The highly anticipated fourth Volume of Love, Death + Robots is launching on Netflix on May 15, ending a three-year-long wait. The 13-time Emmy-winning animated anthology series is back with 10 new short films combining sci-fi, fantasy, and dark humor in classic LDR style.

Like in previous seasons, Love, Death + Robots Vol. 4 gathers talent from multiple studios and directors from around the globe, with some making their debut in the show while others are returning veterans. To name a few, Patrick Osborne, who directed Vol. 3's fan-favorite episode "Three Robots: Exit Strategies," is back to direct a new story about intelligent household appliances named "Smart Appliances, Stupid Owners." Similarly, Diego Porral, who led the animation of the iconic LDR short "Kill Team Kill," is now in charge of directing "How Zeke Got Religion," a tale about battling Nazis in World War Two. To learn more about how Love, Death + Robots decides the right returning directors for new stories, The Best War Games spoke to series supervising director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, executive producer and series creator Tim Miller, and director Robert Valley.

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By Eduardo Ariedo

The Familiar Names Directing Love, Death + Robots Vol. 4

According to supervising director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who is also directing her third LDR short in Vol. 4 with "Spider Rose," the final selection of invited directors results in a "mix-and-match" of new and familiar names. But when deciding which veteran directors were to come back, it came down to the trust they already had in them after seeing what they were capable of in previous seasons.

We worked with some really amazing directors and really amazing studios. So it was a case of, well, we already have this great relationship with them, so why not come back and let them do something crazier or newer?

Yuh Nelson posed the example of Robert Valley's third directing role in LDR with the Vol. 4 episode "400 Boys," based on the short story written by Marc Laidlaw. In her opinion, each of Valley's LDR shorts is "utterly different from the other," and she worried that this new tale might be "unfilmable." However, she shared that Valley ended up creating a stunning, action-packed version of it.

Valley agreed that "400 Boys" was a challenging episode, but took some inspiration from live-action films like The Warriors and City of God to execute the episode as best as possible. "I definitely didn't want to disappoint anybody," he said. The director also shared that his inclusion in Vol. 4 may not have happened if not for an accidental, yet fortunate, encounter with executive producer Tim Miller in Vancouver.

He was here for an event, and we ended up having a drink together, and that's the first time I've actually sat across from him, face to face. And he says: ‘We got another season of Love, Death and Robots coming up. You want to do an episode?’ I said: ‘Sure.’ But maybe if I hadn't seen him, I might not have come up in this crop of shorts.

Valley emphasized how glad he was to return to Love, Death + Robots after four years. Meanwhile, Tim Miller himself is also directing two shorts for season 4, making him a four-time director on the series.

How Love, Death + Robots Vol. 4 Selected a Star-Studded Voice Cast

Aside from experienced directors, fans can also look forward to Volume 4's impressive voice cast. In the past, Love, Death + Robots has featured some major talent in its credits, and its upcoming season seems to follow these steps with names like John Boyega, John Oliver, MrBeast, and more. "Some of them are Tim's friends," mentioned Yuh Nelson.

Tim Miller also attributed Love, Death + Robots Vol. 4's star-studded cast to casting director Ivy Isenberg's achievements. On the other hand, Miller added the importance of working with great actors who are not only capable and right for the role but can also draw fans in. "So you have a few movie stars in there," he stated.

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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