Infinity Train, Among Us, and the Dangers of Data Driven Entertainment

I absolutely have high hopes for it, but how did we get to the point where something so bizarre is happening? I blame Kevin Spacey

#OwenDennis #InfinityTrain #AmongUs #Amogus #Animation #Netflix

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Baffling History is a series that takes a look at some of the oddest and most interesting stories about Disney and Theme Park History! My other series, History in Pi Minutes, is where I look at some popular topics and cover them in a bite size format.

Views are my own and do not represent the Walt Disney Company or its values.

Owen Dennis, the creator of Infinity Train, is making an Among Us TV series for CBS studios. And I have complicated feelings about that.

In case you don’t know, Infinity Train is amazing. It’s an animated anthology series about people trapped on a seemingly infinite train where each car is a whole new world. It ran four seasons, or books as the show calls them, each focused on a different passenger on the train telling their story while revealing a bit more about the mysteries of the world around them.

It premiered on Cartoon Network in late 2019, but was moved to HBO Max for Books 3 and 4 since it appealed to an older audience than cartoon networks usual shows. Book 5 was meant to be a movie for the streaming service telling the story of Amelia, one of the recurring side characters, but WB feared that a book starring an adult character would lose the younger audience entirely. Owen Dennis pitched a much more kid focused Book 6 to appease the higher ups, but sadly it wasn’t enough and the show was canceled in 2021. Although Owen still hopes to continue the show at some point.

In 2022 WB removed the show entirely from their streaming platforms to receive a tax write off.

Among Us is a video game that came out in 2018, but really exploded in popularity during the covid-19 pandemic in 2020. It is essentially a simple party game inspired by 1982’s The Thing where players are crew mates tasked with trying to save their space ship before it crashes. But there is an imposter! An evil alien disguised as a crew mate that is trying to kill everyone without being discovered. But if they act too suspicious, or SUS, then the crew mates might catch the imposter and vote them out.

Its appeal is its simplicity. Charming visuals, very basic gameplay, able to be picked up by anyone and played almost anywhere. It was a perfect game for quarantine since it allowed people to play together even if all they had was a phone.

There’s not much of a story to it. Perhaps it will be an anthology series like Infinity Train with a new imposter and a new set of crew mates every season. It is being animated by Titmouse Inc who has worked with CBS studios before on Star Trek Lower Decks and specializes in adult oriented cartoons. Perhaps the show won’t shy away from the more mature themes found in Owen dennis’s past work or the fact that Among Us is essentially a cuter version of The Thing so adapting it without any deaths in an attempt to appeal to kids wouldn’t really work.

It has real potential to be something great.

Craig McCracken is the creator behind Kid Cosmic, Wander over Yonder, Power Puff Girls, Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. He’s one of the most prolific and well respected names in TV animation.

Recently, he was announced to be working on reboots or continuations of a few of his past shows, Something he’s shown no interest in doing in the past. When someone asked why he returned to Powerpuff and Foster’s, he explained “No one is really buying originals these days they only want pre-existing IPs”

Later in the thread giving a slightly more blunt answer, he said “I pitched 16 originals to Netflix.”

Netflix revolutionized the industry in many ways. Streaming took over because it was so convenient and affordable. Part of how they made it so affordable is that in many ways the audience was also the product.

Data Collection like never before!

But ultimately this was NOTHING compared to what Netflix could offer. What do people watch, what times of day do they watch, what other shows do they watch, if they stop watching what frame did they stop watching on, what scenes do people feel are good for pausing for bathroom breaks, what do people rewatch, how long do they watch things for. Data on such a specific scale that no one had even dreamed of before!


Back in 2013 Netflix began making original programming with a project that began because Netflix connected the dots between data points and found that there was a strong overlap between viewers of David Fincher films, viewers of Kevin Spacey films, and viewers of British prestige dramas. So, they put these pieces together to create their remake of House of Cards and won 7 emmys. It put Netflix on the map in a big way.


INFINITY TRAIN's Creator is making an AMONG US TV SHOW and I Have Complicated Feelings