'Time Bandits' show reinvigorates Monty Python film with Lisa Kudrow-led ensemble

LOS ANGELES — Adapting a cult-classic film into a television series is a daunting task, but for Lisa Kudrow and her collaborators on “Time Bandits,” that challenge just meant there was more room for exploration.

“The series version of a film means you’re gonna expand and really go into some more details about that world, and that’s what I was excited about,” Kudrow said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “It was really fun.”

“Time Bandits,” an Apple TV+ series that begins streaming July 24, is based on the 1981 film of the same name directed by Monty Python's Terry Gilliam and co-written by him and frequent collaborator Michael Palin. Both the film and the series follow a ragtag band of time-traveling thieves, led by Kudrow as Penelope, who join forces with their newest recruit — an 11-year-old history buff named Kevin — as they journey through time on a quest to save the boy’s parents from evil forces.

While the series stays loyal to several key details and bits from the source material, Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, who created the series with Iain Morris, said it was important to them that the show didn’t feel like an imitation of the film.

“We had to be different as not to just be thieving or tracing over what they had,” Clement said.

In the biggest departure from the original film, the bandits are not played by actors with dwarfism — a move that the duo said was swiftly criticized by the dwarfism community when the casting was announced early in the show’s development. Abbie Purvis, the granddaughter of original film actor Jack Purvis, took to TikTok to condemn the casting choice, saying "for a generation that is so big on talking about inclusivity and diversity and making sure that everyone’s heard, this whole casting choice just seems absurd.”

Waititi said he and his co-writers initially wrote the script with some of the main cast as people with dwarfism but he doesn’t think the film “should be defined because of the presence of little people in it.”

They ultimately went with different actors. Clement said the creative team wrestled with the casting decision, referencing “two big sides of this debate”: “Whether it’s right to stereotype little people as magical creatures, and then also whether, by not doing that, you’re cutting out jobs for smaller actors.”

Following the casting announcement, Clement said they “reacted to those complaints and added parts for some smaller actors,” saying that should the series be renewed for a second season, those roles would be more prominently featured.

Waititi and Clement both appear in the series themselves in recurring roles. The duo is known for their work on “What We Do in the Shadows” — a movie and FX series — and Waititi has also directed and appeared in major films, including “Jojo Rabbit” and two “Thor” movies.

The child actor who holds the show together as Kevin is Kal-El Tuck, who had appeared in a handful of short films before he was cast as the series' leading character. He said he didn’t watch the original film as he didn’t want it to color his performance.

“I wanted to be my Kevin, no one else’s Kevin,” Tuck said. “I wanted to be my way of doing Kevin.”

Kudrow praised her young co-star, calling him a “giving actor” and noting that many of the quips and much of the banter among the bandits were improvised. The “Friends” alum also said she was initially nervous to work on the project.

“I was, of course, scared, like ‘Uh oh, they’ll think they made a mistake,’ because you can’t help it, you have that insecurity, and ‘Do I have the right tone for this?’ and all of that, but it was just fun,” Kudrow said, noting that she felt like she was “playing” while on set.

While it does stray from the beloved film, “Time Bandits” brings the story to a new generation and strives to honor the original’s humor and heart.

“There’s always a pressure of making anything, but we don’t want to anger fans of the original movie, of course,” Clement said before Waititi quipped: “We’re scared of fans.”