Rejoice! After 2 1/2 years of hiatus,Invinciblehas returned witha trailer for season 2. After thousands of hours of work and planning, the wait is finally almost over, with the new season dropping this November.
For those not yet aware,Invincibleis a rather unique animated show for a number of reasons. It’s incredibly violent, features a script that doesn’t feel plucky and lighthearted, and features glorious hour-long episodes, which is a monumental task for any animated studio to tackle.
Something to know upfront is that there will still be some episodes to wait on as the season has been split into two parts. That’s right, four episodes this year, four sometime next yearunless the writer’s strike pushes it outeven farther than that. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, you may be wondering, what’s new? Trust us; you should be very excited.
So with Omni Man mostly out of the picture, there’s a whole bunch of new ground to cover now. Stepping up to the main role of big bad villain is Sterling K Brown, who most notably playedKillmonger’s father inBlack Panther.If Omni Man was scary because of the brute force threat he brought to Earth, the new antagonist Angstrom Levy will be terrifying based on what he knows.
According to lore, he has the power to converse with himself in parallel universes, so he can effectively figure out everything he needs to know about Invincible just through the massive amount of potential timelines that he has to pull from. He can even pull alternate evil versions of Invincible from different realities to cause havoc in this one. How far the show ends up taking the concept of multiverses is to be determined, but just based on the possibilities, there are a number of places they could go with it.
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Another interesting tease is the fact that the Immortal is shown beating the crap out of Mark during the trailer. With him left to recuperate in the GDA headquarters at the end of season 1, this really makes this interesting for season 2. Walton Goggins' character Cecil also has a monologue about how distrustful he is of Invincible, wanting to keep him under a rather tight thumb.
Dark as this show is, they may be teasing a situation like how Omni-Man acted on his own rather than being a team player for the GDA or anyone else. Invincible might take a little more of an anti-hero approach as the show continues. The boy has some real anger issues, like his father, that may take center stage as the title card gets bloodier and bloodier.
The Picture at Large
Where Season 1 was all about introducing characters on a small scale, Season 2 will likely be spending time setting up more world-building items like Allan the Alien’s role in uniting planets against Viltrum. They could very well be gearing up for a war much bigger than just one character.
Expect more galactic politics, essentially where the first season kept that stuff brief. Viltrum itself will likely be playing a role, with Mark even potentially making a visit to find his dad in the brief role he will likely play this season. Certain characters in the trailer are talking about how rare it is for viltrumites to fight against each other which lends itself to the idea that Viltrum is gearing up for a second attempt at “improving” Earth into a society more akin to their own.
Showrunner Kirkman has also mentioned that the breaks between seasons should be shorter now that the team has had a chance to plan out more than when they started. So while it might be a wait for the last half of season 2, it won’t be two and a half years until season 3.
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A Laundry List of Voices
Perhaps most exciting is all the new voice actors they noted in the latest trailer that seems to go on and on. We’re getting to the point where it may be easier to list what notable actors aren’t a part of this but to list just a few, Lea Thompson fromBack to the Future,Paul F Tompkins fromBojack Horseman,animation legend Phil Lamarr, and Optimus Prime himself Peter Cullen.
This last one is perhaps the most interesting, as it’s doubtful they would relegate such an iconic voice in a small capacity. If they’re investing this much into talent, it feels like there will be twice the amount of important characters to follow in this new season.
Not only are there going to be new characters aplenty, but they just dropped a standalone Atom Eve episode.Something to tide you over until November. This begs the question, will other characters be set up to have full-fledged spin-off series?
A move like this feels like it’s testing the waters more than being a one-off, so there might be more time devoted to other characters in preparation. Adding to that, it feels like the show might be building towards a threat greater than any one character. Time will tell, but these all feel like the right steps to take for the show.
