Zooey Deschanel has long been compared to Katy Perry, and back when the pop singer was sporting her trademark long dark longs, it was hard not to see the resemblance. For Katy Perry’s latest single “Not the End of the World” the artist and director tap into this hilarious doppelganger phenomenon, creating a culturally relevant and retro-charged film that resonated with fans of both stars and garnered serious attention online.

Katy Perry’s music video for “Not the End of the World” is a stylized, tongue in cheek take on the Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel doppelganger internet phenomenon. After being mistaken for Katy Perry and abducted by aliens, lookalike Zooey Deschanel is forced to step into the popstar’s shoes and perform for the mothership before Earth’s demise.

The idea was to create a tongue-in-cheek play on the Katy Perry-Zooey Deschanel doppelganger joke. The execution needed to be as clever as possible and the team wanted to work with Katy to craft characters that played into this arc from confused abduction to assimilating into the role as an inter-galactic popstar.

Channeling Katie’s out-of-this-world imagination and creative brain, the directors created a futuristic world using expert set and costume design paired with quirky performances. The directors also used subtitles in post to express some of the nuanced story between the aliens and lean into a more retro sci-fi aesthetic. Playing with backdrops and props, the strategy was to create a unique storyworld that would allow for a fun, quirky performance alongside the track.

Set in a retro-futuristic, speculative sci-fi future, it’s 2020 and Earth is about to self-destruct. Other intergalactic species know the end for humankind is near, including a Katy Perry-obsessed species of Aliens, led by their captain who wants to save (abduct) Katy before Earth’s demise and bring her to the mothership to perform for them for eternity. Unfortunately, the alien duo in charge of the mission made a common terrestrial mistake; they grabbed Zooey Deschanel instead.

Smash cut to mission control on the mothership, a confused Zooey comes-to and realizes she’s been mistaken (again) for Katy as her abductors also realize they’ve made a mistake. Terrified that they’ve captured the wrong person, Zooey makes a deal with her abductors to play the role of Katy in exchange for them letting her save the Earth. Luckily, Earth’s fate is saved as Zooey quickly starts to embrace the role of intergalactic popstar.

Katy Perry’s music video for “Not the End of the World” is a stylized, tongue in cheek take on the Katy Perry and Zooey Deschanel doppelganger internet phenomenon.

The video has fun with classic Katy Perry music video tropes and shines thanks to its cleverness and stylized vibrance. It’s an expert exercise in concept, tone, set design, costume design and performance creating a wholly unique storyworld.