Scavengers Reign is an American adult animated science fiction television series created by Joe Bennett and Charles Huettner for the streaming service Max, based on their 2016 short film Scavengers.
Max announced the series in June 2022 and it premiered on October 19, 2023. The show received critical acclaim for the acting, plot, animation, and atmosphere. In May 2024, the series was canceled after one season and acquired by Netflix, which also decided not to renew it.
The series follows the survivors of the damaged interstellar cargo ship Demeter 227 who are stranded on Vesta, an alien planet bustling with flora and fauna but filled with dangers. Initially the survivors are separated into three groups: commander Sam and horticulturalist Ursula, cargo specialist Azi and her robot companion Levi, and the isolated crewman Kamen, who travels with a telepathic creature named Hollow. Local life displays unusual complexity, symbiotic levels and extraordinary life cycles. Usual borders between plants, animal, intelligence and highly organized life are unclear. Over time, the survivors' paths converge towards the crash-landed Demeter.
Joe Bennett and Charles Huettner created the original 2016 Scavengers short film for Adult Swim, where it aired as part of the Toonami block. The eight-minute animated short, with backgrounds inspired by Moebius, contains no dialog and depicts a pair of humans engaging in an intricate series of interactions, like a Rube Goldberg machine, with the planet's lifeforms. From 2018 to 2019, Bennett and Huettner expanded the concept into a series pilot that did not go forward at Adult Swim, though the show was later picked up by HBO Max. The 12-episode series was produced over two years by Titmouse, Inc. and Green Street Pictures with a crew including international animators working remotely from locations including Mexico, Spain, Portugal and France.
Max announced the series in June 2022 and it premiered on October 19, 2023. Three episodes were released weekly until November 9, 2023. The show received critical acclaim for the acting, plot, animation and atmosphere. In May 2024, the series was canceled by Max after one season. Netflix acquired the first season, which was released on the platform on May 31 in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand. Netflix reportedly considered renewing the series, but in November 2024, Bennett confirmed that this would not be the case.
The series has received critical acclaim. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has a 100% approval score with an average rating of 8.7/10, based on 22 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Disturbing and wondrous, Scavengers Reign presents a vividly realized world that beckons exploration by its marooned characters and television viewers alike." James Poniewozik of The New York Times called it "a lush, magnificent, hypnotic story of human survival in a place that feels, in a way that sci-fi planets only occasionally manage, truly otherworldly." Andrew Webster of The Verge deemed it to be "equal parts beautiful and brutal, and it might be the most original piece of science fiction of the year", and compared the art style to Jean "Moebius" Giraud."
For the 76th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, the series was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program and won an Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation for background design.