David Fincher and the genre-bending return of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS

Scott Huver
Photos: Charley Gallay (Getty Images/Netflix)
May 5, 2025
Gold Derby

“For my money, it’s like LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS should be anything. Anything that you can’t figure out where else it goes,” legendary filmmaker David Fincher mused about the unconventional, sci-fi/cyberpunk-flavored Netflix (mostly) animated anthology series. It’s as apt a description as any for the ambitious, experimental, and genre-bending project, now launching its fourth season.

“Creativity happens on the fringe,” said Fincher — the director behind boundary-pushing cinematic classics like SevenFight ClubThe Social NetworkGone Girl, and Zodiac. Speaking on stage at the LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS season premiere at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, he was joined by fellow executive producer Tim Miller (Deadpool) and supervising producer Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2 & 3), and the host, director Guillermo del Toro. “It always does, and it always takes somebody — it has to be these weird flyers out there — to inform where the industry is going to go. So we’re just going to be out there.”

“Out there” also aptly describes Fincher’s contribution to the new season as a director. Having launched his career as an in-demand music video director for top artists in the ’80s and ’90s — including MadonnaMichael Jackson, the Rolling StonesStingGeorge MichaelAerosmithNine Inch Nails, and Paula Abdul — Fincher returned to those roots to helm Can’t Stop. The dynamic, fully CGI-animated short features the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing their 2002 hit at an Irish castle—as marionettes on strings.

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The event was recorded by Netflix, so a video should be available soon.

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