He’s not just a cat, he’s God. 

In Exploding Kittens, the eternal conflict between Good and Evil gets a bit hiss-terical when both God and the Devil are sent to Earth in the bodies of chunky house cats. The adult animated comedy stars Tom Ellis (Lucifer) as Godcat and Sasheer Zamata (Home Economics) as Devilcat — both actors are notably playing against type … sort of. For Ellis, Lucifer and Godcat might have a surprising amount in common. “They both have a general disdain for humanity, which is quite fun to play,” Ellis tells Tudum.

Zamata says, “I usually play very righteous or on-the-right-side-of-history characters, and it’s fun to play the Devil and be a little baddie.”

Exploding Kittens comes from showrunners Shane Kosakowski (You’re the Worst, Teenage Bounty Hunters) and Matthew Inman, founder of the webcomic The Oatmeal as well as the co-creator of the Exploding Kittens card game, which is now also available as a mobile game. Inman is also an executive producer on the show, along with Bandera Entertainment (formed by comedy kings Mike Judge and Greg Daniels) and Chernin Entertainment. 

“I always had ambitions of turning The Oatmeal into some kind of TV series, because it's a webcomic with actual stories,” Inman tells Tudum. “I never thought it would come from Exploding Kittens, though. I figured Exploding Kittens would always be just a game. I read an interview once with the South Park guys where they talked about how they made South Park, and then went on to make movies like BASEketball and Orgazmo. In their minds, those movies were their future, rather than some silly cartoon about kids who live in Colorado. I feel like this has been my relationship with Exploding Kittens — I discount it because it's ‘just a game,’ but every day it continues to grow.  Praise our Lord and Savior Godcat for that, I suppose.” 

Turn your laser pointers on, because Exploding Kittens is streaming on Netflix now.

What is Exploding Kittens about? 

It’s a classic tale of good versus evil. When God and the Devil make their way to Earth, they wind up trapped in the bodies of house cats — and they also happen to be neighbors. “I made the most exquisite planet of all time: sunsets, cheetahs, Florida — you know, the hits,” says Godcat, the feline personification of the divine (no, not Ceiling Cat. God). Godcat is on a mission to answer a dysfunctional family’s problems, but he must overcome his hatred for humans and defeat Devilcat before he can return to Heaven.

Although they’re playing cosmic enemies, Zamata and Ellis were a dynamite comedic pairing in the recording booth. “I think it's just a lucky or — divine, if you will — coincidence that we have natural chemistry,” says Zamata.

“It’s just one of those heavenly things that happened,” Ellis agrees.

What is Exploding Kittens based on? 

Exploding Kittens is based on the best-selling card game of the same name. With more than 35 million copies sold, the game features 56 cards, including “Exploding Kitten” cards. Players pull cards until someone draws an Exploding Kitten, at which point they have lost the game — unless they first defuse the kitten with cat toys or catnip.

“When I came up with the idea for this show, I abandoned any hope of trying to turn the card game itself directly into a series,” says co-showrunner Inman. “The card game is super fun, but it doesn’t really have a cohesive story. It’s mostly just random jokes and a lot of cats blowing things up. So, my philosophy for the show was to focus on a story that people would want to hear, rather than trying to ham-fist the card game into a narrative. This is how I landed on the idea of God being stuck in a cat body. Also, that story worked out well for the ethos of the game — because the stakes are high and Godcat blows up a lot of stuff. That being said, we snuck a ton of Easter eggs into the series for fans of the game. There are hidden objects all over the place, as well as a bunch of our other games referenced in the series.”

You definitely don’t have to know the game at all to appreciate the show. “I have played the card game a couple times, and I still don’t know if I fully understand it,” says Zamata. “But I think I won, so that’s all that matters to me.”

Inman says the real-life cats in his life also inspired the show in part. “I’ve always sensed that the cats I’ve owned thought they owned the house, and possibly me,” he says. “There's that old joke of ‘Dogs have owners; cats have staff.’ This false sense of authority is what inspired the idea of Godcat. Simultaneously, if you told me that cats were the spawn of Satan I’d [have] believed that as well, so it works with Devilcat’s character, too.”

Ellis tapped into his relationship with his own cats as well. “I have two cats and because everything in my life is biblical, they are called Cain and Abel,” he says. “Abel is the classic regal Hyperion cat who sits there and judges you. All you want is affection from them, and then when you get it from them, you feel amazing, and then they take it from you again. So Abel was my inspiration for sure, out of my two.”

“I don’t have many cats in my life,” says Zamata. “A lot of devils, though — especially the sleep paralysis demon that has been haunting me for years.”

Who’s in the cast of Exploding Kittens?

For Godcat, co-showrunner Inman says they wanted to “find a voice that had a godly, old-world quality to it, while also being funny and charming.” And Ellis’s take on the performance was “exactly what we needed: a huge, world-shattering force of nature stuck in the body of a small cat. He created the universe, so he’s understandably frustrated that he has to poop in a plastic rectangle full of sand. Tom walks the line between belligerence and endearing perfectly. We’re grateful that he’s our Godcat. He’s hilarious.”

Then there’s Zamata as Devilcat. “Sasheer [Zamata]’s character is basically the antichrist with a heart of gold,” says Inman. “She purports to be evil, but really underneath it all, she’s sweet — which is exactly why Devilcat got fired from her job as Satan. Sasheer delivered on this perfectly. Sasheer would read a line and threaten to burn the Earth down, then two seconds later apologize if that doesn’t work for [everyone’s] schedule. She’s also really good at bringing a ton of crazy demon energy to the character. She can scream, growl, screech, and belch fireballs into a recording studio in a way that awed and frightened us all.”

 Zamata may have frightened herself when portraying Devilcat birthing a litter. “I had to give a lot of sounds to emulate what it would sound like for a demon cat to give birth,” she says. “And I’ve never done that before, and I don’t know if I’ll ever do it again.”

Here are the voices that make up the herd of felines and humans in Exploding Kittens: 

• Tom Ellis as Godcat
• Sasheer Zamata as Devilcat
• Suzy Nakamura as Abbie
• Mark Proksch as Marv
• Ally Maki as Greta
• Kenny Yates as Travis

Where can I watch the trailer for Exploding Kittens?

See an explosive trailer that’ll have you saying “Yippee ki-yay” above and the final trailer at the top of this article. 

Can I watch with the whole family?

“The show is rated somewhere between The Simpsons and Deadpool,” says Inman. “The phrase I’ve heard is ‘kidult,’ (kid + adult). When we wrote the show, we avoided cursing or being heavy-handed with a lot of adult jokes, which is a challenge but it makes you work harder to write a clever punchline, rather than relying on swearing or nudity or whatever. We’re hoping it’s a show that everyone will watch, except maybe young children. There are way too many cat buttholes.”

When is the Exploding Kittens release date?

The kittens are exploding on a screen near you right now. Stream on Netflix.