Hello, friend. It’s hard to believe that ten years ago, Mr. Robot was announced at New York Comic Con. To celebrate its anniversary, Happy Sad Confused podcast host Josh Horowitz moderated a panel at New York Comic Con on October 9.
The show follows Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), a hacker whose goal was to take down E-corp. He is haunted by a guy called Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) who, at first, seems like a mentor. It is later revealed that he is anything but, and that Elliot has been suffering from dissociative identity disorder.
In honor of its tenth anniversary, creator Sam Esmail, along with Malek and Slater, took the Comic Con stage once again to reminisce alongside the rest of us about our dearly-missed show. Though nostalgia seems to be the name of the game lately, Esmail is adamant about keeping the book closed, which is a smart move. Mr. Robot was groundbreaking for many reasons, and its 2019 ending is the type of finality no one should attempt to branch off from.
The panel featured behind-the-scenes stories, including finding Elliot’s perfect black hoodie (spoiler: it was a hoodie Malek got at a thrift store years before the show). You can still clearly see the love they had for the characters and for each other. There’s something so heartwarming about seeing actors still hold this bond nearly six years after the (perfect) finale.
Mr. Robot was also a story known for its overt political messages. “I’m going all anticapitalist and anti-corporate, and I thought someone is going to finance and market this, and sure enough they did,” said Esmail. Inspired by the 2008 recession, Esmail created Mr. Robot when the world felt like it was in a crisis. And it was, in a way, but nowhere close to where we are today.
“Honestly, it’s like the show wasn’t nearly as f*cked up as it would be today,” said Esmail. “It’s like Pleasantville now.” Malek also had a career boom following the show with a Best Actor Oscar win for Bohemian Rhapsody. However, when recalling his time as Elliot, he remembered that it wasn’t easy.
“It was a lot of mental gymnastics day in and day out,” he said. “But it was a challenge that I embraced and look back on with great pride.” Esmail also revealed a recent hack attempt, during which he decided to play along to see how it would go. Eventually, when he finally asked what was going on, he received a surprising answer.
“Dude, I just really want season of Carly Chaiken (Darlene, Elliot’s sister) and Joey Bada$$ (Leon). Can you do that spinoff?” the man on the other line begged. To which I say, same, but also, there is a reason “Hello, Elliot” has a 9.8 on IMDB.
(featured image: Jason Mendez/Getty Images for ReedPop)
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