Dragon Striker Creators Talk Disney+’s Unique Fantasy Soccer TV Show

(Photo Credit: Disney+)

Dragon Striker creators Sylvain Dos Santos and Charles Lefebvre spoke with ComingSoon’s Tyler Treese about the new animated soccer TV show. They discussed what sets it apart from other animated soccer shows, their five-year plan for the series, and more. It debuts today on Disney XD ahead of its June 10 streaming arrival on Disney+.

“In a world where sports and magic combine, farm boy Key discovers his ultra-powerful natural talent and learns he could be the legendary Dragon Striker. Set at Kal Asterock, an elite school for students who wield a magical energy called Tama, Key joins goalkeeper Ssyelle on a scrappy new team to challenge the school champions. As he struggles with the raging dragon inside him and Ssyelle fights to hold her team together, they learn dark secrets of the past and uncover an ancient evil,” says the official synopsis.

Tyler Treese: Sylvain, there’s a long history of soccer anime such as Inazuma Eleven, Captain Tsubasa, and, more recently, Blue Lock. This obviously has a fantasy element, but how did you make sure Dragon Striker brought something new to the table? I know the matches are much faster-paced than some other shows, for example.

Sylvain Dos Santos: Well, that’s a good question. I’m not sure we thought about it in that way, but the idea was really to create a sports show built inside a fantasy universe. That was the first building block of the creation.

Unlike something like Final Fantasy X, for example, or — this is where everybody realizes I’m super old — I remember this anime called Cobra. I don’t know if you got that in the U.S. It’s about a space pirate with a cannon for an arm.

Tyler Treese: Space Adventure Cobra. I love that, yeah.

Dos Santos: Yeah. There’s an arc in Cobra where he joins a baseball team, and it’s very different from the rest of the story. I think it’s only two or three episodes, but it really stuck with people. Everybody wanted a whole show about that special version of baseball.

I think Dragon Striker is probably about that idea — being inside a universe that isn’t about sports, but where the show itself is about the sport of that universe.

Tyler Treese: Charles, beyond the great action we see on the football field, we also have so much world-building. What was most satisfying about creating this world of Asteria and getting to view it from different angles? I think that really sets the show apart as well.

Charles Lefebvre: Thank you. I think one of the biggest things is that whenever I create a story or a world, it’s what I spend the most time on. That’s actually why most of my projects never come to life.

I love creating a lot of things around a story to make sure everything belongs to something larger. Back when I was younger, I had a lot of projects where I’d keep asking, “What if this?” and “What if that?” You build so much that the project becomes too big and never gets finished.

With this one, it felt like the biggest opportunity to put everything I love into a single project. I draw constantly, and I have so many ideas from different projects that never came out. I was like, “Okay, let’s put a big part of myself into this project.” That’s really how Dragon Striker came alive.

Tyler Treese: Sylvain, I wanted to ask you about that sense of world-building because it essentially allows you to tell endless stories. How do you balance wanting to tell the best story possible in Season 1 while also incorporating small details and teases for the larger world that might pay off years down the line if you get more seasons?

Sylvain Dos Santos: Yeah, that’s the most difficult part because you have this temptation to put everything into Season 1 since you never know if you’ll get a Season 2. But you can’t do that. I have to say Disney has been really helpful with that because they were like, “Chill, guys. You can’t put everything into this season.”

We’ve thought about the story of Key and the Knights as something that could span five seasons. Everything is set up with that in mind. But for this season, it was really about Key and his mother, so we focused heavily on that.

At the same time, you have characters like Lin who bring more lore and backstory into the world as the story progresses. There are little Easter eggs everywhere. It’s really difficult because Charles and I love telling stories and building universes, so we want everybody to know everything as soon as possible. But we’ve learned patience on this project.

Tyler Treese: There’s a pretty unique release schedule. It’s getting a marathon on Disney XD and then dropping on Disney+ and Hulu the next day in America. What does it mean for you to have your art reaching millions of people through streaming and debuting on such a large platform?

Charles Lefebvre: It’s kind of intimidating, I guess. Most of the projects we’ve done at the studio have been for local broadcasters, with distribution in different territories around the world, but usually in a more localized way.

With the power of Disney bringing it to a worldwide platform, it feels a little strange. It’s the first time that, before a show’s release, I’ve had this level of anticipation. I’m constantly looking to see if people have seen anything yet, whether there are any leaks, what reactions might be out there.

We’re trying to be patient because we’ve put a lot of love and energy into this project. It was a four-year production, and the creation of the world goes back even further — about ten years for Sylvain and eight years for me. Now we’re at the point where it’s finally going to be released to everyone, and we can’t wait to see if what we’ve cooked is good in the mouth — if it’s tasty or not [laughs].

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Thanks to Sylvain Dos Santos and Charles Lefebvre for taking the time to talk about Dragon Striker.

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