Engineering the Main Titles.
Netflix partnered with King+Country™ to craft four signature main title sequences for Death by Lightning, created by Mike Makowski and executive produced by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The series explores the relationship between President James A. Garfield and his assassin, Charles Guiteau. The goal was to create a visual identity that set the emotional temperature of the show before the first scene even arrived. The concept centers on a custom built animated zoetrope. Historically linked to Garfield’s era, the device became the perfect narrative engine. King+Country™ reimagined the traditionally simple tool as a sprawling mechanical ecosystem. Gears, pistons, ropes and pulleys serve no practical purpose for animation, which made them ideal as symbols of political machinery: excessive, chaotic and intentionally overbuilt.
The result is a world that feels rooted in nineteenth century history yet executed with modern precision and theatricality.
Research + Development
The team grounded the project in extensive research: early animation devices, Victorian political cartoons, industrial machinery and the social climate surrounding the assassination. These influences shaped the visual language and informed the narrative structure of the zoetrope itself.
Each ring of the machine carries its own thread. Garfield cycles a tightrope of knives inspired by satirical drawings of the period. Guiteau navigates shifting platforms, symbolic dead ends, cops and a stacks of cash. Silhouetted bankers feed coins into their pockets, while others lose their heads with the chop of a feather. Even the most surreal elements remain anchored in documented attitudes and events of the era.
Worldbuilding and Design
Every part of the machine was created from scratch. Artists built an extensive digital library of mechanical components and engineered them to behave believably under motion. Many appear only for fractions of a second, demanding precision in modeling, layout and animation. The aim was for the viewer to feel the plausibility of the world even when details flash by subliminally.
Four Thematic Sequences.
The production resulted in four thematic sequences referencing Chicago, Washington and the industrial atmosphere of New York’s Port Authority. In every version, the zoetrope serves as a metaphor for a system that elevated Garfield and consumed Guiteau. It reflects an America struggling with reform, ambition and delusion.
Outcome.
The final main title sequences embrace both the tragedy and the dark humor embedded in the story. They are visually hypnotic, layered with symbolism and rich in historical cues without feeling museum-locked. King+Country delivered a set of titles that feel timeless, unsettling and unmistakably alive. Each episode featured a custom scene to foreshadow the storyline and remind the viewer that this was no ordinary historical drama.
The Making Of.
Take a look behind the scenes of how we got from rough sketches to the final renders.