Chris Evans Teased Michael Cera After He Revived 'Scott Pilgrim' Cast Email 9 Years Later, Says Creator

Michael Cera might be partly to thank for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly about the upcoming anime series — based on the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World — creator Bryan Lee O'Malley recalled an old email chain that much of the film's principal cast was on during the making of the movie.

"The cast have spoken about this email chain a lot but there's one detail that I don't think anyone has mentioned," said O'Malley, 44. "We were exchanging emails when the movie was coming out and then this thread went dormant for about nine years."

"Then, before this anime was even on the docket, Michael Cera responded to a meme someone had sent as if no time had passed. He just said, 'Oh, that's funny,' " added O'Malley, who also created the Scott Pilgrim graphic-novel series that the film and upcoming series are based on.

One person who responded? Chris Evans, who reprises his role as the villainous Lucas Lee to Cera's titular hero. (The two also later starred together in the play Lobby Hero, which marked Evans' Broadway debut in 2018.)

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"Chris Evans responded like, 'Michael, what the f--- are you doing responding to this email from nine years ago?' And then we all started chatting again," O'Malley said.

And while they "were all pretty young when [they] made the movie," they built bonds that have stood the test of time over the past decade-plus.

"We all felt like family and I think we have ever since," O'Malley told EW.

The Edgar Wright-directed movie follows Toronto teen Scott (Cera, 35) as he travels through a whimsical alternate reality in which he must battle his love interest Ramona Flowers' (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) "seven evil exes" — the second being Evans' Lucas Lee — to the death, defeating them in videogame-style fights, in order to win her heart.

Cera, Evans, 42, and Winstead, 38, all reprise their roles in the animated series — as do the remainder of the main ensemble cast, including Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells, Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim, Brie Larson as Envy Adams, Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers, Brandon Routh as Todd Ingram, Mae Whitman as Roxie Richter, Ellen Wong as Knives Chau and more.

O'Malley will serve as co-showrunner and executive producer for Scott Pilgrim Takes Off alongside BenDavid Grabinski, who's known for Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Abel Góngora of Adventure Time will be the director, and Wright, 49, will also serve as an executive producer.

"One of the proudest and most enjoyable achievements of my career was assembling and working with the dynamite cast of Scott Pilgrim," Wright said in a Netflix press release when the series was first announced in March. "Since the film's release in 2010 we've done Q&As, remembrances and charity read throughs, but there was never the occasion to reunite the whole gang on an actual project. Until now … "

"I'm more than happy to announce that I have helped coax the entire original cast back to voice their characters on this epic new adventure," he added at the time. "You are in for a treat."

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off premieres Nov. 17 on Netflix.