I want to give credit where credit is due to Eric Radomski, who is the head of our production for Marvel Animation and who also happened to direct the pilot as well, has been the supervising producer on the show and has really been just looking at every single way that we can just plus up. This is a great-looking show.
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 LoebWhen we approached the Man of Action guys, we said, "We're not really interested in what's come before, except in the way that we want to make sure that it feels like it's Marvel's Avengers Assemble. From that point on, this is your cast. Go to it and tell great stories."
Jeph LoebWhile we do have 50 years of terrific Avengers stories, many of which our writing staff has written, along the way, this has to live in its own world.
Jeph LoebWe 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 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 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 Loeb