Today brings the release of Warner Bros. and DC Comics’ latest animated movie, Legion of Super-Heroes, the 47th in their long-running series of direct-to-video releases. To celebrate the release, we sat down with a number of members of the cast and crew to discuss bringing the future of DC’s so-called Tommorowverse to life.
In this latest interview, Neil chats with writer Josie Campbell to uncover how she brought Kara in to this new animated continuity and what fans can expect from the huge ensemble film.
Neil: How did you get involved with writing Legion of Super-Heroes?
Josie: So I had worked with the fantastic Jim Krieg at Warner Bros. on Justice League Action. He gave me a call and said ‘hey, we’re thinking of doing a Supergirl, Legion of Super-Heroes thing. Would you be interested?’ and then he listened to me for the next hour explaining every part of my favourite Legion comic. There wasn’t really a story yet, they just knew they wanted to do something with the Legion.
Neil: Bringing it back to Kara for a moment. She’s at the centre of this huge plot and has this exciting emotional arc which really centres on some of the key relationships in her life. Can you talk a bit about creating that arc for her character?
Josie: I love the Super-Family to begin with but I feel talk a lot about the Superman story but to me Kara is the refugee story. Unlike Clark who grew up entirely on Earth, he’s a Midwestern boy, he’s an Earthling by all accounts. Kara grew up on Krypton, she remembers being there, she was ready to start her entire life. The fact she was a young woman when the planet blew up and everything got ripped away from her meant that she has had to recalibrate herself so much more than Clark ever has had to.
That really interested me from a story point of view for this character. What does it feel like when your entire world is gone? Your entire family is gone? Everything you ever knew is gone? Now you’re starting over somewhere where they don’t even like you. It really let me dig in to who she is as a character. The other thing I really like about her is she is so resilient, so she has a sense of grit about her. All of this terrible stuff has happened to her and she still wants to save the day and help people.
You can catch our full interview with Josie in our latest podcast.
Meg Donnelly (American Housewife) and Harry Shum Jr. (Crazy Rich Asians) lead a star-studded cast as the voices of Supergirl/Kara and Brainiac 5. Darren Criss (Glee, The Assassination of Gianni Versace), Matt Bomer (Doom Patrol, White Collar) and Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, The Boys) reprise their roles in this ongoing Justice League continuity as Superman, The Flash and Batman, respectively.
The remainder of the robust Legion of Super-Heroes cast features Cynthia Hamidi (FBI) as Dawnstar, Gideon Adlon (Blockers) as Phantom Girl, Ely Henry (Players, Smallfoot) as Bouncing Boy, Robbie Daymond (Critical Role) as Timber Wolf & Brainiac 4, Yuri Lowenthal (He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Spider-Man) as Mon-El, Eric Lopez (Young Justice) as Cosmic Boy & Chemical King, Darin De Paul (Mortal Kombat Legends franchise) as Brainiac & Solomon Grundy, Ben Diskin (Muppet Babies) as Arms Fall Off Boy & Brainiac 2, Victoria Grace (Pacific Rim: The Black) as Shadow Lass, Jennifer Hale (Mass Effect franchise) as Alura, Daisy Lightfoot (Avengers Assemble) as Triplicate Girl, and Zeno Robinson (Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons) as Invisible Kid & Brainiac 3.
