Invincible is Amazon’s newest animated superhero series based on the comic book series co-created by Robert Krikman and Cory Walker which ran for 144 issues from 2003 to 2018. The Illuminerdi was able to be a part of a roundtable interview with Invincible creator and executive producer where he talked about why fans of the comics and new fans will enjoy the series. During the roundtable interview Robert Kirkman talked about how with the Invincible animated series “hit the ground running” and dove into the story from the start.
“Yeah, I mean I think that things possibly moved a little bit too slow in the comic book series especially early on and so we very much wanted to change that for this series and kind of hit the ground running. I also wanted to give people a sense of what it was they were in for a little bit earlier. It’s not until issue 7 of the comic book series that we really kind of pull the curtain back and we go ‘this is what the series is going to be’. We’re able to do that at the very end of our first episode.
So, you still get that transition of wait a minute I thought the show was this and now it’s this, but it all happens in the span of one episode as opposed to a little bit of a slower burn. And I think that that’s going to be really cool and it’s something that we’ll gonna be continuing as the series progresses. You’ll see some things moved up, some things moved around, but there’s always going to be, I think, a high intensity to the story we’re telling just because we want to keep people as engaged as possible.”
Longtime fans of the comic book series will be going into the animated adaptation of Invincible expecting to know everything that will happen, but with the adjustments that Kirkman is talking about it looks like there will still be some surprises ahead. Balancing bringing in new fans and the long-time Invincible fans is something that Robert Kirkman was asked about during the roundtable interview as well.
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“Yeah, I think that that’s something that I guess just kind of comes naturally. I mean you want to make sure that there’s not anything too inside baseball that only a comic book reader is going to understand. So, there’s a little bit of I guess adapting this for a wider audience that happens, but at the same time Invincible is a very contained world and I think if anyone starts with the first issue of the comic, if you’ve never read comics, you’ll still be able to follow along and enjoy the story.
And I think because of that it’s a pretty easy thing to adapt to a wider audience. So, the animated form is following the main story pretty closely and there hasn’t been a lot of changes that have had to take place to make things a little bit more digestible to a wide audience.”
Robert Kirkman was later asked what he would say to convince people to watch the animated Invincible series. He explained how the Invincible story differs from the many other superhero series and movies and why that will make Invincible so exciting for new audiences.
“Yeah, I think that this is a superhero story that has a beginning, middle, and an end. It’s the story of Mark Grayson’s journey into his life as a superhero and you’re going to get to see him grow and change and evolve over time in a way that you’ll never see Spider-Man or Batman or anybody like that. You’re going to see Invincible decide ‘this is how I do things and this is who I am as a superhero. Oh, wait that doesn’t work I’m going to now change my tactics to this. And oh, wait that doesn’t work now I’m going to do this.’
As he makes mistakes, as he succeeds and fails constantly. And I think it’s a little bit more of a realistic take on superheroes because of that and I’m just, I’m really excited for you be able to start this journey and to experience this story in a way you haven’t experienced before.”
Robert Kirkman is clearly excited about sharing this world he has created with an all new audience as well as fans who have been hoping for this adaptation for over a decade. Invincible dives straight into the exciting storylines of the Invincible comics and has an impressive voice cast that brings the world and characters to life.
INVINCIBLE OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS AND TRAILER
From The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, and based on the Skybound/Image comic of the same name by Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley, Invincible is an hour-long, adult animated superhero show that revolves around seventeen-year-old Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun), who’s just like every other guy his age — except that his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). But as Mark develops powers of his own, he discovers that his father’s legacy may not be as heroic as it seems.
Invincible will also star Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), Seth Rogen (This is the End), Gillian Jacobs (Community), Andrew Rannells (Black Monday, Girls), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Mark Hamill (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Walton Goggins (Justified), Jason Mantzoukas (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek), Mahershala Ali (Moonlight), Melise (The Flash), Kevin Michael Richardson (The Simpsons), Grey Griffin (Avengers Assemble), Khary Payton (The Walking Dead) and more.
Invincible is produced by Skybound and executive produced by Kirkman, Simon Racioppa, David Alpert (The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead), Catherine Winder (The Angry Birds Movie, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) with Supervising Director Jeff Allen (Avengers Assemble, Ultimate Spider-Man), and Linda Lamontagne serving as casting director. Invincible, Kirkman’s second-longest comic-book series, concluded in February 2018 after a 15-year run.
The first three episodes of Invincible premiere on Amazon Prime March 26, 2021 with subsequent episodes debuting every Friday. Are you excited to watch Invincible? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or on our social media.
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