By the end of the third movie, were you and Robert Zemeckis finished with Marty and Doc? Was the story over, or could you see ways to continue it, beyond the TV cartoon or the theme park ride or whatever?
Yes, the story’s over. That’s why it says “The End.” As far as the Marty/Doc Brown story goes, yeah. It’s done. As you pointed out, we did the cartoon series, and the cartoon series is a rip on the themes and the spirit of the movies, and it’s a different medium, and I’m very proud of that series. I think there are some great episodes, and it did what we wanted it to do. And now, Back To The Future is going into the videogame medium; Telltale Games are working on a Back To The Future game, again, it’s not to be considered Back To The Future Part IV – It’s taking the concepts of Back To The Future and translating it into the game world. and the good news is that the guys working on the game are big fans of the movies, so we have a very good shot at… I think it’s going to be really good. I’m working with them as a consultant, and they’re doing an excellent job in capturing the spirit of the movies, and I think fans will enjoy that.
You’ve just finished a run on Amazing Spider-Man with Marvel. Considering the success of things like Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Star Wars, is Back To The Future something you could see continuing in comics?
I don’t think so. We did that, Harvey Comics had a short-lived series in the style of the animation show, I don’t know. Interestingly enough, in terms of where time travel works well and where it does, it’s never worked well in comic books for some reason. I don’t quite understand it. There was a DC comic when I was a kid called Rip Hunter, Time Master, which I thought was really cool but it never caught on. They tried it all the time in comics, and for some reason, it doesn’t resonate.
Do you have any other comic work in the future?
My last Spider-Man story is in Amazing Spider-Man #647, it comes out later this month, and then after that, I don’t have any comic book work on the horizon until I come up with something I want to pitch to Marvel or DC.
I’m very superstitious talking about projects when I’m working on them. I’m working on a couple of [non-comic] things, but I never talk about them. I’m superstitious. Otherwise, next time I’m talking to you, a year from now or whatever, you’ll say “Bob, whatever happened to that thing you were telling me about?” and I’ll have to tell you some sordid story about why it didn’t get made, and relive some bad memories.
Is it odd to still be talking about Back To The Future a quarter of a century after the release of the first movie? Do you ever let yourself stop and think about what it’s like to have created something with such longevity?
It feels great [to have created something with such impact]. It feels amazing. Why does it have that longevity? I think it’s a combination of several things. We created some really wonderful characters thate veryone can identify with, and it’s fun and it’s funny, but what the movie really captures is that everybody has a moment in their life when they realize that their parents once were children. And that’s a big revelation to a kid, when they realize that, jeez. When they say “When I was your age,” they actually mean that. That’s something we can all think about. It doesn’t matter what year we were born in, and it doesn’t matter what country we were born in. It’s a human thing that the movie really captures, and I think that’s what people really identify with. They put themselves in Marty’s shoes and say, “Wow, what would it be like to watch my parents first date? What would that be like?” And that’s what it is.
The Back To The Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy boxset is released October 26th.
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