Creature Commandos has been splitting its time as of late between the past and present. Its recent episodes have both propelled the show’s present-day plot forward and also explored the pasts of characters like The Bride (Indira Varma) and G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn), offering new insights into the tragic events that shaped their identities and led them to their current circumstances. Creature Commandos‘ fourth and most recent episode, “Chasing Squirrels,” does the same for Weasel (also Sean Gunn) — revealing the horrifying reasons the character was incorrectly blamed for the deaths of multiple schoolchildren.
The episode refrains from explaining what Weasel is or how the character came to be, but it doesn’t shy away from the gruesome and tragic details of the “crime” that turned him into a full-blown monster in society’s eyes. In an interview with Variety, Creature Commandos creator and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn reflected on the episode, which is emotionally and narratively dark, even by the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 filmmaker’s standards.
“I get really sad talking about it,” Gunn told the outlet. “I remember finishing [writing] it. I was in Colorado with my wife, and I remember I said, ‘I think I just wrote the saddest thing that I’ve ever written in my entire life.’”
Creature Commandos viewers are forced to watch in the final third of “Chasing Squirrels” as Weasel tries and ultimately fails to save the lives of the kids who innocently befriended him earlier in the episode. His failure and his subsequent, undeserved persecution make Weasel the latest misunderstood misfit that Gunn, who harbors a deep love for society’s outcasts, has gone out of his way to spotlight onscreen.
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“At the end of the day, [Weasel], in a lot of ways, is the most noble character in the show,” he argues. “This is a pretty innocent creature who is treated like something else because he looks different than other people.” Speaking more with Variety, Gunn went on to tease how Weasel’s past will inform and influence the events of Creature Commandos‘ remaining installments.
“You’ll see everything with his backstory come into play in the later episodes,” the filmmaker promises. “If you talk about the characters existing on some sort of continuum from good to bad, he’s pretty much on the good side.”
New episodes of Creature Commandos premiere Thursdays on Max.