When the first Volume of Love, Death + Robots premiered on Netflix in 2019, it quickly drew attention for its genre-bending spin on animation for adults. The series maintains a formula where every volume is a collection of short independent films addressing themes of science fiction, fantasy, humor, and horror. Three years since its last season, Love, Death + Robots is returning with its long-awaited Volume 4.
After Love, Death + Robots' Emmy Award count reached 13 with Vol. 3, which included some iconic episodes like "Jibaro," the expectations for Volume 4 grew exponentially. The fourth season was announced in 2022, but it is finally landing on the small screen on May 15, 2025. Vol. 4 promises 10 animated shorts of various lengths by eight different studios in classic LDR style. To discuss the show's evolution over the years, The Best War Games recently spoke with some of the directors behind Vol. 4, including executive producer Tim Miller, supervising director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, and director Robert Valley.
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How Love, Death + Robots Has Grown Over the Seasons
Robert Valley is back for Love, Death + Robots Vol. 4, directing his third short for the anthology series titled "400 Boys," based on the story of the same name by author Marc Laidlaw. Valley shared that he had recently revisited previous LDR seasons and, to him, Vol. 4 in particular gives the impression that the show is developing collectively. This new selection of stories and animation styles is varied enough to follow LDR's signature formula. "It's going to be a good watch for sure," he added.
Like in Valley's case, LDR Vol. 4 brings back quite a few directors from earlier seasons. Among them is Jennifer Yuh Nelson, in charge of directing the "Spider Rose" episode while also acting as supervising director for the whole Volume. In Yuh Nelson's view, every season of Love, Death + Robots has its own personality, but there is an element of growth when it comes to returning directors, who take what they've learned from working on other projects.
Even the people that are coming back, I think, are learning from previous shows that they did. It's just neat to see what they're capable of now.
As she explained, every year, veteran LDR directors come back with improved skills, new methods, and new technological assets to apply to the series. To Yuh Nelson, seeing how they experiment with their evolving abilities is "part of the journey." Executive producer and series creator Tim Miller agreed with the thought that LDR has developed gradually with each season. Though he was surprised that it took the show four Volumes to add a story about defeating Nazis, referring to the episode "How Zeke Got Religion" directed by Diego Porral. Miller commented that it was his personal goal to add "Nazi death" at some point, and now it's been fulfilled.
Miller directs two shorts for Volume 4, one of which is "Golgotha," the second short film in the entire Love, Death + Robots series to combine animation VFX with live-action. The producer said that LDR's growth can be seen from a maturing perspective:
I would say that Volume 1 feels like it was done by a 13-year-old boy. And Volume 4, or maybe two, three, and four, you can see that boy grow up, get a girlfriend, and realize that he has to behave slightly better and more intelligently.
To Miller, Love, Death + Robots may not be done growing. "We're 16 now," he said. "Still plenty of stupid left, but trying to get smarter." Whether LDR could have more seasons remains to be seen, but Miller admits that the way the show chooses its next stories could be affected by the evolution of real-life issues, such as artificial intelligence. While it is a recurring theme in LDR, Miller recognizes that the current rise of AI differs from what sci-fi authors and he himself had imagined. He explained that, if Love, Death + Robots were to do certain AI stories in the future, "what's happening right now will affect which stories we choose and how we tell them."
- Release Date
- March 15, 2019
- Network
- Netflix
- Directors
- Víctor Maldonado, Patrick Osborne, Robert Valley, Alfredo Torres Martínez, Jerome Chen, Emily Dean, Rémi Kozyra, Léon Bérelle, Dominique Boidin, Alberto Mielgo, Maxime Luère, Andy Lyon, Robert Bisi, Dave Wilson, David Nicolas, Simon Otto, Damian Nenow, Laurent Nicolas, Kevin Van Der Meiren, Vitaliy Shushko, Owen Sullivan, István Zorkóczy, Javier Recio Gracia, Oliver Thomas
- Writers
- Tim Miller, Philip Gelatt
Cast
-
Bruce Thomas(voice) -
Jane LeevesUncredited
WHERE TO WATCH
- Creator(s)
- Tim Miller
