Invincible creator Robert Kirkman cried over working with animation legend Peter Cullen
polygon.comThe first trailer for season 2 of Amazon’s animated series Invincible came with a grabby surprise for fans: a splash page of the many actors who will join the voice cast, including the Sonic movies’ Ben Schwartz, I Think You Should Leave star Tim Robinson, Back to the Future’s Lea Thompson, Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany, Black Panther’s Sterling K. Brown, Avatar: The Way of Water’s Cliff Curtis, voice-over industry vets Phil LaMarr, Paul F. Tompkins, and Rob Delaney, and many more. For longtime animation fans, though, one name particularly stood out: Peter Cullen, an animation legend best known as the voice of Autobot leader Optimus Prime in Transformers media going back to 1984.
For Robert Kirkman, creator of the Invincible comics (and the Walking Dead comics, among many others), getting Cullen on the series was an emotional moment that reaches back to a primal childhood fandom. As a screenwriter and producer on the animated adaptation, he got to work directly with Cullen, which he describes as a challenge. When I spoke to Kirkman via Zoom about what to expect in season 2 (more of that to come), a prominent poster for 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie was visible on the wall just behind him.
“Working with Peter Cullen was a huge test for my professionalism,” Kirkman says. “Just flat-out, every fiber of my being was screaming, Don’t ask him about Optimus Prime. Don’t talk about Optimus Prime. What are you doing? Just be a professional, come on.
Kirkman says that “thankfully,” the voice sessions for seasons 2 and 3 were recorded via Zoom. He and series writer-producer Simon Racioppa could sit in to observe, but they kept their cameras off and stayed quiet “to keep everything focused” between the director and actor.
That
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