How Solar Opposites' Silvercops Story Brought Fast & Furious to Season 4
Solar Opposites wears its love for Fast & Furious on its sleeve with an action-packed B-story starring Succession's Kieran Culkin.
From E.T. to Jingle All the Way, Solar Opposites has never shied away from referencing popular movies and franchises. The series takes its love of pop culture to a new level in Season 4, thanks to its standalone Silvercops storyline, which is in some ways an ode to the Fast & Furious films. Like the beloved Wall saga, Silvercops is another B-story in Solar Opposites that follows a seemingly one-off character into an action-packed adventure, completely removed from Korvo, Terry, and the rest of the family.
Silvercops debuted in Season 3 with a character named Glen, who is voiced by Succession Emmy-nominee Kieran Culkin. Glen, a one-time neighbor of the Opposites, is sent into space for his neighborhood disruptions, where he links up with an intergalactic police force known as Silvercops. A very average human with an above average love of The Fast and the Furious, Glen joins the ranks of the Silvercops, only to realize that their intentions are much darker than they let on.
The Silvercops story in Season 4 (which spans two different episodes) picks up with Glen left for dead on an unknown planet, on the run from the abusive organization. This chapter of the saga is also where his Fast & Furious love is really brought to the forefront. In every perilous situation, Glen thinks about what Dominic Toretto and his "Familia" would do. In one scene from the new season, which you can watch in the clip above, Glen tries to escape a poison gas while trying to remember which Fast & Furious movie had a similar plot line, so he could figure out how to survive.
The nods to Fast & Furious dive even deeper later in that same episode, as Glen has a vision of Dom that reminds him family can be found in the most unexpected places. He mentions a 13th installment in the series that sends Dom and the family underwater to Atlantis, and it's hard not to hope that the real movie franchise eventually does just that.
Silver Cops Mirrors the First Fast & Furious in Season 4
Without giving too much away for those who haven't watched the new season yet, Glen's journey in the two Silvercops episodes actually mirrors the story of Brian in The Fast and the Furious. He was a Silvercop at one time, and his newfound family of criminals can't know about it under any circumstance. He's constantly hiding who he is in order to keep his head above water.
Solar Opposites producer Sydney Ryan spoke with ComicBook.com via email about the Silvercops saga, and its parallels to Fast & Furious. As it turns out, the ties to Brian's journey in the first Fast movie were something of a beautiful coincidence, and there's always a chance other Fast & Furious stories could be used in future seasons.
"Honestly, I think that may have been a coincidence. With the Silvercops, [executive producer] Mike [McMahan] has been going for a big mixture of crooked cop movies and television shows while adding heightened sci-fi elements, but since the first Fast and Furious movie was kind of a cop Point Break type story, it's not surprising that there are parallels," Ryan explained. "That being said, I don't know what exactly is going on in Mike's head, so that certainly could be a possibility!"
Casting Kieran Cullkin as Glen
Ryan also opened up about bringing on Kieran Culkin to lead the Silvercops story on Solar Opposites. He has the perfect kind of range to make a character like Glen feel like a real person, while also anchoring a story that calls for a ton of different things.
"Kieran is just an amazing actor," she said. "He's super funny but he can also play pathetic if it calls for it and then switch to heartfelt. We've loved working with him, and it's been really great having him play a heel who is slowly learning how to be a hero...possibly...we shall see. We are all big fans of his previous work and I think shooting him into space was a really fun choice by the writers."
Fast & Furious Family Joining the Cast?
Dominic Toretto shows up in Season 4 of Solar Opposites, but it shouldn't be surprising to know that Vin Diesel didn't voice the character (he's brought to life by voice acting legend Dee Bradley Baker). Of course, Ryan and the team aren't turning down an opportunity to work with any members of the Fast & Furious cast as the Silvercops story continues.
"Especially with Jason Momoa in the mix now," Ryan told us. "Also, how cool would it be to get to work with The Rock! Josh Bycel is a mega-fan of The Fast and the Furious franchise and I'm sure he would jump at the chance to cast one of the 'Familia.'"
The Future of the Silver Cops
Again, we don't want to give too much away here (the entire season is available right now on Hulu), but there is absolutely more story to tell with Glen and the Silvercops. The ninth episode of the new season, "Down and Out on Planet X-Non," is entirely dedicated to the Silvercops story and it ends with a pretty massive cliffhanger. As Ryan mentioned, there's a lot in store for Glen as he reaches something of a crossroads in his journey.
Is he following in Dom's footsteps and building his own Familia? Solar Opposites has already been renewed for Season 5, so we're sure to get more of an answer not too far down the road. For now, we'll have to be happy watching Glen's story a quarter-mile at a time.
You can watch all four seasons of Solar Opposites exclusively on Hulu. The show's third holiday special, a Valentine's Day-themed episode, will be released in 2024.
