Freddy Funko is the iconic mascot of the Funko brand, a benevolent figure with an endless creative mind and a love for all of his fellow POPs from dozens of iconic IPs. But there can be no light without darkness, and, in the action-adventure gameFunko Fusion,Freddy must face down his villainous doppelgänger, Eddy Funko. Eddy is an original character created by theFunko Fusionteam and has joined the lineup of official figures, including receiving a physical POP of his own.
The 10:10 Games team—including design director and head of publishing Arthur Parsons, lead designer Wil Evans, lead character artist Sean Dudley, and animation director Andy Dolan—spoke with Game Rant about the process of designing the game’s villain and the honor of getting to add a new figure to the Funko canon. They discussed thesurprisingGreaseinspirationbehind Eddy’s design, how the character uses his possession powers to take overFunko Fusion’sother characters,and more. They also hinted that Eddy Funko has a deep backstory that players will learn as they play throughFunko Fusion,of course without going into spoilers.This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Eddy Funko’s Villain Origin Story
Q: Can you talk a little bit about how Eddy Funko came about and any iterations he went through?
Dudley:For Eddy Funko, we went through quite a few iterations between Funko, the 10:10 character team, and the 10:10 concept team. We got a brief from Funko about how they compared Freddy andEddy to characters like Superman and Bizarro. We took inspiration from ’60s Americana. In my head I always thought about the outfits from the movieGreaseas inspiration. Some initial designs looked more like a high-school jock, but going back and forth with Funko, we eventually settled on more of a cool biker guy design, going with a messy slicked back hairstyle and cool biker jacket with his own Eddy logo on the back, while still keeping a little of bit Freddy by retaining his classic bow tie.
Dolan:We were given the brief to make an evil,corrupted version of Freddywith this character, and it was great to reflect that in his movements in a fun, over-the-top way. A lot of his posing involves him hunching over, wringing his hands together, or generally looking like he’s up to no good. Even when walking and running around, he leans forward with his arms outstretched like a cartoon villain chasing someone down a corridor.
Q: How did you settle on an “Evil twin” approach for Eddy?
Parsons:Thedevelopment of Eddywas a whole lot of fun, and Eddy is the polar opposite of Freddy. I don’t want to spoil him or his backstory for players, so I’ll leave this as something for players to experience themselves. Needless to say, Eddy is an awesome character, and players will understand what he symbolizes when they play the game.
Q: What was it like working with actor Clancy Brown as the voice of Eddy?
Parsons:We’ve been fortunate to work withClancyin the past, and he is an incredible voice actor. When we were developing Eddy and coming up with his story and personality, Clancy was the first name that came to our minds, and he has done a terrific job – as he always does.
Eddy Funko’s Mysterious Powers
Q: How did Eddy’s possession power develop or change throughout his initial concepts? How did you come up with the designs for the characters possessed by Eddy?
Dudley:We tweaked certain aspects ofEddy’s possessionthroughout the course of the development, based on the story. We worked on several designs with the Funko team to come up with a possessed state for Eddy. We wanted to keep the characters' original form but use Eddy’s color palette and crazy eyes, taking these loved and recognized characters and Eddyfying them.
Q: Eddy appears to be the connective tissue of the various IPs inFunko Fusion. How did that “connective tissue” play into the development of the story?
Evans:We knew we wanted the players to get to experience iconic moments of these IPs, but we also wanted to tell our own story that could tie it all together. Eddy is the prime mover for the chaos that ensues in all the worlds we visit. It’s our own little twist and way of weaving our story into what has already been established. So, for example, it is Eddy who starts the destruction and mayhem at the start ofJurassic World, which allows us to tell the story as it happens, but still keep our thread running through it all, allowing us to tell a story above the story as it were.
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