Entertainment
‘Invincible’ Co-Creator Warns Fans About the Brutal Season 3 Death Everyone Missed
Summary
- Collider’s Steve Weintraub talks with Robert Kirkman and Simon Racioppa for Invincible Season 4.
- Kirkman and Racioppa discuss behind-the-scenes details for Invincible Season 4, including Easter eggs and casting.
- The pair also share exciting teases and status updates on Invincible Season 5.
Before Invincible Season 4 hits Prime Video on March 18, Collider readers had the opportunity to check out the first two episodes over a week before its release. After the screening, creator, co-showrunner, and executive producer Robert Kirkman and co-showrunner and executive producer Simon Racioppa joined Steve Weintraub on stage for an exclusive conversation to discuss behind-the-scenes details about Season 4 and share exciting updates for Season 5.
After Season 3’s all-out devastation in the wake of Conquest (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Mark (Steven Yeun) is in a dark place mentally. He’s reeling from the destruction and struggling with the responsibility of his powers. In Season 4, as Earth is recovering from its last invasion, a far more powerful being is coming. Grand Regent Thragg, voiced by Lee Pace (Foundation), poses a threat that could change the fate of humanity forever.
During the Q&A, Kirkman and Racioppa discuss Easter eggs (that even Kirkman missed), Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons) versus The Boys‘ Homelander (Antony Starr), Mark’s headspace in Season 4, the all-star cast, and so much more. You can watch the very fun Q&A in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.
You Probably Missed This Horrible Season 3 Death
And that really ticks Robert Kirkman off.
COLLIDER: Before we get into specifics, I want to do something called “get to know your Invincible showrunner.” These are harmless questions, I promise. For both of you, have you ever asked for someone’s autograph?
ROBERT KIRKMAN: Yeah. I mean, of course. Not as much as I could have. There are some comic book people that I’ve gotten autographs from that I’m really excited about. I had Erik Larsen sign the first copy of Spider-Man that I ever got because I still had it, and he drew it. That was cool. I still have that. That’s pretty awesome. But yeah, that’s it. I’ve never gotten Steven Yeun to sign anything for me.
SIMON RACIOPPA: I did. Actually, when we did Season 1, I got everybody to sign a copy of the first script. But the problem was, we were in the studio, so I just grabbed whatever pen, so half the signatures are now just faded. You can’t read them anymore, so it’s just terrible.
If only you were going to work with him again.
RACIOPPA: Exactly.
KIRKMAN: “Hey, guys, can you go slowly over these signatures and just kind of rebuild what we had here?”
For each of you, what do you collect?
KIRKMAN: I collect too many things. I collect Transformers toys and G.I. Joe toys. I collect comic books. I collect Transformers statues. My house looks like a comic shop died and just spilled out into the room.
RACIOPPA: It’s like a full comic shop after there’s been an earthquake.
KIRKMAN: You’ve been there recently. It’s just piles.
RACIOPPA: There is nowhere to sit. It’s a big space, and there is nowhere to sit because there’s a Transformer there, and you’re like, “Well, Megatron’s got the seat already, so I gotta find somewhere else.”
KIRKMAN: Because I got this giant Devastator. In the pandemic, I would make myself not sad by getting these super complicated and expensive transformer statues, and then I would spend an entire day putting them together. I have a Devastator statue that’s like this tall if it was on the floor, and it’s on a little table in between a chair and a couch. So, I often have meetings where there’s a Devastator fist in view as I’m trying to talk to somebody.
RACIOPPA: You have to kind of just lean around Devastator.
KIRKMAN: It’s totally normal.
RACIOPPA: Yeah, you all have that, right? A giant Devastator?
KIRKMAN: [Laughs] So March 18th, Season 4 comes out, but I will talk about Transformers for the rest of the night.
Oh, I know you will. Did you say what you collect?
RACIOPPA: I’ve got some graphic novels. I’ve got a couple of good long boxes of comics. I like buying them after they’re trades, after they’re hardcovers and stuff like that. I’ve got quite a bit.
KIRKMAN: But you’re an adult. You collect silver dollars or something like that.
RACIOPPA: Yeah, stamps. Totally. No, no stamps.
KIRKMAN: What’s a stamp collector? A philanthropist? What is that called?
RACIOPPA: No, it’s not a philanthropist.
KIRKMAN: Close enough.
What is something that audiences don’t notice that you wish they would?
KIRKMAN: Oh, this is a bad one, but it’s the only thing that came to mind. When Conquest is pushing Mark through that entire city at the end of Season 3 — spoiler alert — there’s a particular death that happens in the foreground in a split second as he’s zipping through, and it’s a dog. A pet peeve of mine is how everyone is so upset about dogs dying, and less so with people. I’m going to lose this argument, so we won’t go there. But we were in the sound mix, and I was like, “I want a dog yelp. I want a really loud, distinct [yelps] as that’s happening.” And we put it in, and then I was like, “Make it louder.” And I think we did two or three rounds of making it louder until it was really noticeable, and I don’t think anyone’s noticed it. So, we killed a dog in Season 3.
I’m stunned by this. I definitely didn’t notice. Anything you want to add?
RACIOPPA: I would just add to that if you actually freeze frame, the guy who has the dog is like the coolest extra ever. He looks like he came out of a 1990s Capcom fighting game, like Final Fight. He’s just got these cool shades, a leather jacket, and he’s dead in two seconds or less. So, yeah, no one notices the work that went into that.
KIRKMAN: I want to say that no one in the audience reacted at all to that human’s death.
Have you watched the show?
KIRKMAN: [Laughs]
If you could drop one character from another universe into Invincible, just to watch the chaos, who would it be?
RACIOPPA: Charlie brown? “Good grief.”
KIRKMAN: Geez, I’m not going to have a good answer for this. I don’t know. Al Bundy from Married with Children.
Omni-Man Would “Wipe the Floor” With Homelander
“He’s also genuinely just a cooler character on a cooler show.”
I know you’ve been asked this a million times, but who wins in a fight between Homelander and Omni-Man?
KIRKMAN: I think these are just clickbait questions. I’ve answered this a thousand times, but I will say every time I answer it, it kicks back up. So, good on you. Good on you. But I think that even [Eric] Kripke and [Seth] Rogen and [Evan] Goldberg would all admit that Homelander’s power set is much less than Omni-Man. Omni-Man would wipe the floor with Homelander. He’s also genuinely just a cooler character on a cooler show that’s on a cooler streaming service.
Definitely. It’s always new to somebody.
KIRKMAN: Simon, do you have an answer for that? Are you going to go Team Homelander because of your Diabolical affiliations or…?
RACIOPPA: I think this is being discussed in depth on the internet. There are videos people have done, like 10-minute-long animations. I think it’s clear that Omni-Man would.
KIRKMAN: Also, people don’t know this, but if you picked Homelander versus Omni-Man in Mortal Kombat one, Homelander always lost, no matter how well you played. That was a thing that I demanded to allow Omni-Man in the game. So, no one has ever beaten Omni-Man with Homelander in the Mortal Kombat 1 game. They don’t really talk about that. None of that is true.
You absolutely had me going. If Mark had access to therapy from day one, how different would this show be?
KIRKMAN: So boring.
RACIOPPA: Longer. Much longer. Hours. More expensive for Mark, I guess, too.
KIRKMAN: More pleasant for him.
Season 4 Is a Huge Progression for the Series
“This season definitely delivers on Omni-Man and the Viltrumite storyline.”
Is Season 4 finished?
KIRKMAN: Yeah. [Laughs]
You never know if you’re still doing the last episode.
KIRKMAN: Oh, yeah. No, I mean, I think we have to turn it all in as a block, right?
RACIOPPA: Yeah. So, they have to do this thing called versioning, where they translate the show for all the different territories, like into Portuguese, into Italian, into Japanese. So you have to get the whole show done with enough time for that to happen before it comes in, because it comes out everywhere. Like what, 120 countries or 220 territories all at the same time? So we have to wrap the show and give them enough time to do that, which is months sometimes.
One of the things I love is the title cards, and each season is a little bit different. What do you want to tease about Season 4’s title cards?
KIRKMAN: I was standing in the hallway when the episode started, and it was so jarring when the title card hit. I was like, “Whoa, it’s really loud!” So, it’s loud this season. I’m really excited. It’s really epic, and it’s much different. I’m very taken with this title card treatment. You guys got a sense of what it is from watching the two episodes, but if this is going out before then, I don’t want to spoil what it is, but it’s space-related.
RACIOPPA: There’s space in this season. We go to space.
Without spoilers, what do you guys want to tease about Season 4, and maybe how it compares to the first three?
RACIOPPA: I like to think we go bigger. We escalate every season. It’s crazier. We don’t forget about anything that happened in Season 1 and 2, so all that stuff is still in play. We had the team really firing on all cylinders. I think it’s a good season. I think you guys will like it.
