We have a whole other division, where we actually literally take the comic book and animate it. Our feeling was that, if this was going to be our show and that it was going to be a brand new show, it has to be more adventures with these characters, in the same way that, through the years, there have been long runs on the comic book series. It's the same characters, with different voices, along the way.
Jeph LoebWe think that helps bring it up to a place where our storyboard writers then get the opportunity to be able to take that energy and really bring it to the show. I credit that entirely to our cast.
Jeph LoebWhen we first sat down and talked about how much of the show we were going to do based on the movie, there are certainly things you can see right away, but we wanted to make sure that the audience who maybe never saw the movie or has maybe never seen any of the Marvel characters before - and I know there's three of them left on the planet - could have someone that could be their eyes and take them in.
Jeph LoebAgain, I want to give credit where credit is due to our voice director, Collette Sunderman, who is someone that works out an incredible juggling act. I refer to it as juggling cats with vertigo, and the cats don't have vertigo, but the juggler has vertigo.
Jeph LoebThis is, in fact, the biggest show that Marvel television has ever taken on, in the animation world. We had a real challenge that was posed to us, and that was this little, tiny art-house movie that came out last year, that I don't know if you saw, called Marvel's The Avengers, written and directed by our friend Joss Whedon, and it really set the template.
Jeph LoebThe challenges in taking any IP into any other platform are best met by empowering the individuals that can work best in that area and that is one of the things that I really admire about Marvel as a company. They go out and find the best people, whether it is to draw a comic book or create a television series or make a movie.
Jeph LoebThere were radio shows where you actually got to hear people play off of each other and get that immediate magic that goes on. And rather than doing what a lot of shows do, where an individual comes in, reads their part, and you edit it together later on and try to build a performance, we're lucky because this is really very much a theatrical performance that is going on, every single week.
Jeph Loeb