There are intentional laughs in “Biosphere” where Sterling K. Brown and Mark Duplass are the last two people on Earth.

They live in a hermetically sealed dome with a few fish – named after “Friends’ characters – as they face their fate.

“The way it started,” Duplass, 46, began in a Zoom interview, “was my subconscious.  A completely unknown impulse that said, ‘It should be two men inside of a dome, fiercely arguing about Super Mario Brothers.’

“We should,” he continued, “have a sense that they have nothing better to do. I started following that with no idea where it was going to go.”

Only later did Duplass realize, ‘I had a self-discovery where I’m unwinding some latent toxic masculinity issues within myself –because I grew up in the South, went to an all-male high school and was told that we were meant to be the leaders who take the reins and people will follow us.”

But that, he felt, was limited. So he engaged Mel Aslyn who makes her directing debut with “Biosphere.”  “She runs our company and brought her perspective as a science nerd and queer woman to round out the story that kept growing into the multi-headed, lovely, sweet monster that it became.”

That “monster” is the scientific notion that threatened species can change their sex in order to continue the species. “For us the key to the story was to try and have the audience not become so obsessed with minute details that they lose the larger themes about: What does it mean to be a human being that’s trying to evolve? As we look down the barrel of potential destruction all around us, do we want to evolve? Or do we want to go away?

“We wanted,” Duplass concluded, “to explore that in a gentle and comedic way. Ideally, in a way where people could walk out and maybe see a little bit of themselves.”

Even though he wasn’t co-writing or producing, Brown, 47, found “Biosphere” easy to board.

“First and foremost,” he said, “it made me believe in the power of magic, which I do think is real.”

He also wanted, “To try to surprise people with the things that I do, with a story that I believe could have real resonance in the world. Here was a chance to entertain, to educate and to edify the viewers.

“That’s the sweet spot where my artistry feels most meaningful. I get a chance to make people laugh, to teach them a little bit about themselves and hopefully encourage them to be a better version of themselves. And make the world a better place.”

“Biosphere” is available on video on demand