KIRKMAN: We’re a little biased, but it’s pretty rad. I will say that we’ve done a lot of Viltrumite stuff in the first three seasons, but it’s kind of drips and drabs, and we’ve always heard the audience of like, “Oh, can we just get some more of that sweet, sweet Omni-Man?” And I will say that this season definitely delivers on Omni-Man and the Viltrumite storyline. It’s, in a lot of ways, a culmination of all the Viltrumite stuff that we’ve peppered into Seasons 1, 2, and 3. So, it’s a really huge progression for the overall narrative of the show, and it sets us up in a big way for the future of the show. So this is like a real transition season.
Without spoilers, what do you think fans are going to say after they’ve seen the Season 4 finale?
KIRKMAN: Well, I will say first, you don’t have to worry. You don’t have to tell us not to spoil things because there are Amazon people who will tackle us, that we are well aware of. But what will people say after watching Season 4? I think they’re going to be shocked. I think that we end the show in Season 4 in a big, huge, Earth-shattering transition for the show.
RACIOPPA: Hopefully they’ll have to take a break for a second. Maybe not watch TV for a couple of days and then start it again. That’d be the perfect thing.
How does Season 4 push Mark emotionally in ways he hasn’t been?
KIRKMAN: I mean, same as every season. We put him through his paces. We find a new low for him by the end of the season.
RACIOPPA: He’s not okay at the start of the season.
KIRKMAN: And he’s worse by the end.
RACIOPPA: Basically. It’s not easy being Mark! Give him a break.
KIRKMAN: You’d think we don’t like him, but we do.
One of the things that I love about the show, and I think one of the things that fans love, is the way that it deals with what someone would really be like if they were in this situation with these characters, and if their family was suffering. What would push you towards killing someone, versus at the beginning, when I would never hurt someone like that?
RACIOPPA: He changes. He’s a different character. He’s only 20 years old at the start of the season, so he’s a 20-year-old kid who still now is the most powerful thing on the planet, being asked to make all these crazy decisions, wondering if, “Maybe I should start murdering people because that will save lives like that?” You don’t get away consequence-free from those kinds of thoughts or those kinds of decisions, and we’re going to deal with all of that in the season. It’s not easy. Some people were like, “Oh, you should just kill people, that way you’ll save lives.” It’s not that easy.
KIRKMAN: And we pushed him to the point where at the beginning of the season, he’s like, “Maybe murder is a good idea?” And then we go from there.
It does seem like Mark and Nolan could be meeting up again this season.
KIRKMAN: [Laughs] I think that’s a safe bet.
RACIOPPA: A spoiler!
KIRKMAN: Ah, here comes the Amazon person!
Exactly. So what do you want to tease about that confrontation, and maybe what happens when Nolan meets Debbie’s new boyfriend?
KIRKMAN: They fight, and it’s nuts. You’d never guess who wins.
RACIOPPA: I was going to say, if you’re worried about Mark and Nolan meeting again for the first time, it’s Debbie and Nolan you should really be worried about.
KIRKMAN: There are a lot of reunions in this season. Can we say that? But it’s nice because you’ve seen Mark and Nolan interact in Season 2, post what happened in Season 1, but there’s a lot that’s happened in between there. Nolan has definitely gone through a lot of things and has changed in some big ways, or has at least solidified his allegiances to a certain extent. So, two very different characters will be interacting this season, even though we’ve known them from season to season.
Fans Can Expect ‘Invincible’ Season 5 Same Time Next Year
“I think that a pattern has formed.”
We know that Season 5 has been announced, so where are you in Season 5 in production?
KIRKMAN: We’re getting final animation back and doing retakes and doing… What’s ADR stand for?
RACIOPPA: Automatic dialogue replacement.
KIRKMAN: Yeah, we’re doing that.
RACIOPPA: Lots of that.
KIRKMAN: Putting the final touches on things.
RACIOPPA: End of production, start of post. I guess we can say that. But that takes a long time. It’s not like a week.
KIRKMAN: The voice recording is done first, so that was done years ago. It’s crazy. We were talking the other day about how we were working on Season 5 kind of while we were still promoting Season 2. So, it stacks so much.
RACIOPPA: This is a good thing, by the way. We’re very happy Amazon buys many seasons from us at the same time.
One of the things that I commend you guys on is that a lot of streaming shows take these really long breaks between seasons, and they’re just too long.
KIRKMAN: We’re not stopping until everyone on this production is burnt out.
Well, Season 3 was February of last year, and Season 4 starts in March of this year.
KIRKMAN: We slipped a month, technically.
I think that’s okay. But my question is, with Season 5, do you think it could be March of next year? Do you think it’ll be around the same time?
KIRKMAN: I think that a pattern has formed, but I can’t confirm anything. Maybe it will be April.
That’s fine.
KIRKMAN: Maybe May. Maybe January. I don’t know. Who knows? We’ll see. But I would say that the goal is to is to come back in this general timeframe.
RACIOPPA: On a regular pattern.
KIRKMAN: Yeah. So, that’s the goal. Like I say, we’re pretty far into Season 5, so we feel like we’re in good shape.
Go Behind the Scenes Into the ‘Invincible’ Writers’ Room
“I would love to do 10 seasons.”
You’ve now made four shows. You’re on Season 5. What have you learned through the process of making the first few years? How has the process been refined in terms of the writing, the animation, and being able to pull off what you can do with the budget that you’re given?
KIRKMAN: Everything’s streamlining. So, everything that we’re doing isn’t changing, but everyone at every level of the process is getting a little bit more efficient. The writing team is learning how to write to production a little bit better. This is a very complicated and bizarre show, and our production pipeline is very complicated, so we’re learning to navigate that. I’ll say for me, each season gets easier. I don’t think everybody on the production would say that.
RACIOPPA: No, because each season gets bigger. So, exactly what Robert said, you find little efficiencies along the way from a technical point of view. From the writing point of view, it’s just more fun because all the characters have so much more history and trauma we can bring into the new season, so that’s always great. It’s fun to take characters where you haven’t been before.
How do you guys decide which episodes you want to write yourself and when you want someone on the writing staff to write?
KIRKMAN: Oh, we take the good ones.
RACIOPPA: Yeah, sometimes. Everyone has their own strengths on the writing team, so sometimes if someone gets really passionate about an episode, they usually end up writing it.
KIRKMAN: Unless we want it.
RACIOPPA: Unless we want it. Yeah. Usually, I take first or last and you take…
KIRKMAN: Whatever the coolest ones are.
RACIOPPA: Yeah, exactly. Robert’s just like, “That one!” No, it’s a sort of organic process.
Take us into the writers’ room. At the beginning of the season, you’re planning out, say, hypothetically, we can talk about 4 or 5. How does it work? What is it like behind the scenes when you’re first breaking that season and figuring out where and when you want to start and stop?
KIRKMAN: We have a pre-room session that we have that’s usually something like a week long. We get the writers together. I’m going to make someone mad right now: Co-creator Cory Walker usually comes in and sits for those, so can we get Cory to do a standing wave? He’s shaking his head. He’s shaking his head. Just a standing wave. Just a simple on your feet, a little bit of a princess wave or something. One of these.
RACIOPPA: We could pretend it’s his birthday and get everyone to sing for him. He would hate that.
KIRKMAN: He already doesn’t like you. Why are you doing this? So Cory sits in with the writers, and we basically map out, “Okay, the beginning of the season is going to be this issue. The end of the season is going to be this issue.” And we do a rough like, “How does this episode fall and where is this event going to land?” And we do a real rough beat-out of what the season is going to be. Then we usually get together for other periods of time with the writers and whoever we bring in that’s going to freelance episodes, if we have anybody freelancing episodes in a season, and then we do longer breakouts for the individual episodes.
RACIOPPA: So a rough break and then a finer break later on.
Is the plan still for seven seasons?
KIRKMAN: I wish I had never nailed anything down like that, but we’re hoping to continue past Season 5. Please make sure you watch on March 18th. We’d really appreciate it. Watch again. If everyone in this room doesn’t watch, we’re sunk — probably not. But somewhere around there. Maybe it goes longer, maybe it goes longer. I don’t want to limit myself. I would love to do 10 seasons. We’ll see.
Robert Kirkman Reveals His Thoughts on an ‘Invincible’ Movie
But don’t hold your breath for more specials like Atom Eve.
Are there any plans for any more specials, like Atom Eve?
AUDIENCE: Rex Splode!
KIRKMAN: Rex Splode? Anybody want a Rex Splode special? [Applause] Alright, so exclusive announcement here today: we’re not doing a Rex Splode special. But we had that pesky, horrible gap between Season 1 and 2 that we all hated. Everybody hate that gap? I hated that gap. So, to kind of mitigate the delay between Season 1 and 2, we did the Atom Eve special to put it in first production order so that we could get something out while we were finishing the rest of the season.
