After years of attempting to bring Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker's Invincible to the small screen, Amazon Studios will finally bring Invincible, Omini-Man, and even Allen the Alien to Amazon Prime on March 26.
Co-creator and comic book writer, Robert Kirman, as well as stars Zazie Beetz (Atlanta, Deadpool 2) and Gillian Jacobs (Community, I Used To Go Here) who play Amanda Bennett and Atom Eve respectively, sat down to talk about the upcoming show, what it's like finally seeing these characters on the screen, and what they hope fans will get out of Invincible.
Switching gears to Beetz and Jacobs, with Beetz talking about what she thinks Invincible has to say about the genre that hasn't been said before.
"If something happens in an episode, it carries over into [the] following episode. And I don't know, I don't think that is totally present in a lot of comic series," she said. "When people die, sometimes they come back due to some glitch in the blah-blah-blah or whatever, and that has its own space. But I think that Invincible to me just feels very, very real."
When asked about what they were excited for fans to see the most from both of their characters in the series, Beetz said it was all about the family drama for her.
"I really think it's really interesting to see how Mark and Nolan, Omni-Man, Invincible, have to square their relationship with each other and how that arc is throughout the whole season. I just think it is a really interesting collision of the super world, but then also the really basic father-son story."
"...the challenge for playing a superhero when you're doing these big fights and you have all this action and you're just by yourself in a room, is to feel like you're giving it enough volume and resonance."
Jacobs mentioned that for her, it's having fans of the comic seeing these big sequences come to life in an animated form.
"I think [it] will be really exciting. And I think that because Robert is so involved in the show that it will feel hopefully like the comic that they loved, they just get to see it animated now in motion."
Bringing these characters to life in a big way in the first animated series, there's not a lot of inspiration or influence one might have for the voices, so Beetz felt like Amber is somebody she would know in real life and used that in her performance.
"I thought I would just keep her as, I don't know, a motivated teenager in high school as possible. So yeah, I think I drew more from myself and my own experience and what dating was like for me and what's important to me being reflected in what's important to her."
"For this one, I think because they wanted me to sound like myself," added Jacobs. "I wasn't thinking in terms of other performers, really. Yeah, the challenge for playing a superhero when you're doing these big fights and you have all this action and you're just by yourself in a room, is to feel like you're giving it enough volume and resonance."
She added that the challenge was making her performance as epic as the action of the scene. "It's a funny thing of having to do it again and again. It's like, no, it doesn't really sound like you're calling to somebody who's 10 blocks away, while all this is going on. Try it again. So that's where, I guess, trying to project that, those were my challenges."
"...it's been very creatively satisfying to be able to really get in there, the nascent stages of something, and to really shape a story."
Lastly, Beetz and Jacobs talked about upcoming projects and goals now that they've added voice acting work to their already impressive resumes. Jacobs spoke first as she went into the details of her new podcast.
"I have a new podcast, that's not scripted. It's an unscripted podcast called, 'If/Then.' Three episodes are out now, so I've been working on that for the last few months and that's really fun. I'm getting to interview people. So, the tables have turned and I really enjoy doing that. And directing documentaries, I've been doing more of that in the last couple of years. Yeah."
"For me, I've been getting more into producing and having my creative hands all over a project," said Beetz. "I think sometimes, I come into a film as an actor and my only goal is to not mess up what somebody has been working on for 10 years or something like that.
"And so, it's been very creatively satisfying to be able to really get in there," she continued, "the nascent stages of something, and to really shape a story. And I would love to direct or something maybe in 10 years, but I don't think I'm there yet. It just not emotionally. And so, but producing and putting the world together and getting a team together has been out of my comfort zone, but has been an interesting thing that I want to continue doing and grow in."
This is Part 2 of our Invincible interview series, in which we talk with Zazie Beetz & Gillian Jacobs. You can read Part 1 of the series, our interview with Robert Kirkman, here. Invincible premieres March 26, on Amazon Prime Video.