What Age Rating Is Scavengers Reign Season 1?

Despite Scavengers Reign‘s minimalist character models and lush backgrounds, the animated sci-fi series is no kiddie cartoon. So, what is the age rating of Scavengers Reign Season 1?

Scavengers Reign Season 1’s Age Rating, Explained

Scavengers Reign Season 1 is rated TV-MA. This certification tracks with the show’s adult-oriented content. The 12-episode run is peppered with graphic violence (including some stomach-turning body horror scenes), profanity, and nudity. Scavengers Reign Season 1 is also thematically very dark, particularly the scenes between Demeter crewmember Kamen and alien telepath Hollow. As such, children (and even some adults) should give it a miss.

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Scavengers Reign writer/executive producer James Merrill addressed the show’s unflinching storytelling in a 2023 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “In all things with the show, we didn’t want to have gratuitous violence, we didn’t want to have broad comedy, nudity,” he said. “If there is nudity, it’s done, hopefully, in a tasteful way. I think in general, we wanted to be careful with our depictions of these things so that it had the most impact. Especially in the context of animation.”

“There’s just so much inundation with violence that the audience is inured to it,” Merrill continued. “And if you pull back a little bit, and then present it in a way that actually does have serious stakes like a lot of live-action TV drama has done in the last 20 years, it can hit an audience in a way that can make them emotional — even cry, potentially.”

Related: Scavengers Reign: Who Does Alia Shawkat Play in Season 1?

Merrill also touched on Scavengers Reign Season 1’s body count, observing that the sci-fi series takes a realistic approach to depicting death. What’s more, Merrill and the other Scavengers Reign writers aimed to make each of these deaths “super meaningful” to the remaining Demeter survivors. “[T]hey’re a small crew,” he explained. “And each character dynamic is so meaningful because they’re so far away from home.”

Scavengers Reign Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.