Since then, we’ve just been firing on all cylinders and producing the show and getting the show out every year. So, we haven’t had any free time or any window to do any more specials, but we definitely hear that you guys would like some of those, and I think that they would be cool and we’d love to do them. There just hasn’t been a window where we’ve been able to make it work just yet. But we’ll see.
There was talk for a while about an Invincible movie.
KIRKMAN: Yeah, for a while. Talk.
The show is so awesome, and one of the reasons it’s so good is that you have time with characters to breathe. What I’m nervous about, if you were ever to make the movie, is it’s going to be two hours, 2.5 hours, and it’s going to be a lot of action and not a lot of those small character moments. So is that something you’re concerned with if you were to actually ever make this?
KIRKMAN: But what if it was three hours? What about four? What about five? No, don’t sell Invincible short. You’ve experienced it in television form and so I can see that it’s somehow difficult to be like, “Okay, now I don’t know if I can picture it in that form.” But we’re trying. Maybe at some point we’ll have more to talk about, but these these things do take time. But I think that Invincible could work as a feature film at some point in the future. Who else feels that Invincible could work as a feature film? [Applause]
No, I definitely do.
KIRKMAN: So, you’re wrong.
I hear that every single day. That is not a surprise.
How ‘Invincible’s Cast Stays So Stacked
Though Kirkman has a lot to say to Bryan Cranston.
There are 245 fans in this theater…
KIRKMAN: I didn’t know it was that many people.
[Laughs] What do you think might surprise the fans that are in this theater and the people that are watching online to learn about the making of the show, or what goes on behind the scenes?
KIRKMAN: I mean, so much, but we can’t talk about it.
RACIOPPA: There are scenes that we didn’t have space for that we pulled out, some stuff that would be really cool, but we just can’t do it or don’t have time to do it.
KIRKMAN: Most of the show is old episodes of G.I. Joe with just the colors changed, and people have not noticed. That’s surprising. I don’t know.
The question went nowhere.
RACIOPPA: People know how TV is made now.
KIRKMAN: If only we had read these questions ahead of time and maybe prepared something. I’m sorry.
You’ve always had amazing voice actors. Are there still people saying no?
KIRKMAN: [Bryan] Cranston says no every season?
This is bullshit.
KIRKMAN: It’s made me not like him. I’m never rewatching Breaking Bad.
Better Call Saul is better.
KIRKMAN: The guy’s a piece of crap.
I was joking, by the way. I love both Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad.
KIRKMAN: I think Better Call Saul is better because it’s got less Bryan Cranston.
I’m gonna get a video response to that, by the way. I’ll send it your way.
KIRKMAN: Great! Can’t wait. Why don’t you get a video response on, “Will you be in the next season of Invincible if we’re lucky enough to make it?”
I am going to work on that.
KIRKMAN: Piece of dirt.
You think I’m joking? I’m actually working on that.
KIRKMAN: Let’s do it. If anyone sees him on the street, ask him about Invincible. We hung out once. I thought we were bros. I sat next to him at the Golden Globes because Walking Dead was nominated for a Golden Globe for the first season — and then never again — and he was the coolest dude. I thought we were friends, and he still says no every season. We’re not recording this, are we?
RACIOPPA: No, no, no. There are no cameras.
KIRKMAN: He got Aaron Paul to say that he didn’t want to come back to play more Powerplex. That’s dirty. That’s real dirty. I’ve gone too far. I’ve gone too far.
Or have you gone far enough?
KIRKMAN: Now Cranston is not going to be in it. [Laughs]
It is crazy with the amount of people. You’ve got amazing people, amazing actors.
KIRKMAN: We are very fortunate.
What is it actually like nowadays if you’re trying to cast someone new for Season 4, Season 5? Is it so much easier now to get someone? Talk about what goes on behind the scenes in terms of deciding on who’s going to voice what?
KIRKMAN: Everyone is busy, so no matter how big a show gets, it’s still about timing and scheduling and things like that. So it’s not like we can get anyone, but it seems like we don’t often…
RACIOPPA: No, we got kind of drunk with power on the first season. We locked in Steven, Sandra [Oh], J.K. [Simmons], and that was a good cast. Actors get attracted to projects that other actors that they like are in, and they’re like, “Oh my god, Sandra and Steven and J.K. are in that. I should go be in that too” And that’s kept on snowballing.
KIRKMAN: We offered a role to Tom Cruise, too.
RACIOPPA: Yeah. We were like, “We can get Tom Cruise!” We could not get Tom Cruise. We could not. We tried — we could not. In fact, I don’t think we even got a response.
KIRKMAN: He said, “Do not ever ask me again.” And I said, “Yes, sir.”
RACIOPPA: You showed up at his house, though. That was why.
KIRKMAN: It was a mistake.
RACIOPPA: It was weird.
KIRKMAN: I do have regrets. Nice pool, though.
Serious question. When an actor is voice recording for a season, are they doing it through the course of months? Is it you trying to get everything done in a few days? What is the actual process like and who is directing them in the room?
KIRKMAN: Meredith Layne, our amazing voice director, is directing them in the room. Every now and then she is scheduled, and there will be a session where Simon or I will try to muddle through. When I do it, I absolutely hate it.
Except if it’s Peter Cullen.
KIRKMAN: I couldn’t do it with Peter Cullen. I’m too busy crying. I have my camera off, and I’m just weeping at the joy of being in his presence. None of that was a joke. So, anyway, no, we schedule episode to episode. There are some actors that have such complicated schedules that we try to do blocks to get through as many episodes as possible with them. But for the most part, we’re doing Episode 1, and we just have everybody come in and do their session. Sometimes people only have like five lines in an episode. You don’t really notice. There are characters that can be in like 20 minutes of an episode doing all kinds of stuff, but they only talk like four or five times, so sometimes we get some pretty quick sessions. But a lot of the more prominent characters in the show are hours-long sessions. But it’s usually, what do you think, an eight or nine-month process?
RACIOPPA: Yeah. We record about an episode a month usually. Then we bring them back in later on. Not everybody, but when we get the final animation in, sometimes the scenes change. The blocking, the scenes change, or maybe we want a line to come in a little differently, or maybe that actor had a cold the first day they came in, and we just want to pick stuff up again, so we want to redo it. So we bring the actor back in, we show them the picture, they can see it now, and they have a mic and we just do it live against the picture.
KIRKMAN: What’s that called?
RACIOPPA: That’s ADR.
KIRKMAN: We brought it back, baby!
RACIOPPA: Steven will come back in and we’ll redo maybe 20% of his lines, sometimes more, sometimes less, because he likes to see the scene and be like, “Oh, okay. I really see it now.” And he’s like, “I can do this better. I can do this better.” And we’ll redo it.
Do you guys ever do read-throughs of scripts with the actors?
RACIOPPA: Impossible with the schedule, because everybody’s off shooting other shows, shooting other movies. We can never get everyone together.
KIRKMAN: Everyone’s like, “Oh, the cast is amazing.” Yeah, that’s why we can never get them in the room. They’re always busy on. We get people in the craziest countries.
RACIOPPA: In Europe. We’ve done records at three in the morning.
KIRKMAN: Oh, I think Lee Pace was filming Running Man, and he came in on a Saturday morning after filming all night just to help us out because we had to get recording. And sometimes for Christian [Convery], we’ll do, like, 6:00 a.m. records on a Saturday morning.
RACIOPPA: Walton [Goggins], when he was doing White Lotus in Vietnam, we tried to get him in Bangkok and we just couldn’t make it work, but we were like, “We need him!” And he was shooting in a tropical island somewhere. He’s having fun.
KIRKMAN: We had a session with Jeffrey Dean Morgan; it was some recording studio in the middle of nowhere, and it was like a 2.5 hour drive for him, and he texted me and said, “The door’s locked. They’re not letting me in.”
RACIOPPA: This is true.
KIRKMAN: I said, “Oh my god, what do we do?” We’re making calls and we’re like, “Okay, they misscheduled something and they don’t have a technician, but the technician’s on his way, driving in, and it’s going to be like 30 minutes, if you could wait in the parking lot.” And he was like, “Buddy, I got things to do. I’m already on the road. I can’t do this.” We had to reschedule. It was just a nightmare. These scheduling things can be crazy. Then he came in some other time and we got him. But yeah, they just forgot to schedule it. So he showed up after a 2.5 hour drive to just a closed studio.
RACIOPPA: Yeah, we apologized.
KIRKMAN: It was the absolute worst.
RACIOPPA: I think we sent him booze. We’re like, “We’re sorry!”
KIRKMAN: He hasn’t spoken to me since.
RACIOPPA: Like Cranston. Another one just off the Kirkman list.
How Peter Cullen Inspired Robert Kirkman’s Whole Career
“The shock of losing that character has informed everything I’ve been chasing.”
I’m actually going to be completely serious. I know how much you love Peter Cullen. What was it like actually bringing him to the show and having him play such an important role on the series?
