Super Pumped bosses explain why they got Quentin Tarantino to narrate the show

Turns out, Super Pumped and Pulp Fiction have more than one cast member in common.

Sharp-eared viewers of the new Showtime series — which will feature Uma Thurman as Ariana Huffington in the coming weeks — may have noticed the voice of one Quentin Tarantino on the drama's premiere episode Sunday. Tarantino's voice-over narration reoccurs throughout the season, providing commentary on the show's events and characters in a typically profane and irreverent fashion. ("Let me English this s--- up for those of you too trusting of a smiling face to get the actual f---in' drift," his first line begins.)

It might seem like an unusual choice for a show about Uber and Silicon Valley — and yet, for the series' creators, it was the only choice.

The idea emerged spontaneously in the writers' room as the creative team was brainstorming ideas. "One of us just said, 'And then we'll have Quentin Tarantino's voice appear, and Quentin Tarantino's voice will tell this part of the story,'" Super Pumped co-showrunner Brian Koppelman tells EW. "And suddenly, it just made sense that that's what we needed. It was an incredible long shot, of course, but I asked him to do it and he said yes."

Why Tarantino? Koppelman can't — or won't — explain exactly why the filmmaker was the right choice, but adds, "Somehow, in the same way that we knew we needed Pearl Jam [on the soundtrack] to help us tell the story, we knew we needed Quentin Tarantino's voice to help us tell the story. And somehow, it just seemed like his was the only voice. We never considered any other voice but Quentin's."

It also fit right in with the rest of the show: Tarantino's narration is one of many stylistic affectations in Super Pumped, which also uses such techniques as video game-style graphics, movie clips, and power rankings of its own characters to pull viewers into the self-aggrandizing bro-culture of Silicon Valley and the mind of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

"One of the things we wanted to talk about in the show is disruption and the cost of disruption," explains co-showrunner Beth Schacter. "These are people that look at the world and see the same world you and I do, but then see something else they can disrupt. So to be disruptive within the style of the show felt really organic. And the idea of this voiceover opened up so much in terms of what the show could do and what the show could make the audience feel."

Adds David Levien, who also serves as a co-showrunner, "It freed us from classical filmmaking to really feeling like we could use any technique. You know, Travis was an incredibly competitive Wii tennis player; he [claimed to be] ranked number two in the world. And then in the office, he had to take city after city [for Uber]. So how far a leap is it for him to see what he's doing as a video game? And why not show it that way?"

And, fittingly, that anything-goes spirit is reminiscent of the work of a certain director. "When you talk about using film techniques, it was Quentin broke these rules of filmmaking in America," Koppelman says.

Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Showtime.

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