The Blur Studio co-founder and creative director discuss Prime Video’s hit animated anthology series, sharing insights into adapting video game IP, working with global studios, and balancing creative ambition with commercial intent.
From Love, Death & Robots to The Gears of War: E-Day trailer, Blur Studio has built a reputation for producing high-end short form animation, much of it rooted in the video game world. Now, with Prime Video's Secret Level, Blur co-founder Tim Miller and his studio’s longtime creative director Dave Wilson step into a new anthology format, bringing together some of the most iconic and eclectic IP from the gaming world in a series of standalone animated shorts. Created by Miller, the show is executive produced by the pair. Wilson serves as the supervising director. Picked up for a second season a mere week after its debut last December, the show currently streams on Prime Video.
In this in-depth conversation, Miller and Wilson discuss the origins of the project, the complexities of licensing, their approach to visual and narrative diversity, and the delicate balance between commercial appeal and creative ambition.
“The whole foundation of this show is that Blur’s business has been built on doing trailers and cinematics for all these great games for the last 30 years,” says Miller. “So, the first thing we looked at was who would trust us with this crazy idea and jump in with us.”
According to Wilson, the goal was to represent a broad cross-section of the gaming world. “We wanted the series to represent sort of all walks of gaming,” he explains. “AAA titles, indie games, nostalgic favorites. We tried to balance science fiction and fantasy, as well as games that display a variety of animation styles.”
Miller adds that they also considered unreleased games. “Established games, games that are coming to market, nostalgia, and indie,” he summarizes. “Those were our four categories.”
Though assembling the lineup may have seemed daunting, Miller jokes that the initial outreach was simple: “Hey, would you be in our show? Yes. Okay, great. You’re in.” But the underlying process was built on years of relationships. “We called the people we’ve worked with for years. They trust us, and we trust them. And they also happen to control some really great IP.”
From the start, the team also involved top-tier partners. “Aside from Blur, it’s a murderer’s row of the best companies in the business — like Goodbye Kansas, Digic Pictures, Unit Image,” says Miller. “Imagine the reel we cut with all the work of those folks. We’d say, ‘These are the people who are going to be handling your IP.’”
Wilson notes that the challenge wasn’t about proving Blur’s technical capabilities. “The convincing wasn’t like, can Blur deliver the quality? It was more like, how do we collaborate with the game companies and Amazon in a way that stays faithful to the universe that the developers have built?”
According to Wilson, prior work like Love, Death + Robots helped reinforce that Blur could be trusted to handle longform storytelling while preserving creative integrity. “It’s still shorter than features, but longer than the cinematics we’ve done. It’s helped show that we can work in that format.”
Miller and Wilson were both hands-on throughout the process, wearing multiple hats across writing, directing, and producing. “David’s incredibly greedy,” Miller jokes. “He’s like, I want to do this one and I want that one.”
Wilson laughs, “Wait till we have a series about comic books. We’ll see who’s greedy then.” Miller laughs as well, noting, “It’s true. I admire that because as another person who has no social life, I appreciate that feeling of creative greed.”
Despite the playful back-and-forth, their collaboration followed a practical structure. “The nice thing about Dave’s role as supervising director is he gets to mark the ones that he thinks are most suited to him,” says Miller. “And then we try to match directors and studios to the projects based on passion and fit.”
Wilson explains that his role was about guiding without overpowering. “The best part is when something comes in and it’s fantastic — not how you would’ve approached it — and you can just let the process play out. That’s the goal,” he says. “PAC-MAN is a great example. We just sort of stood back and let the directors [Victor Maldonado and Alfredo Torres] do what they do best and the production studio they’re working with do what they do best. Putting something out there and seeing it take on a life of its own. That’s when it goes great.”
“The worst part,” he adds, “is when you have to get in there and shape things more than you’d like. You end up putting pieces of yourself into every episode.”
Miller notes, “On some shows, some people in these positions like to be the savior. They enjoy problems because they can come in and fix them. We’re not like that. We’re not the types who enjoy that. We like to be shown something and just say, ‘Oh fuck, that looks great.’ When Dave showed me his Warhammer short, I said, ‘I got nothing. It looks amazing. Nothing to add.”
Wilson then quips, “We are sort of incredibly lazy by nature and so we like to do nothing whenever we can.”
The directors worked closely with multiple outside studios. “You get a sense of selflessness when you cast all these other companies that are normally your competitors, but over the years have become your friends,” says Miller. “You know what they’re interested in. Like Maxim [Luère] at Unit — Dungeons and Dragons is his passion project.”
Wilson emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive environment. “It always feels like a failure when you have to roll your sleeves up,” he says. “Maybe we didn’t do a good enough job on the script. Or we weren’t clear enough on the goal of the piece. I take that as a lesson on myself — how can we help our directors be better without us having to strong-arm anything?”
Secret Level features an extensive and impressive voice cast, including actors like Kevin Hart, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, and Gabriel Luna. Miller attributes their participation to past relationships and the reputation of Love, Death + Robots. “You’ll notice how many of these actors appeared in movies or shows I worked on,” Miller says.
He continues, “Kevin Hart was in Borderlands. His daughter Heaven was also involved. Keanu came in for a meeting and was a big fan of Love, Death & Robots. We couldn’t put him in that because it was done, but we had this new project.”
“It’s super helpful that a lot of directors and movie stars watch animation, and they know that we’re doing this for the love of the art and it’s not some type of cash grab,” Miller adds.
Wilson notes, “Tim and I are usually there for the voice records. When Arnold came in, Tim ran that one. Keanu shot on a performance capture stage with us. We try to be there for as much as we can.”
Miller adds, “Arnold’s really funny. We had Gabe Luna there too — he was the evil Terminator in the film I did. Having the two Terminators together again was kind of fun. They get along great.”
While some viewers have suggested Secret Level feels like a marketing effort, Miller and Wilson acknowledge the commercial aspect without apology. “People write, ‘It feels like they’re trying to sell us games.’ And we say, ‘Duh. Yeah, we are,’” says Miller. “Because that’s how we get to make this stuff. But you can still hope to sell games and create art.”
“Movie theaters sell popcorn,” Miller adds. “But that doesn’t disqualify the films.”
Wilson agrees, noting that the stigma is often unique to adaptations of games or toy properties. “That kind of criticism feels uniquely aimed at gaming-based or branded content. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be meaningful. The Minecraft Movie was selling more than just popcorn too.”
With the first season complete and a second in the works, Miller and Wilson are already considering what’s next. “We want this to continue,” says Wilson. “We want more IPs, more directors, more voices.”
The series stands as a unique intersection of animation, gaming, and anthology storytelling. “If we can show people what’s possible with this format,” says Miller, “then it’s worth it.”
Secret Level is now streaming on Prime Video.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
