I sat down with Invincible showrunners Robert Kirkman and Simon Racioppa at New York Comic Con on Saturday to discuss the upcoming second season of the Prime Video series.
“Season one is about Mark’s wanting to become his father,” Racioppa says. “You know, when you’re growing up, you want to be your parent. In this case, you want to be your dad. His dad’s a great superhero. Season two is Mark being terrified that maybe that could happen. So that’s sort of a big theme we explore, is that fear of I wanted to be my dad. Now I don’t want to be my dad, but maybe that’s not up to me anymore. Maybe that might happen anyway.”
“The burden of legacy,” Kirkman says. “Like he had all these expectations on him because Omni-Man was the greatest superhero that ever lived, and he was worried he wasn’t going to be able to live up to that in season one. And in season two, you know, it’s a completely different burden that has emerged where now, like, oh god! Are you as bad as this guy? He’s constantly having to prove himself time and time again that he isn’t Omni-Man and he doesn’t have that potential in him.”
The season one finale of Invincible aired at the end of April in 2021, meaning fans have waited two and a half years for new episodes.
“I guess maintaining the momentum of what we were doing in season one, you know, rebuilding the show post-pandemic, which led to the big delay — honestly, I think that was a big hurdle,” Kirkman says of the challenges they faced with season two.
“The scope is still so big that even with the best team in the world, it’s tricky,” Racioppa adds.
“And the goal is that it’s an escalating show, that you look back on season one and go, oh my gosh, I can’t believe they started here and expanded to this point. Things should get a little bit bigger and a little bit more intense as each season goes. And so maintaining that momentum is a tough balancing act,” Kirkman says.
“I didn’t know how people would respond to this. I mean this is an hour-long animated drama. That hadn’t really been done before. Some of the violent elements that we incorporate are pretty intense and always there to drive story. So we didn’t know how the first season would be received, and it’s exceeded all of our expectations. And you know, moving into season two, we just couldn’t be more excited to, you know, be back and be doing this all over again.”
Invincible season two will debut November 3 on Prime Video.
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