When it came to creating Max, Parsons admits that he and his co-stars were given carte blanche by the series’ producers -- although there were stringent guidelines to which they were told they must adhere. “It was really up to the three of us,” he said, speaking of Lily Cowles and Michael Vlamis, who also play aliens-as-humans (Isobel and Michael, respectively). “We sat down with the show's creator Carina Adly Mackenzie and really talked about what it was like and what it meant to be an alien in our world here. We aren't the original series, and we are drawing from the books, so what does that look like? How are we going to play that out and what sci-fi things can we add in?
“But we always wanted to make sure we went back to that human element,” he continued. “While we are aliens, we have been ‘human’ for 20 years. The dichotomy of what we live with day to day is really a part of why the three of us are so close and why there is an unbreakable bond. It's literally the three of us against the universe.”