KIRKMAN: That guy was such a huge part of my childhood and a huge part of my work and my career. I’ve talked a lot about the ‘86 movie and my experience as an eight year old seeing that in the theater and feeling numb at the death of Optimus Prime — spoiler alert for the movie — and how the shock of losing that character has informed everything I’ve been chasing. I want to watch film and television that make me feel that way because I’ve never really felt that way since that moment. I try to write things that make other people feel that way, for better or worse. It’s almost a religious experience in entertainment, to have that feeling of loss from a work of fiction, that I’m just kind of chasing that feeling with everything that I do.
So, to have him play Thaedus, he’s huge in this season and such a pivotal part of the show, and to be able to hear him saying words that we wrote, I don’t know. I joke about how I’m totally crying all the time, but I can’t believe this is happening. This is the greatest stuff. Oh my God. I record it on my phone — don’t tell anybody — and I listen to it over and over and over again. I just love it. It’s like one of the greatest things that’s ever happened to me.
And you still haven’t asked for his autograph?
KIRKMAN: I have not, but I do have his autograph. I have purchased his autograph. [Laughs]
That’s just crazy.
Peter Cullen on Creating the Voices of Optimus Prime, the ‘Predator,’ & More in Exclusive IMAX Q&A
Cullen also talks about the original ‘Transformers’ animated series, how the job has changed since the ‘80s, and so much more.
Have any of the voice actors improvised lines that made it into the final cut?
RACIOPPA: Oh, yeah. I wouldn’t say a huge amount. Jason Mantzoukas has done lines, Ben Schwartz all the time. He comes in and he just spits out crazy stuff, and we’re like, “Oh, put that in.” And Steven once in a while.
KIRKMAN: I think in Season 2, Mantzoukas came in and we were talking about Family Matters, and he just started making Urkel jokes. He would just be like, “Did I do that?” And so we threw out a challenge. I was like, “I want you to, at some point during this record, naturally work, ‘Did I do that’ into the line of dialogue. Just surprise us.” And he was like, “I accept the challenge.” And he did it, and it is in the show. There’s a scene in Season 2 where Rex says some joke, and then he goes, “Did I do that?” It’s totally improvised and totally because of that.
RACIOPPA: These sessions are long. We have to make our own fun sometimes.
When adapting the comics, what’s the hardest scene to bring to life without losing the impact?
KIRKMAN: If anything, adding motion and sound increases the impact naturally, so it’s not necessarily how do we keep from losing the impact of scenes when we adapt them? It’s how can we navigate how much we’re increasing it, I guess, if that makes sense. I’m sorry to answer a question seriously. I’ll stop doing that.
Have you ever written a scene and thought, “There’s no way we can actually animate this?”
RACIOPPA: Oh, yeah, that happens.
KIRKMAN: We’ve been told that many times.
RACIOPPA: They’ll be like, “We could just do this scene if you don’t want the rest of the episode.” With every show, you have this much money and this much time, and part of the job is deciding where to spend that. So you can put a lot of money and a lot of time into a very complicated scene, but then you’ve got to take it out somewhere else. So, it’s trying to find the balance across the episode.
But look, it’s a hand-drawn show. It’s drawn by people, not AI in Korea, so if you have two characters in a scene, all that has to be drawn. Those characters moving has to be drawn. Now you have five characters in a scene. Well, that’s three more characters that all have the same amount of work. So, once you start layering things like that, like moving characters and scenes, it adds up to the work that needs to be done for that shot. You do that over multiple scenes, and suddenlhy you’re like, “We just doubled the amount of time it will take to do these scenes.” So, you have to take that into account.
So you can 100% write big stuff that you’re just like, “It’s great on the page, but we’re never going to do that. Or we can maybe do it, but it’s not going to look great.” Like maybe the people in the background aren’t going to move very well, or they’re just going to be still a lot of time.” So, do you want to do it and have it not look great, or do you want to maybe rethink what you’re doing and find a different way to do it that will look good and still get you what you want?
What’s a scene that you want to point out that you guys did, even though you were told it was going to cost a ton and you’re going to put too many resources in, but you had to have the scene?
KIRKMAN: We called it the Monaco sequence when Conquest pushes Mark through. That took a lot of iterations just to figure out how it was doable. Because the subway sequence that we were trying to top and send up with that was very controlled because it was a subway train and the shots made sense and everything. Moving through locations as you move through a city was very difficult to navigate, and so that changed from how it was scripted because what was scripted was impossible to do.
RACIOPPA: Well, also, we’re a 2D show. There’s 3D animation, 2D animation, and we’re a 2D show, so there’s shots you can do that maybe people expect because they’ve seen great 3D shows that you can’t really do in a 2D show. Like, we can’t move the camera anywhere. We can’t do these crazy camera moves that they can do in 3D, because that’s not the style of animation that we do in our show. So, that’s part of it, too, is you can write “the camera swoops down and goes between all the Flaxans,” but that’s really hard to do in 2D and make it look good, so we don’t do that.
Our two supervising directors, Shaun O’Neil and Dan Duncan, are great at looking at the script and being like, “Hey, this is really cool, but we don’t think that’s going to look good. But what if we did this instead?” And finding those moments. We’re like, “Yeah, that sounds great. Let’s do that instead.”
Finding the Perfect ‘Invincible’ Season 4 Needle Drops
Kirkman and Racioppa discuss the Season 4 opening montage.
I truly love the beginning of Episode 1 of Season 4. You have this great song with this great montage, and it’s summing up the shit Mark’s going through and the desperation on the planet. How’d you guys come up with that song and montage, and how did you pick the song?
RACIOPPA: We went through so many iterations. Sometimes when you’re looking for needle drops, as opposed to score, which is done by our composer, sometimes you find the perfect one right away and you’re like, “Oh, this is the perfect song.” And we have a great music supervision team who helps us and gives us possible songs. That one took a lot of time. We were almost out of time on that to find the right one for that.
KIRKMAN: But it sounds like it worked out. But yeah, I remember seeing that with a lot of different iterations.
RACIOPPA: We tried a lot of different songs. That one was really hard. But it’s the start of a new season. We usually like to start a new season by reminding you where we are, which is basically the end of Season 3. This is only a few weeks after Season 3 ends, but we want to be like, “Hey, we’ve been away for a year. This is just a reminder of where we are, where Mark’s head is at, where the world is at. This is where we’re starting from in Season 4.”
Radiohead was fast, actually. We had, like, five songs we got and then we plugged that one in, and we’re like, “Oh, man, that one. That one,” right off the bat. So, that was easy. The Billie Eilish was the second round of tracks. But once we dropped it, we were like, “Yeah, that one. Obvious.”
One of the things that people don’t realize is when you’re making a montage like that, you have to figure out what the hell’s the montage?
RACIOPPA: That is the screenwriting job.
Exactly. But it’s really well done, so give props to whoever wrote the beginning of Episode 1.
RACIOPPA: That was Helen Leigh, who’s one of our writers who’s been on the show since Season 2. She’s great. She’s excellent.
KIRKMAN: Yeah. She worked on Outcast with me, and then she worked on Severance. She’s fantastic.
Besides who you just mentioned, there’s so many people behind the scenes that work on this show…
KIRKMAN: Yeah, but this is really about us.
Exactly. For each of you, who’s an unsung hero that you want to shine a light on, someone who’s really done some great work that maybe doesn’t get the flowers that you guys get?
KIRKMAN: I swear to god, if you say Ross Stracke.
RACIOPPA: [Laughs] Ross is one of our other writers.
KIRKMAN: Don’t even mention him. I’ll talk about this. This is terrible. This is terrible. I have this running joke where I like to say, “Shut up, Ross,” in front of the actors, because I think it’s funny. So we’ll be introduced to people, and they’ll be like, “So Ross Stracke, one of the writers is on here,” when we’re introducing everybody in the Zoom, and then I’ll just go, “Shut up, Ross,” and just see how the actor reacts.
RACIOPPA: The actors are not in on the joke.
KIRKMAN: No, they’re not in on the joke at all. So I think it’s funny because they’re probably like, “Is Robert a jerk?”
RACIOPPA: “Why is he so mean?”
KIRKMAN: “Is Robert not a cool dude? I don’t understand.” It makes me laugh, so I keep doing. I shouldn’t have talked about that. I have a really weird sense of humor that a lot of people find offputting.
But anyway, unsung hero: Dou Hong is our art director, and our art director is one of the most important jobs on the show. They define the look of the characters and they manage the whole team to look at the environments and everything. Cory Walker was our art director for Season 1 — you may have heard of him, co-creator — and really established the look at the show. Shaun O’Neil was the art director on Season 2, and then Shaun O’Neil moved into supervising directing with Dan Duncan. They became a team. And then Dou, who had been on Season 1 and Season 2, came into the art directing role and has been on it ever since. She’s just an absolutely essential part of the team.
RACIOPPA: Yeah, I would say Ross and Helen. I know, it’s terrible. Ross has been on the show since day one. He was like the third hire on the show, so he’s been around forever.
KIRKMAN: I have regrets.
RACIOPPA: Maybe he’s key to its success. I’ve never figured that. Like, he’s the one thing that’s been around since the start. No, our writing team is great. Everybody helps on everybody else’s scripts, too, because we work in a writers’ room. So you see a script that maybe I wrote, but what you don’t see is that everybody else helped contribute to that, gave me ideas for jokes. I do that for everybody else. They do that for each other. Everybody works as a team. Robert comes in and he’s like, “This is all terrible. Get rid of it all.” No, he’s got great ideas too.
KIRKMAN: No, I do that.
RACIOPPA: Yeah. So, the writing team, across every season.
Robert Kirkman Didn’t Even Know About These ‘Invincible’ Easter Eggs
“Oh, man. Look at that. That’s pretty cool.”
You already mentioned the dog, but are there any Easter eggs?
KIRKMAN: Let’s not bring that up again. I think between the dog and the “shut up, Ross,” I have turned everyone against me. Please still watch the show. There’s so many people that aren’t me that work on the show. Sorry. Go ahead.
Are there any Easter eggs or any little visual details that you want to point out that people might not have noticed?
KIRKMAN: Oh, I’m bad at this… I will be honest, I didn’t notice there’s a skull face that I didn’t notice until the trailer was released and people freeze framed it. I was like, “Oh, man. Look at that. That’s pretty cool.”
RACIOPPA: Another win for Kirkman!
KIRKMAN: Yeah, it’s great…There’s the Val quarter that shows up in the silo. The Val quarter is from the Atom Eve special, when Atom Eve is showing her powers to her friend Val, and she puts her on the quarter. Then it shows up again in Season 3, and I didn’t know that was in until it was talked about online by the fans. I was like, “Oh, we did the Val quarter. Okay, cool.”
RACIOPPA: The memorial wall, when we did the Chicago memorial, has got people’s names on it, so most of those are names of the crew.
KIRKMAN: Yeah, you can see one Ross Stracke’s name on that memorial if you’re so inclined.
RACIOPPA: One of the names is like Glacier Peanut Freeman, and people are like, “What’s that name?” It’s someone’s dog. Someone on the crew’s dog apparently died in Chicago. I mean, that’s sad. So, that’s two dead dogs in the show already.
KIRKMAN: Not enough, I say!
The ‘Invincible’ Creators Share Advice for Aspiring Creators
“Just start writing.”
There are a lot of people in this audience and watching online who would love to do what you guys do. I know that you’ve probably answered this a number of times, but what advice would you like to share if they’re interested in writing comics or if they’re interested in working in animation or showrunning an animated show at Prime Video?
KIRKMAN: Well, I feel like I’ve, tonight, done a masterclass in how not to handle a Q&A, so learn from my mistakes. I will think of a real answer while Simon talks.
RACIOPPA: Step one: Be Robert Kirkman. No, just start making stuff. Just start writing. If you want to be a writer, you can download scripts for every show now online, like the real scripts, not transcripts. Start reading scripts. Start trying to write them. Find other friends who want to do the same, online maybe, and just keep on doing it. The people who succeed in this are the people who don’t stop. You don’t give up. You’ve said that for comics, too, I think, basically. Just write them.
KIRKMAN: There’s really no excuse with YouTube and the internet and everything. It was much harder in the past. You can shoot short films on your phone. You can make comics, you can write scripts, and do all kinds of stuff. So yeah, if you want to be a writer, be a writer is really the advice. I don’t know why you would. It’s terrible. But if you do want to be a writer, that’s fine.
This is actually a serious question. Five years ago, everyone talked about AI, and I was like, “I’m not worried about AI, but talk to me in five or 10 years.” Now we’re at that five-year mark.
KIRKMAN: I’m pro AI. I’m kidding! I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. What am I, Ben Affleck? So we really wanted to get him on the show…
I was going to say, Ben is not on the show. But I am legitimately curious how you both feel about what’s going on with AI right now and all these different companies trying to make generative AI. It does feel like we’re on the precipice of something crazy.
RACIOPPA: Guys, don’t use AI. Don’t use AI to write your scripts. Seriously. One, it’s built on stuff stolen from other artists, other writers, other creators that are fed into a machine. It’s for people who want to be writers but don’t want to actually write, or people who want to be artists but don’t want to actually draw. They want to take the humanity out of that. So, don’t do that. Just write your scripts, draw your pictures, make your movies. Just do that. Do that.
KIRKMAN: Round of applause. I agree with Simon, so I’m going to assume half of those applause were for me. Recently, there was that fight scene between Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise where everybody was like, “Oh, Hollywood’s cooked.” That fight scene is such dog shit. I could not be more disgusted with people acting like that was anything other than trash. They came together and they completely killed all momentum, and then there’s like three seconds of literally rapid slap fighting that is absolutely insane, and it just shows you the limitations of this stuff.
I think that it makes videos that look somewhat real, and so that can be kind of scary, but I think that it it has so many limitations to it that I don’t actually think it’s going to be as dangerous — famous last words — but I don’t think it’s going to be as dangerous as the industry seems to think it is right now, because I don’t think it’s going to be able to do anything longer than half-watchable short clips for a very long time because it is a plagiarism machine.
Oh, absolutely.
RACIOPPA: Slop is the right word. If you want slop, you can have that. But if you want good stuff, practice your craft.
What Does an AI Actress Mean and How Will Tilly Norwood Affect Cinema, TV, and the World at Large?
This is the bad universe.
AUDIENCE: What’s your favorite death in Invincible so far?
RACIOPPA: It’s gotta be Rex.
KIRKMAN: Debbie, right?
RACIOPPA: Oh, wow. Spoiler!
KIRKMAN: Oh, shit! What season are we on?
RACIOPPA: Robert, why did you say that? Oh, no!
KIRKMAN: Oh no! [Laughs] Favorite death? Yeah, Rex. Rex is a good one.
RACIOPPA: Rex is the best.
KIRKMAN: It’s weird to have a favorite death. Which one made you the saddest? You go ahead real quick.
AUDIENCE: Is there a character from the comics you’re most excited for the show audience to finally meet?
KIRKMAN: Thragg, for sure. And Dinosaurus, but Thragg.
I actually have one other question. Is there any cool upcoming merch?
KIRKMAN: Do you count the Invincible VS video game as merch? Because I couldn’t be more excited for this 3v3 tag fighter that comes out on April 30th. It’s going to be absolutely excellent. It’s just this amazing Invincible fighting game. It’s got 18 fighters. It’s going to be awesome.
Which company is putting it out?
KIRKMAN: Skybound.
Is this a video game that’s going to make the release date?
KIRKMAN: It is going to make the release date, April 30th. It will definitely make its release date. It’s coming up. It’s very soon. We’re in a very good shape. And it’s on Steam. It’s on PlayStation 5. It’s on Xbox. It’s on everything.
Invincible Season 4 premieres on Prime Video on March 18.
- Release Date
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March 26, 2021
- Network
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Amazon Prime Video
- Franchise(s)
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Invincible
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In Dune: Part Two, Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) took the galactic throne and the hand of the ex-Emperor’s daughter, Princess Irulan (Florence Pugh), much to the displeasure of his Fremen lover, Chani (Zendaya), who subsequently disappeared into the desert. The two women didn’t get a chance to interact at the finale of that film, but with Dune: Part Three looming, they’re set to collide in a big way. Pugh and Zendaya talked about their character’s relationship at an exclusive event launching Dune: Part Three‘s trailer, which was attended by Collider’s Aidan Kelley.
During the question and answer event, Pugh had a mischievous question for co-star Zendaya:
At the end of the last movie, you ran away. I got Paul. Where are you now? Are you mad at me? Do you kinda like me? What do you like?
Zendaya couldn’t reveal much, but teased the relationship between the two characters (and praised the acting skills of Pugh):
We said the last time, the press, we only had one scene together, and we were far away, so we were like, “We hope we get more!” She’s absolutely phenomenal, and you guys will just have to see for yourself, because it’s quite the journey.
If you want to see for yourself (and you probably do), Dune: Part Three hits theaters on December 18, 2026.
What Do We Know About ‘Dune: Part Three’?
Taking place 17 years after the events of Dune: Part Two, Paul Atreides now rules the universe as the Emperor. Chani has borne him twins, Leto II and Ghanima (Nakoa-Wolf Momoa and Ida Brooke), but his rule is not a peaceful one: his name has become a killing word, and untold millions have died in his name. Meanwhile, a deadly menace threatens to end his rule: the shapeshifting Face Dancer Scytale (Robert Pattinson), who is the instrument of a galactic conspiracy to overthrow him. Meanwhile, Duncan Idaho (Jason Momoa), the loyal House Atreides swordmaster who was felled by the evil Harkonnens in Dune: Part One has returned to life…but is he friend or foe now? The film also stars Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, and Anya Taylor-Joy.
Dune: Part Three is directed by Denis Villeneuve; he also co-wrote the script with Jon Spaihts, adapting Frank Herbert‘s 1969 novel Dune Messiah. It is the third and final film in Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy.
Dune: Part Three will be released in theaters on December 18, 2026. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
- Release Date
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December 18, 2026
- Director
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Denis Villeneuve
- Writers
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Jon Spaihts, Denis Villeneuve, Frank Herbert
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will be privately visiting Australia next month, and are scheduled to take part in some business, philanthropy, and media ventures.
For her part, Meghan would be headlining a Sydney “ultimate girls’ weekend” retreat where she is expected to take photos and answer questions from paying vip guests.
However, the retreat is already coming under scrutiny as reports suggest the event’s hosts are wallowing in financial difficulties and are owing over 500,000 Australian dollars in taxes.
Meghan Markle’s Australian Retreat’s Host Embroiled In Financial Troubles
The PR agency responsible for organizing Meghan Markle’s upcoming appearance at an Australian “girls’ weekend” has reportedly entered liquidation, with reports suggesting the brand is owing more than half a million Australian dollars in taxes.
The “Her Best Life Retreat” is a first-of-its-kind seaside weekend outing by event company Besties, which was founded by radio host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson and Gemma O’Neill.
The pair tapped Meghan to headline the ultra-exclusive retreat, where women pay £1,705 [$2,275] for a nice timeout and also get to take pictures with the Duchess of Sussex over dinner.
However, the talent agency promoting the event is said to be having money problems, with owner O’Neill saying she can’t pay the huge tax bill because of a lack of savings and “limited income.”
A news.com.au report revealed that the brand, Gemmie Agency, went into voluntary liquidation in November, and owes $543,548 to the Australian Taxation Office, with another 3,300 owed to small business Jack Lawrence Accountants and Advisors.
The Meghan Markle Retreat Organizer Has Been Asked To Give An Account
The company hosting the weekend event, Besties Australia, was also mentioned in the insolvency report, as it was noted that it received a loan of $18,143 from the Gemmie Agency.
Besties Australia was registered by O’Neill in October 2022 in her role as director/secretary. However, the report states that she didn’t disclose any loans to related parties to administrators.
“The director (O’Neill) advised that this balance was incorrectly recorded by the Company’s former accountant and the transactions in the loan account were in respect of costs incurred by the Company, and not by Besties Australia,” the report states.
According to the Daily Mail, administrators have written to O’Neill requesting “a detailed explanation of the balance of that loan.”
She reportedly wrote to them back in February, stating that she couldn’t make any repayment contributions, as she has no available personal savings, limited income, and has failed to refinance her beachside apartment in Sydney.
More Troubles For The PR Agency
O’Neill seems to have endured more challenging situations as her star client, Jackie O, got embroiled in a public row with her KIIS FM radio partner, Kyle Sandilands, which led to their $100M contract being torn up.
Now, Jackie O is understood to have filed a wrongful termination suit against the network after she told executives she couldn’t “continue to work with Mr. Kyle Sandilands” following his comments.
Meanwhile, it remains unclear how the financial situation would affect Meghan’s meet and greet event from April 17 to 19.
Reports suggest the event will host more than 300 guests to a “VIP Experience” that includes a “group table photo with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex,” as well as the chance to hear her interviewed on stage during a two-night stay in a 5-star Sydney hotel.
It Is Unclear If Meghan Markle Would Be Paid For The
It appears the former “Suits” actress had nothing to do with the booking, which was seemingly handled by her friend Markus Anderson.
The organizer, O’Neill, claims Anderson reached out to her and suggested that Meghan be their guest of honor.
Whether or not the Duchess of Sussex would be paid an appearance fee of some sort remains unknown, as the event coincides with her and Harry’s trip to Australia next month.
However, royal experts have suggested she’ll appear as a “paid celebrity,” with one insider comparing her to former Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, saying, “she’s basically Fergie,” per the Daily Mail.
Meghan Markle Was ‘Horrified’ Over A Leaked Email Which Revealed Details About Her Retreat
Meanwhile, Meghan is understood to be uneasy after details of her upcoming Australian trip were leaked.
“She was horrified when word got out, ahead of the official announcement, that she would be appearing at a women’s retreat in Sydney,” a source told New Idea.
They continued, “She likes to be in control, and the chaotic announcement about her arrival was anything but polished. While a leak about the trip isn’t the end of the world, Meghan’s losing sleep at what else could come out.”
Meghan is said to have taken measures to fish out where the leak came from, as she also worries about what other private information may surface.
“She is on a mission to find out who leaked the information. It’s made the working environment around her office very tense,” the source added.
Entertainment
“The Madison”'s Elle Chapman breaks down that hilarious hornet scene: 'You really have to commit'
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The actress tells EW all about having to “scream and run and grab my ass” on her very first day of filming.
Keith Urban is reportedly struggling with an emotional setback after his daughter, Sunday Rose, appeared to overlook him in a recent interview.
The moment has sparked fresh attention around his post-divorce life with Nicole Kidman, as insiders claim the country star has been quietly dealing with the fallout while trying to maintain a brave face.
Sunday Rose Praises Nicole Kidman In Candid Interview
Sunday Rose, 17, opened up about her early influences in a recent interview with Elle Australia, placing her mother, Nicole Kidman, firmly at the center of her inspiration.
The young model spoke warmly about growing up around creativity and how it shaped her path.
“My mum is someone who has always been so creative and my biggest inspiration in life,” Sunday Rose told the publication. “She is a key part of everything I do.”
She also revealed the practical guidance she has received from her mother while building her modeling career. “The biggest piece of industry advice Mum has given to me is to always be on time,” she said.
While her comments painted a close bond with Kidman, the absence of any mention of her father quickly became a talking point.
Keith Urban Reportedly Left Numb By The Omission
Sources suggest the interview struck a nerve for Keith Urban, who was noticeably absent from his daughter’s reflections.
According to an insider who spoke to New Idea, the reaction has been deeply personal.
“Keith doesn’t know what to say, but he’s trying to put on a brave front,” the source said. “He knows he has to be patient; however, this latest snub – so publicly, there in black and white – has stumped him.”
The situation has reportedly left the singer feeling shaken, especially given how visible the omission was.
For someone used to life in the spotlight, the emotional weight of the moment appears to have landed hard.
Keith Urban Navigates Life After Divorce And Custody Shift
The development comes months after Urban and Nicole Kidman finalized their divorce following nearly two decades of marriage.
Their separation, announced last September and finalized in January, marked a major shift in their family dynamic.
As part of their agreement, Kidman was granted the majority of custody of their daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret, 15.
Under the parenting plan, she will spend 306 days each year with them, while Keith Urban will have 59 days.
The limited time together has been noticeable publicly. Keith Urban has not been seen with his daughters since December 2024, when the family gathered in Australia for Christmas following the passing of Kidman’s mother, Janelle.
Even before that, their last official public appearance as a family dates back to July 2024, when they attended the Paris Olympics to support Australian skateboarder Chloe Covell.
Keith Urban’s Reported Solitary Life In Nashville
Away from public appearances, reports suggest Urban has embraced a quieter, more isolated lifestyle.
According to Woman’s Day, the singer has been living a largely solitary existence in Nashville when he is not spending time with his children.
The shift is said to extend beyond geography, with claims that he has distanced himself from parts of his past life.
“He’s now living a life that’s been completely purged of everyone to do with his past life,” a source said per the Daily Mail.
The reported changes hint at a broader personal reset, as Keith Urban adjusts to life after his long-term relationship and the restructuring of his family life.
Nicole Kidman Speaks Out As Family Moves Forward
As attention continues to build around the family, Nicole Kidman has also addressed her mindset following the divorce.
In a recent interview with Variety, the actress reflected on her outlook and priorities moving forward.
“I’m always going to be moving toward what’s good. What I’m grateful for is my family and keeping them as is and moving forward,” Kidman said.
She also acknowledged that the past year had been a period of introspection and change. “Well, not last year. I was quiet. I had other things going on. I was in my shell,” she added.
Despite the emotional complexities, the former couple’s split was handled with minimal public conflict.
Legal documents confirmed they waived claims to spousal and child support, choosing instead to handle their own legal expenses.
While both Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman continue to move forward in their own ways, the recent interview moment shows how deeply personal changes can still resonate publicly, especially when family ties are involved.
Jeff Goldblum and his wife are facing backlash online after stepping out in a bold fashion statement that has ignited debate across social media. The couple’s look, featuring what appears to be genuine skunk fur, quickly drew criticism from fans and animal rights advocates alike, with PETA issuing a strong response and commenters flooding the post with mixed reactions.
PETA Issues Strong Statement
Not long after the image began circulating, PETA weighed in with a pointed response condemning the use of real fur.
“Fur is fur, no matter when the skunks were killed. Calling it ‘vintage’ doesn’t erase the cruelty,” they wrote, adding a skunk emoji and a broken heart emoji. “Wearing this look sends a dangerous message that torturing and killing animals for fashion is acceptable. Faux and vegan materials deliver the same drama without taking lives.”
Social Media Users Call The Look ‘Disappointing’
Many commenters echoed similar concerns in response to the photo, criticizing the couple for their fashion choice. “So disappointing. Can you two really be so out of touch as to wear real fur?” one user asked. “Vintage or not, wearing real fur promotes all fur. With gorgeous faux and other materials widely available, there’s just no excuse. Please do better.”
Others questioned why alternative materials weren’t used instead. “Why not fake fur?!” another asked, adding a thumbs down emoji.
While much of the reaction was critical, some users took a lighter or more humorous approach when reacting to the image. “Y’all are like the energy of supervillains but make them fun nice people,” someone said.
Another commenter joked about the dramatic nature of the photo shoot itself. “This looks less like a photoshoot and more like two luxury villains negotiating the fate of Europe over espresso,” the user commented.
PETA Previously Called Out Lady Gaga Over Feathered Grammy Look
The backlash surrounding Jeff Goldblum’s look comes just weeks after PETA took aim at another major star, Lady Gaga, over her fashion choices on one of music’s biggest stages.
The 39-year-old pop icon made headlines after delivering a dramatic, rock-leaning performance of her hit “Abracadabra” at the Grammys. Embracing a more theatrical style, Gaga performed solo, skipping the full group of dancers from the music video and instead commanding the stage on her own.
Mostly hidden beneath an elaborate, eye-like headpiece and dramatic feathered styling, Gaga delivered the performance with intensity, earning a standing ovation from the crowd as the cameras captured the audience rising to their feet.
However, not everyone was impressed.
Lady Gaga’s Grammy Performance Draws Backlash
Shortly after the performance, PETA criticized the singer’s feather-heavy look, sharing a graphic that read,
“Lady Gaga, let birds keep their feathers,” along with a message calling out the use of feathers in fashion. The organization argued that feathers “belong on birds” and suggested the look sent the wrong message, especially during such a high-profile broadcast.
While PETA’s criticism gained traction online, not everyone was convinced the outrage was warranted. Several commenters pointed out that Gaga has publicly moved away from animal-derived fashion in recent years, suggesting the materials used in her performance may not have been real.
“How are we sure it’s not faux feathers?” one person wrote, while another added, “How does anyone know if they’re real or fake? That’s kind of hard to tell just from a photo.”
“Is there evidence that they’re real?” a third fan asked. “Gaga stopped wearing outfits made from animal origins years ago. A lot of her fans are animalists.”
Who Is PETA? The Outspoken Animal Rights Group Behind The Backlash
PETA, short for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is one of the world’s most high-profile animal rights organizations and has built a reputation for calling out celebrities over their fashion choices.
The group has long campaigned against the use of fur, feathers, leather, and other animal-derived materials, frequently aiming at stars who wear them on red carpets, in performances, or in editorial shoots.
But despite PETA’s outspoken history on the issue, Jeff Goldblum and his wife have remained silent following the backlash.
Virgin River fans have watched the beloved cast change on and off screen for years and ahead of the show’s series finale.
Based on Robyn Carr’s book series, Virgin River follows the lives of residents living in a small town in Northern California, including Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson). The hit series, which premiered in 2019, also stars Colin Lawrence, Annette O’Toole, Tim Matheson, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Sarah Dugdale, Zibby Allen, Marco Grazzini and Kai Bradbury.
Netflix’s hit series is seven seasons in – but it seems like much less time has passed for the residents of Virgin River.
“It’s been [around] six months,” Hollingsworth exclusively told Us Weekly in March 2026 of the time jump between seasons. “It was what everyone figured out it was, which is nuts.”
Grazzini had a different theory, however, sharing with Us in a separate interview, “It’s been about a year and a half, right? Because, if you think about it, it’s been about a year and a half from season 1 because that’s when Charmaine got pregnant.”
He continued, “Now her twins are a couple months old so let’s call it nine months plus five months. Just over a year.”
Allen’s suggestion regarding the amount of time between seasons fell somewhere in the middle. “I think it’s been a year and a half — like a year and three months,” she noted to Us. “I know the writers told us once and I just forgot.”
Scroll down to see then-and-now photos of Virgin River stars:
Alexandra Breckenridge
Since bringing the lead role of Mel to life, Alexandra Breckenridge has appeared on Cast Away Sorta, My Secret Santa and Love in Store.
Martin Henderson
Martin Henderson has scored roles in X, The Gloaming, My Life is Murder and Madam since joining Virgin River as Jack.
Colin Lawrence
In addition to playing Preacher, Colin Lawrence has appeared in Christmas in Evergreen: Bells are Ringing, Morning Show Mysteries, Dancing Through the Snow and Napa Ever After.
Lauren Hammersley
Lauren Hammersley pulled double duty as Charmaine on Virgin River and Connie on Sullivan’s Crossing. She also appeared in Hallmark’s Christmas Island.
Annette O’Toole
After scoring the role of Hope, Annette O’Toole has also been in The Good Doctor, Kidding and Search Party.
Tim Matheson
Annette O’Toole’s onscreen love interest Tim Matheson, meanwhile, has appeared on This Is Us, Evil, Quantum Leap and 9-1-1: Nashville while playing Doc.
While Virgin River is Netflix’s longest-running scripted series, viewers have been left confused about how much time has actually passed on the show. Based on Robyn Carr’s book series, Virgin River follows the lives of residents living in a small town in Northern California, including Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack (Martin Henderson). The hit series, […]
Benjamin Hollingsworth
Ben Hollingsworth won Us over in the role of Brady, but he has also appeared on A Godwink Christmas: Meant for Love, Love Under the Olive Tree, Debris and Joe Pickett. He has also scored roles in A Splash of Love, Romance in Style, So Help Me Todd, Deck the Halls on Cherry Lane and The Christmas Ring.
Sarah Dugdale
After booking the role of Lizzy, Sarah Dugdale has appeared on Dial S for Santa, Season’s Greetings from Cherry Lane and Allegiance.
Zibby Allen
Zibby Allen has appeared on Nancy Drew, The Good Doctor, The Vows We Keep, Lies Between Friends and more while also filming scenes as Brie for Virgin River.
Marco Grazzini
Marco Grazzini can be seen in Close Up, Right in Front of Me, Designing Christmas, Hearts in the Game and Haunted Harmony Mysteries: Murder in G Major after playing Mike.
Entertainment
“Summer House” midseason trailer shows Ciara and West's relationship implode, Kyle’s epic meltdown (exclusive)
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“F— everybody.”
Entertainment
Spielberg’s Netflix Sleeper Hit Has the Perfect Replacement 15-Episode Series on Apple TV
Did Steven Spielberg just make a successful return to the world of dinosaurs? You bet Jurass-ic he did, and his collaboration with Netflix, the documentary miniseries The Dinosaurs, immediately hit #1 on global streaming charts upon its release of all four episodes on March 6. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, The Dinosaurs winningly charts the rise and eventual fall of the great creatures, a brutal and unforgiving CGI journey with an attention to detail that puts the docuseries above anything else like it. If you’re looking for another incredible documentary series with a similar focus on dinosaurs, then Apple TV’s Prehistoric Planet is the perfect replacement.
What Is Apple TV’s ‘Prehistoric Planet’ About?
Prehistoric Planet, simply defined, is a 15-episode documentary series about dinosaurs told across three seasons, from the Late Cretaceous period 66 million years ago through to the Ice Age. But the way the series approaches dinosaurs is unlike anything else, simply by being exactly like something else: a nature documentary. It remembers that dinosaurs were animals first, monsters second, stepping away from the conventional eat-or-be-eaten that most dinosaur fare falls into, including The Dinosaurs. As such, it creates a relatability that others lack: no one understands being eaten by a T. Rex (except lawyers), but the frantic search for your baby, as befalls a Triceratops mother in Season 1’s “Forests,” connects.
Prehistoric Planet began over a decade ago with BBC Studios creative director Michael Gunton, who came up with the idea of doing a natural history documentary like the BBC’s Planet Earth, only with dinosaurs: how did they live, migrate, mate, raise their offspring, and so on. Great idea, wrong time. The technology available then simply wasn’t up to the project’s requirements, and with no actual dinosaurs to film, that was problematic. Enter Jon Favreau, who met with Gunton and showrunner Tim Walker in London years later. As Walker recalls: “Jon came in and sat down; we got chatting and he flipped his iPad open and said, ‘Let me show you some of the stuff we’ve been doing.’ It was The Lion King.“
Just like that, the company behind the stunningly life-like effects behind The Lion King, MPC, were tasked with creating the dinosaurs, two-time Oscar winner Hans Zimmer was brought in to compose the score, and nature documentary veteran Sir Richard Attenborough came in to narrate, replaced by Tom Hiddleston for the third season’s focus on the Ice Age. But what truly puts Prehistoric Planet “above anything else like it” are top-to-bottom commitments, both to the latest in palaeontological research, under the watchful eye of chief scientific consultant and palaeozoologist Darren Naish, and to its focus on dinosaur life, refreshingly keeping away from the catastrophic event that ended it.
Apple TV’s ‘Prehistoric Planet’ Is Proof the Streamer Thrives When It Leans Into Science
It could be argued that Prehistoric Planet is as good as it is, in large part, thanks to being on Apple TV in the first place. Apple TV thrives when it leans into science, creating a host of exceptional documentaries that range from biographies and politics to nature and society. The documentaries matter, and the high-end production quality – advanced CGI, customized cameras, cinematic-level scores and editing – is testament to it. Seasoned vets like Attenborough, Paul Rudd, and Hugh Bonneville exude an air of authenticity with their narrations. Not to mention, Apple TV is the best streamer for sci-fi, with exceptional series like Severance, Pluribus, Foundation, and For All Mankind.
The Best Jurassic Movie in a Decade Is Dominating 2 Streaming Services
A sequel is reportedly in early development at Universal.
Plus, as with Prehistoric Planet, there’s a commitment to accuracy — buoyed by collaborations with researchers and scientists — that is laudable. It even extends to other projects like Extrapolations, which earned plaudits from scientists for its precise depiction of global warming. Those elements alone aren’t enough to separate the Apple TV documentary from its kin, but its focus on unique, rarely covered moments in nature does. Take The Secret Lives of Animals, for one, which shows navigation signposts made by a wood mouse, or a frog that turns invisible: it’s easy to build a documentary narrative around the predator-prey dynamic, but quite another to make the everyday lives of animals utterly fascinating.
Prehistoric Planet fits right in to that Apple TV formula, and while the everyday actions of dinosaurs that it showcases are speculative, it rings true. The series also goes beyond the fan-favorite dinosaurs to include the likes of Kaikaifilu, a seagoing lizard with flippers and a tail fin, and Qianzhousaurus, an Asian-tyrannosaur whose long snout earned it the moniker “Pinocchio Rex.” Prehistoric Planet takes the route of its Apple TV relations, while The Dinosaurs has the markings of Spielberg’s cinematic touch. The two complement each other in conventional and unconventional ways, making Prehistoric Planet the perfect replacement for The Dinosaurs, and vice-versa.
Entertainment
Jason Statham Suits Up in First Set Video From Guy Ritchie’s New Mystery Crime Thriller
The badass action icon Jason Statham has made an impressive five movies alongside acclaimed director Guy Ritchie. Beginning in 1998 with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which was Statham’s debut role, their now-famed partnership has stretched for over 25 years and included hits such as Snatch, Revolver, Wrath of Man, and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. It is fair to say that, whenever a project between the two is announced, the action-loving world is gripped.
Well, that’s exactly what happened in late October last year, when it was confirmed that the pair would tackle the long-awaited Viva La Madness, a new action-thriller based on J.J. Connolly’s 2011 novel, the follow-up to Layer Cake. Billed as a stand-alone feature that won’t directly follow Matthew Vaughn’s 2004 cult hit, Viva La Madness already boasts a star-studded line-up, with Statham joined by the likes of Vinnie Jones (The Gentlemen), Jason Isaacs of The White Lotus fame, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds star Babs Olusanmokun, Camila Mendes (Masters of the Universe), Ben Foster, Jonny Lee Miller, and Raúl Alejandro.
Filming on Viva La Madness reportedly began in London last month and has now moved to Malta. Excitingly, thanks to a video circulating on social media, we now have our first look at Statham suited and booted, in the middle of production on the movie. Against a luxurious backdrop, Statham is surrounded by the crew and seemingly checking his script before action is called. The appearance of a boat in the background hopefully confirms that this upcoming feature will be as grand as other recent Statham/Ritchie projects.
The Fighting Irishman — The Collider Movie Quiz!
It’s St. Patrick’s Day; the perfect opportunity to hit the Notre Dame gridiron with Martin Scorsese. Rudy meets The Irishman today.
You Can Rent Jason Statham’s Latest Actioner
Debuting in January 2026, Statham’s latest actioner, Shelter, was recently awarded the approval of Stephen King, who took to social media to praise the project. On Bluesky, King wrote, “The new Jason Statham movie is terrific. The perfect antidote to Trump’s foolishness.” Helmed by Ric Roman Waugh, the movie was unable to return its reported $50 million in a disappointing box office run and is now available to rent on VOD.
For the latest updates on the biggest movies, make sure to stay tuned to Collider.
- Release Date
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January 30, 2026
- Runtime
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107 minutes
- Director
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Ric Roman Waugh
- Writers
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Ward Parry
- Producers
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Greg Silverman, Jason Statham, Jon Berg, John Friedberg, Brendon Boyea
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I write about fashion for a living. Most people assume that means I exclusively wear designer clothing, but that’s far from the truth. In fact, most of my wardrobe comes from Amazon, something few people believe.
Amazon has stepped up their fashion game over the past few years, offering high-quality items that are trendy yet timeless. The following 18 items are some of my favorite purchases that have earned me tons of compliments. From comfy lounge sets, to chic flats and jeans that hug every curve, these are the things every fashion lover should buy at Amazon.
My Most-Complimented Amazon Fashion Finds, Starting at $9
Loungesets
1. Airport Necessity: As a frequent flyer, this relaxed yet stylish lounge set has become my plane essential because of how comfortable it is.
2. Cute Enough for Brunch: I’ll always pick a lounge set over jeans. This sleek pick is chic enough to wear out for elevated meals — I just throw on a pair of heels and feel like a rich woman.
3. Mix and Match: I love how this lounge set comes with three pieces — pillowy joggers, a fitted cropped tank and an oversized cardigan. Each element is versatile enough to wear with other items, including jeans and skirts!
Refreshing your wardrobe can be a pricey venture, but not on Amazon! It’s an undercover hub for expensive-looking pieces, with a spring collection that takes polished to a whole new level. We sifted through and found 21 rich mom pieces, each with a classy, boutique-like appeal. These chic blouses, dreamy dresses, trendy trousers and beyond […]
Jeans
4. Low Rider: I refused to embrace low-rise jeans until I tried this Levi’s pair. They sit nicely on my hips and don’t make me feel like my belly is flooding over. Plus, because I have a short torso, these make my body look more proportional.
5. Forget Blue: Brown is one of the most flattering colors (and it’s very popular right now!). I added this light brown denim to my closet to elevate my outfits. They look a bit more elegant than your standard blue jeans.
6. Patchwork: The cute patch pockets on these jeans always spark a conversation, probably because they’re adorable and add a bit of personality!
Trousers
7. So Posh: After purchasing these wide leg dress pants, I finally understood the hype with the trend. I feel so sophisticated every time I wear them, even if I’m just wearing a simple tee and white sneakers.
8. I Mean Business: When I have an important day at work, these slim trousers never fail me. I feel like such a boss when I slip into them!
9. Summertime Vibes: These trousers are made from lightweight cotton for a more casual look. I find them to be ideal for summer Fridays, or even relaxed evenings spent by the pier.
Tops
10. I Own Five: My stylist told me a sleek button down is one of the most important articles of clothing you can own, so I bought five of this anti-wrinkle striped blouse. I wear it once a week!
11. Stripes Forever: I never knew how versatile stripes were until I bought this pretty puff-sleeved tee. I adore how simple it is, and it really ties together some of my favorite outfits too.
12. One Small Detail: The cowl neck on this ribbed sweater takes it from every day to elegant. I always wear this with my favorite jeans and heels for date night.
Shoes
13. Fiery Steps: I dreamed of owning red sling-back flats for months, and this style is better than I ever imagined. The faux-leather is soft and supple, and they’re extra comfortable.
14. Like Walking on Clouds: Don’t sleep on Dr. Scholl’s! These white sneaks are so stylish and offer awesome arch support so I can walk for miles and miles pain-free.
15. Walk on the Wild Side: I finally caved in to the animal print trend with these chic leopard mesh flats. I love that they’re neutral and go with most things in my closet.
Handbags
16. Statement-Making Bag: Style tip — I add color to my outfit with a fun accessory, like this red leather satchel that looks much more expensive than it is and comes with a crossbody strap.
17. Woven Wonder: The textured design on this bag adds dimension to my entire outfit. I own this in the brown, but plan on purchasing another color because I always get compliments and it holds my belongings perfectly.
18. Early Aughts Called: Turn-of-the-century designs are trending, and I can’t get enough of this buckled bag that reminds me of my favorite 2000s movies like Mean Girls and She’s The Man.
If your Amazon cart has been working overtime lately, you’re definitely not alone. February brought a wave of fashion finds that shoppers couldn’t stop adding to their wish lists, from easy tops that instantly elevate denim to comfortable sets made for busy days on the go. There’s something undeniably satisfying about discovering pieces that thousands […]
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