it was jokingly suggested that if any of them would state for the record that CROSSING SWORDS is the natural comic successor to GAME OF THRONES (available for streaming on Crave), it would make for a great story, and headline. All three laughed. Green tried to take the diplomatic approach at first. “I watched all of GAME OF THRONES, and I really loved it,” he said. “I don’t know that this is directly derivative, or in any way a natural evolution of that. I think this is a totally different type of entertainment that just has a little bit of overlap in the environment.” Meyer and Brown, however, dived right in, with no hesitation. “I think this is the successor to GAME OF THRONES,” Meyer said. “I believe that this is the natural successor to GAME OF THRONES,” Brown confirmed. All three laughed again, and Green – perhaps emboldened by his cast-mates – jumped into the fray as well. “Well, as far as global popularity and industry awards? Yeah, 100%, we’re going to beat GAME OF THRONES,” Green said. “What did they win, like, 170 EMMYS? We’ll shatter that record.” According to the EMMYS website, GAME OF THRONES collected 160 nominations and 59 wins. Nonetheless, Green’s point was understood. Green went on to analyze the storytelling link between GAME OF THRONES and CROSSING SWORDS – which also features the voices of Tony Hale, Adam Pally, Alanna Ubach, Adam Ray, Tara Strong, Luke Evans, and Wendi McLendon-Covey – in a more serious manner. “I love the ever evolving sophistication of the audience, and the more the audience is comfortable with a particular environment or method, the less any new storyteller needs to do to set the table,” Green explained. “With something like CROSSING SWORDS, the audience is so savvy about the basics of a feudal environment, what it is to have a kingdom, these kinds of dynamics between the royalty and the people, or dragons, and wizards. We’re already primed as an audience to receive stuff in that world. It makes it easier for us to tell a more complicated joke with less explanation. So definitely, thank you so much, GAME OF THRONES, for giving us the ability to tell these kinds of jokes.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv