Editor’s note: The below interview contains spoilers for Paradise Season 2 Episode 6.

As Hulu’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi series Paradise heads into its last few episodes, things have never been more intense for these characters. Not only has the Dan Fogelman-created series widened its scope beyond the Colorado bunker to reveal what life has been like for the people struggling to survive on the surface, but the situation inside Paradise has become even more intense, with Sinatra (Julianne Nicholson) seizing her power back with the help of a truly unpredictable wildcard in Jane Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom). Other characters have already become caught in the crossfire, including Nicole Robinson (Krys Marshall), who’s sent to Paradise’s underground prison after being framed for murder, and Dr. Gabriela Torabi (Sarah Shahi), who’s beginning to seriously question Sinatra’s true intentions.

Ahead of the Season 2 premiere, Collider had the opportunity to speak with several cast members, including Bloom, Marshall, and Shahi, about some of their characters’ most pivotal moments over the first six episodes. Over the course of the interview, which you can watch above or read below, the women of Paradise discuss Robinson’s tougher side, Jane’s incredibly dark and complicated backstory, and Torabi’s increasing doubts about whether Sinatra’s goals are really the best thing for humanity in the long run.

COLLIDER: Krys, in Season 2, we see Robinson knocked down a little bit after her role in the resistance last season, but she’s too tough to be completely knocked out. What did you enjoy about getting to showcase more of that physical and mental toughness when the chips are down for her, especially once she’s framed for murder that season?

KRYS MARSHALL: Robinson is tough as nails, and it is so fun to get to be a woman playing a woman who is just so strong. I feel like her vulnerability, we got to see last season, we got to see a woman in love, in this sort of unrequited, complicated love relationship. So, I think to play her in Season 2 and know that the love story is set to the side, and now, she’s just this badass who is kicking butt and taking names, was just delicious to play.

Nicole, Jane has been such a big question mark in this show, but in Season 2, we finally get a glimpse of who she is at her core. What was most appealing to you about getting to delve into her backstory? Because we see some really defining events that seem to shape her into who she is in the present.

NICOLE BRYDON BLOOM: It’s always useful to get to explore that side of a character, go back in time. The young actress who played little Jane was just so beautiful and sweet, but her intensity that she brought to it helped me place where Jane has grown from there. I still have a lot of questions, but it definitely helps to have some clarity. It was really fun to explore that side of her.

Related

3 Episodes In, ‘Paradise’ Season 2 Just Confirmed the Bunker’s Biggest Threat

A wolf in sheep’s clothing might tear everything apart.

‘Paradise’s Sarah Shahi Explains Why Gabriela Is More Motivated To Take Down Sinatra Than Ever

“I think she was able to see the humanity in the monster because she understood her from such a different place…”

Image via Hulu

Sarah, Torabi’s always had these little misgivings about Sinatra, despite their long friendship and the history there, but Season 2 really seems to mark a shift in their dynamic that can’t really be walked back from. We see Torabi doing a little bit of self-surveillance with bugging the office and whatnot, and now, heading into the back half of the season, Jane catches on to what’s going on there. When you’re approaching her mindset this season, what do you think is driving Torabi most in this mission to unearth the truth about what’s really going on in the bunker?

SARAH SHAHI: I feel like, from day one, I felt that she was different, and initially, it was not a difference that I liked. I feel like everyone straddles a line of morality in some way or another, but Gabriela did not as much. She felt very earnest. I think the thing that I always go back to with her is, in this world where morality does get crossed, and good versus bad, people at the top, the people at the bottom, and those lines are very distinguished, she just wants what’s for the highest good of everybody. She really does have an altruistic sense about her.

So, to be able to look at it from that angle and to also see that, as a therapist, she sees many red flags, and Sinatra is like, “Let me walk towards that.” It’s like, “No, you should walk away from that,” you know? I think she was able to see the humanity in the monster because she understood her from such a different place than everybody else did. But, as you said, the writing on the wall just becomes all too clear, and it’s for the good of humanity that she needs to do what she does.

The Women of ‘Paradise’ Reveal What They Loved About Getting to Share More Scenes in Season 2

“We got to do some fun fight training.”

Image via Hulu

It’s nice to get to see more scenes between the three of you this season — not a group scene, necessarily. Your characters do get more of a chance to face off in a way that is clearly adversarial, but also just so fun to watch. What did the three of you enjoy about getting to share more scenes together this season?

BLOOM: We got to do some fun fight training.

MARSHALL: Some really fun stuff. Nicole is such a little sweetheart in real life that to get to kick her ass is kind of tough because she’s just such a little cuddlebug. But I really enjoyed the fight training that we did. Nicole and I spent weeks in MMA fight training to get into our bodies what it’s like to choke a person out, to slit a person’s throat. So, that was really fun.

I also love that throughout our story, we see Agent Robinson has always got a beat. She’s always watching and seeing what’s going on. So, while everyone else has the wool pulled over their eyes about who Jane actually is, Robinson sees something early on and is like, “Wait a minute, I’m not buying this.” So, it felt very delicious to watch that come to the head.

BLOOM: Yeah, it was really fun getting to have that moment with you. And then we get to come a little toe-to-toe.

SHAHI: Ours was more of a cat-and-mouse type of situation. We didn’t have anything physical. I was mostly with Julianne [Nicholson] last season and didn’t really get to experience these other brilliant actresses in the way that I was able to more so this year. So, it’s good to be able to have scenes with Nicole.

And I only had one with you, [Krys]. That’s the thing about the show, too, is there’s such a large cast and large casts can go so many different places. I spent the entire season barely even seeing Julianne or Sterling [K. Brown]. But yeah, we had some fun cat-and-mouse stuff to do. The paranoia was fun.

New episodes of Paradise Season 2 premiere Mondays on Hulu.

When Leonardo DiCaprio stepped onto the Oscars red carpet, fans immediately sensed something had changed. 

Known for staying low-key and often shielding himself from cameras, the actor surprised many with a noticeably sharper appearance. 

From a slimmer frame to a fresh grooming style, his transformation quickly became one of the night’s biggest talking points. 

As reactions flooded social media, experts and insiders began weighing in on what could really be behind his striking new look.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Red Carpet Appearance Leaves Fans Talking

Leonardo DiCaprio’s arrival at the Academy Awards should have been routine, as he was nominated for Best Actor for “One Battle After Another.”

However, while Michael B. Jordan ultimately took home the award for “Sinners,” it was DiCaprio’s appearance that dominated conversation.

Social media lit up almost instantly, with fans reacting to his slimmer face and updated grooming. 

Some were clearly impressed, with one person admitting that they didn’t expect the actor to look “kind of hot” and another adding that he looked better than he had in a while.

Others, however, focused on how different he looked compared to recent years. His fuller appearance in the past decade became part of the discussion, with some suggesting he had finally shed that look. 

Although a few credited his mustache and styling, others believed something more significant had changed behind the scenes.

The buzz only intensified as viewers compared his current look to previous red carpet appearances, with many agreeing that something about him felt noticeably refreshed.

DiCaprio’s Lifestyle Habits Come Under Scrutiny

As speculation grew, attention turned to DiCaprio’s long-known lifestyle. 

The “Titanic” star has often been associated with Hollywood’s party scene, including luxury yacht trips in places like St Barts and the south of France, where he has frequently been photographed smoking and drinking.

Leonardo DiCaprio once revealed he would order two drinks at once, one caffeinated and one alcoholic, though he has also insisted he has never done hard drugs, seeing how damaging they can be.

Smoking, however, has remained a visible habit over the years. He has often been photographed with cigarettes or vapes, and even shared that attempts to quit once led to intense side effects, including “bloodcurdling nightmares of mass murders” while filming “Shutter Island.”

Experts now believe that even small changes to these habits could significantly impact his appearance. Cutting back on alcohol, in particular, may play a major role.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, facial plastic surgeon, Dr Anil Shah, explained, “Alcohol is a toxin and studies show that it will age you faster, including your brain, your skin, your face – everything.”

Vittoria Ceretti’s Relationship With Leonardo DiCaprio Raises Questions

Another major piece of the puzzle may be DiCaprio’s relationship with Vittoria Ceretti. The pair, who have been together since 2023, made their Oscars debut as a couple, sitting side by side during the ceremony.

Insiders suggest she may have influenced his recent changes. One source shared, “Leo has shed pounds before, but this time is different because it isn’t for a movie role.” 

They added, “He is getting healthy and fit to keep up with Vittoria. She’s a great influence on him, and he is very much in love with her. She’s a part of his world now, and he intends on keeping it that way.”

Another insider echoed that sentiment, noting, “Vittoria is enjoying her new man so to speak, she is very happy with him and being several pounds under the weight he was at only a few months ago is only a good thing.”

The source also clarified that the model was never turned off by DiCaprio’s previous appearance. 

Recent vacation photos also support this shift, showing the 51-year-old looking noticeably slimmer and more relaxed while spending time with her.

DiCaprio’s New Look Sparks Ozempic And Health Speculation

In recent years, no celebrity transformation has gone without speculation, and the case of Leonardo DiCaprio is no different. 

Some fans have pointed to the rising popularity of GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, which are known to aid weight loss and reduce cravings.

Experts have acknowledged the possibility but also stressed that it is not the only explanation. One explained, “GLP-1’s can be super powerful for addiction and cravings, so if he did this as a way of curbing his appetite for alcohol, that’s okay.”

At the same time, they emphasized that the change could be entirely natural. “However, it’s very possible that he may have just made a profound lifestyle change and we’re just witnessing that,” the expert added, praising the visible results.

Others have suggested his current work schedule, possibly stepping away from long vacations and focusing on filming, could also contribute to a healthier routine.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s Look Reflects A Bigger Hollywood Shift

DiCaprio’s evolving look doesn’t exist in isolation. It reflects a larger shift happening across Hollywood, especially among male actors.

According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, more men are now seeking cosmetic treatments than ever before. 

Experts say the stigma around male grooming and procedures is fading, with many viewing it as part of maintaining confidence and longevity in the industry.

As Dr. Anthony Brissett, the president of the AAFPRS, noted, “We’re seeing a real shift in how men approach cosmetic surgery.” 

He explained that what once centered on gym routines has expanded into aesthetic treatments, with men now seeking to look “rested, healthy, and confident” without obvious signs of work. 

He added, “Advancements in technology have made facial plastic surgery more precise, less invasive, and far more natural-looking.”

At the same time, public scrutiny has intensified. Actors like Jim Carrey have recently faced similar speculation, with fans even questioning whether his altered appearance meant he was a “clone,” a claim later shut down.

In that context, DiCaprio’s transformation feels less like an isolated change and more like part of an evolving Hollywood standard, where lifestyle, image, and perception are constantly under the spotlight.

“Who hates me?” That’s the key question Keanu Reeves asks in the first trailer for the new Apple film Outcome, and he’s not going to like the answer he gets. Reeves played a fading movie star in the satirical black comedy; it was directed by, co-written, and co-stars Jonah Hill. It will premiere on AppleTV on April 10, 2026.

In the trailer, Reeves stars as Reef Hawk, the world’s biggest movie star. After leading three of the biggest franchises in Hollywood history, he took a five-year sabbatical…during which, unbeknownst to the public, he was battling an addiction to heroin. Now, he’s preparing to make a comeback, only for a reputation-destroying video to suddenly surface. But who could hate him enough to release it? It seems that the answer is “pretty much everybody,” except for Xander and Kyle (Matt Bomer and Cameron Diaz), the only two friends he hasn’t managed to alienate…yet.

And so, with the aid of crisis lawyer Ira Slitz (Hill, unrecognizable with a bald pate and a gray beard) and his crack team of damage control professionals, Reef sets out to right all his old wrongs, and to find out who sold him up the river. But as he travels LA to apologize to friends, colleagues, and even his own mother, who are his apologies even for? And if this many people hate his guts, does it even matter who loathes him enough to release the tape? You’ll find out this April, exclusively on AppleTV.

Who Are the Creatives Behind ‘Outcome’?

In addition to Reeves, Hill, Bomer, and Diaz, Outcome boasts a star-studded cast. It includes Susan Lucci (All My Children), Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black), David Spade (Saturday Night Live), Atsuko Okatsuka (Elio), Roy Wood, Jr. (The Daily Show), Welker White (Goodfellas), Kaia Gerber (Bottoms), Ivy Wolk (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), and, in a rare acting role in a film he didn’t direct himself, Martin Scorsese as a washed-up talent agent. Hill co-wrote the film with Ezra Woods; it will be produced by Hill, Matt Dines, and Alison Goodwin, and executive produced by Adam Merims.

Outcome is Hill’s second narrative feature as a director; he previously helmed the coming-of-age skateboarding dramedy mid90s in 2018. It is the first of two Hill-directed films that will be released this year; he’s set to star alongside Kristen Wiig as a pair of wealthy siblings who suddenly find themselves disinherited in Cut Off, which will be released in theaters by Warner Bros. in July.

Outcome will premiere on AppleTV on April 10, 2026. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

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April 10, 2026

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83 Minutes

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Hilary Duff is speaking out after her Agent Cody Banks costar Frankie Muniz recently described her mom, Susan Colleen Duff, as “super intense.”

“I was never pushed into acting and I was never pushed into singing,” Hilary, 38, told “Mythical Kitchen” in an interview posted on Friday, March 13. “My mom knew that my sister [Haylie Duff] and I loved performing…. I understand giving what your children are interested in energy … Back when I was doing it, no one was acting where I came from, so everyone thought it was like, ‘She has a stage mom.’”

While Hilary did not directly address Muniz’s specific complaints about her mom, she credited Susan for having her back as a child star.

“It was really nice that I had my mom in the corner … for better or for worse,” she added. “I think there [were] obviously mistakes made and a learning process, but it’s hard to be like a family up against a machine.”

Related: ‘Lizzie McGuire’ Cast: Where Are They Now?

Hilary Duff’s breakout role on Lizzie McGuire yielded years of success for the actress that continues today, while her costars chose slightly different paths. The sitcom — starring Duff (Lizzie McGuire), Lalaine (Miranda Sanchez), Adam Lamberg (Gordo), Jake Thomas (Matt McGuire), Hallie Todd (Jo McGuire) and Robert Carradine (Sam McGuire) — aired from 2001 to 2004 and […]

Hilary went on, “I’m super grateful for [my mom].”

Hilary and Muniz dated as teenagers though they reportedly went their separate ways after filming 2003 action comedy Agent Cody Banks. Muniz, 40, revealed on the “Joe Vulpis Podcast” last September that he hadn’t spoken to Hilary in 22 years.

“There’s another story I haven’t told, and I don’t know if I want to tell it, but maybe I will. It’s been a long time,” he remembered. “I was on the set of Lizzie McGuire, and I was in Hilary’s dressing room and her mom was there. Her mom was — I’m going to say — the epitome of a stage mom, momager. … Hilary was so cool, we had an awesome relationship, but her mom was super intense. My mom was the opposite.”

He described Hilary as one of his “first friends” after moving to Los Angeles as a child actor. Per Muniz, he had an awkward conversation with Hilary’s mom Susan when he guest starred on a 2002 episode of her Disney series Lizzie McGuire.

“Her mom was like, ‘Do you know what you’re doing this summer? What are you doing this summer?’” he remembered. “And I go, ‘Oh, I’m filming this movie where I’m playing like a junior James Bond. It’s called Agent Cody Banks.’”

Muniz remembered Susan asking if he had any input on who would pay his girlfriend in Agent Cody Banks. He expected Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk to sign on for the role but learned the very next day that Duff landed the part instead.

“Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled about it. And not because I didn’t want it to be Hilary,” he explained. “I don’t know how much I want to say. I’m trying to think about it because I’ve already said way too much.”

The actor added, “I’ve never talked to Hilary since the last day of filming. I’ve not said one word to her since then. So that’s the truth of that. No one knows about my Hilary Duff story.”

Despite their 22-year estrangement, Muniz said he’d “love to catch up with” Hilary and would even bring up the awkward end to their friendship.

Meanwhile, Hilary recently opened up about her relationship with her sister Haylie after writing about their estrangement on her new album Luck … or Something.

“Absolutely the most lonely part of my existence is not having my sister in my life at the moment,” Hilary told CBS Mornings in February. “It’s my truth, and so many people are [also] having this experience. It’s hard because I am me, and people know everything about my life since I was a child. I didn’t necessarily choose that part, but it’s my reality. It was honestly, like, healing to say.”

Zendaya has poked fun at rumors that she and Tom Holland tied the knot in a private wedding.

The Drama actress, 29, dodged directly confirming or denying whether she and Holland, also 29, are married during her Monday, March 16, appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Host Jimmy Kimmel mentioned that “the internet went berserk” with speculation that she “might actually be married to Tom.”

“Really? I haven’t seen any of that” Zendaya replied with a laugh.

Kimmel asked whether any of Zendaya or Holland’s loved ones were fooled by AI-generated wedding photos flooding social media amid the rumors.

“Many people have been fooled by them while I was just out and about in real life,” she said. “People are like, ‘Oh my god your wedding photos are gorgeous!’ I was like, ‘Babe, they’re AI! They’re not real!’”

Zendaya introduced a special video that was supposed to clear up the speculation once and for all. The clip turned out to be a wedding scene from her new movie The Drama, with Holland’s head crudely inserted over her costar Robert Pattinson.

“It was a beautiful day … That was real footage,” she joked. “That was real! I was there.”

Earlier this month, Zendaya’s longtime stylist Law Roach caused a frenzy when he claimed the Euphoria star and Holland had secretly tied the knot.

“The wedding has already happened,” Roach, 47, told Access Hollywood at the 2026 Actor Awards on March 1. “You missed it.”

When the reporter attempted to clarify, Roach insisted, “It’s very true.”

The following day, Zendaya’s mom, Claire Stoermer, added fuel to the fire when she reposted a clip of Roach’s interview via her Instagram Story with the caption, “The laugh …,” along with a laughing emoji.

Zendaya, for her part, was spotted with what appeared to be a thin gold wedding band on her ring finger during multiple high-profile outings, including Louis Vuitton’s Paris Fashion Week show on Tuesday, March 10, and the 2026 Oscars on Sunday, March 15.

Elsewhere at the Academy Awards, Roach doubled down on his remarks about Zendaya and Holland’s upgraded relationship status.

Related: Tom Holland and Zendaya’s Quotes About Their Relationship Over the Years

Ever since Tom Holland and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the pair have shared a special connection. Fans quickly started to wonder whether the duo were more than just friends in 2017, but the costars attempted to keep their dating lives private. “We are friends,” Zendaya said in Variety’s Power of Young […]

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“So she’s married?” Extra correspondent Terri Seymour asked on the red carpet, to which Roach replied, “I said what I said.”

Zendaya and Holland met while starring as Michelle “MJ” Jones-Watson and Peter Parker, respectively, in the 2017 film Spider-Man: Homecoming. That same year, the couple were the subject of dating rumors, though they were each later linked to other people.

In July 2021, Zendaya and Holland publicly confirmed their romance when they were spotted kissing in a car in Los Angeles. Since then, the pair have maintained their privacy while navigating life in the spotlight.

Zendaya sparked engagement speculation in January 2025 when she wore a diamond ring on her left hand at the Golden Globes. Us Weekly subsequently confirmed that she and Holland were indeed betrothed.

“Tom figured the holidays were the best time to propose in a very low-key way,” a source exclusively told Us at the time. “She didn’t want anything over the top.”

According to the insider, Holland popped the question because he felt he was “at the right time in his life” and “ready to settle down.”

“They had many conversations over the years, but there was never any pressure,” the source added. “Zendaya is giddy and excited. She knew it might have been coming but never put pressure on it.”

As the duo prepared for their future, a second insider told Us later that month that Zendaya and Holland were “on the same page about having kids and wanting to start a family together.”

In fact, the frequent costars might plan to become parents sooner rather than later since the source described Holland as a “very old-school English guy in the way that he wants to have a family and have kids relatively young.”

After years away from the spotlight, Gwyneth Paltrow made a dramatic return to the Academy Awards and instantly became one of the night’s most talked-about stars. 

Her daring fashion choice sparked viral reactions after a brief wardrobe slip inside the venue. 

While critics debated the bold look online, insiders revealed that Paltrow’s private reaction told a completely different story, one rooted in confidence, control, and a long-standing approach to style.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Oscars Dress Mishap Sparks Viral Debate

Gwyneth Paltrow is breaking the internet after suffering an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction at the Oscars pic.twitter.com/xx8boOvJle

— USA NEWS 🇺🇸 (@usanewshq) March 16, 2026

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Paltrow stunned in a custom Giorgio Armani Privé gown featuring thigh-high slits and sheer side panels. 

The daring design turned heads immediately, but it was a moment inside the Dolby Theatre that pushed things further.

While navigating the steps, she lifted the hem to avoid tripping, briefly exposing more than intended. 

The clip spread quickly online, with critics calling it a “red carpet nightmare.”

Others questioned whether the look was “inappropriate,” especially due to the apparent lack of underwear. 

Despite the chatter, the Hollywood star appeared unfazed as she moved through the venue.

Paltrow’s Private Reaction Shows Zero Regret

Behind the scenes, sources made it clear that Gwyneth Paltrow had no second thoughts about her fashion choice. 

Speaking to the Daily Mail, one insider explained, “Gwyneth loves her body and thinks she looked hot, she does not give a s**t if anyone thinks she is too old for the dress. She does what she wants.”

Another source described her as a “very confident woman,” adding, “who has sold a candle that smells like her vagina, she’s not embarrassed by the outfit she wore at the Oscars.”

They also emphasized her mindset going forward, noting, “She will look back at the night fondly years from now, because she knows she looked hot, she won’t remember the night because trolls on the internet thought something differently about how she was presenting herself.”

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Style History Proves This Was No Surprise

The Oscars look follows a pattern of bold fashion choices that have turned heads. At the “Iron Man 3” premiere, Paltrow wore an Antonio Berardi design that appeared modest from the front but featured sheer side panels.

She also embraced a similarly daring look at the “Country Strong” premiere in 2010, stepping out in a white Emilio Pucci gown with lace-up sides.

Three years later, the “Marty Supreme” star wore something similar, which the insider revealed made it “clear she loves showing off her body that she works hard for.”

Even before the Oscars, Paltrow hinted at the viral look. An Instagram post showing “the weekend” included a mirror shot of her trying on the gown while an assistant stood nearby, appearing slightly uncomfortable.

According to sources, the outfit was not a spontaneous decision. Paltrow reportedly explored numerous options before selecting the final dress.

She “tried on a million dresses and chose the one she wore because she loved it and thought it looked amazing,” the insider said, adding she is not “afraid of her body.”

“She wasn’t wearing it to give people a free show, she was wearing it because she can still wear dresses like that,” they added.

Paltrow Keeps Spotlight Amid Multiple Fashion Moments

The Oscars wasn’t the first time Gwyneth Paltrow encountered a wardrobe mishap in recent times. 

At the Actors Awards, the 53-year-old took the stage alongside her co-stars to collect the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award for “Marty Supreme.”

However, she was seen wearing just one of her Belperron turquoise earrings. Earlier that night, Paltrow had been spotted wearing the complete pair of the 96-year-old jewelry, which perfectly complemented her dress.

Thankfully, before the night was over, her missing earring made its way back to her ear, completing her stunning look.

Gwyneth Paltrow Draws Attention With Leonardo DiCaprio Interaction

Beyond the fashion moments, Paltrow also sparked buzz recently for other reasons. 

At the Oscars, a close exchange with Leonardo DiCaprio, who attended with his girlfriend Vittoria Ceretti, made the headlines.

As The Blast reported, Paltrow and DiCaprio were seen laughing and leaning in during a lively conversation, with the actor even briefly clasping her hand before she gently pulled away.

The moment reignited interest in their past as Paltrow previously revealed the “Titanic” star tried to woo her. 

“He tried back in the day. But he was already, like, you know, he was very loose with the goods from when he was 19,” she previously said.

Despite their interaction that night, both parties eventually focused on their businesses. 

Paltrow presented the Best Casting award to “One Battle After Another” and supported “Marty Supreme,” which earned multiple nominations.

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.

Image via Prime Video

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.”

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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.”

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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!

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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.”

Image via Trent Barboza

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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

Image via Prime Video

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.

Related

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.

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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?

Image via Prime Video

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.

Image via Prime Video

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?”

Image via Trent Barboza

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.”

Image via Prime Video

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.”

Image via Trent Barboza

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.

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What Does an AI Actress Mean and How Will Tilly Norwood Affect Cinema, TV, and the World at Large?

This is the bad universe.

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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.

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Release Date

March 26, 2021

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Amazon Prime Video

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Invincible

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Adrian Grenier has embraced life in Texas, stepping away from the spotlight in Hollywood. He is enjoying a simpler lifestyle with his wife and two children since his move. Although the actor has not completely quit acting, he has been selective in more recent years and has taken on a few projects.

Now, Grenier is revealing what his ideal conditions are for returning to acting on a full-time basis and sharing what his plans are for the future.

Adrian Grenier Wants To Stay Close To Home

In an interview with Page Six published on March 16, Grenier talked about his new short film, “Self Custody,” which was shot near his home in Texas.

For the actor, who has been focusing on sustainable living on his Texas ranch, it was the ideal situation since he was able to remain close to his family while working. Greiner is not against going back to the spotlight and taking on more projects, as long as the projects go to him.

The 49-year-old actor says it’s a strong possibility, especially since the Texas government has just invested $2.5 billion in projects in the state. “They’re building three movie studios not too far from me. I don’t see the reason why we wouldn’t just continue to film in Texas,” he added.

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‘Entourage’ Catapulted The Actor Into Stardom

Grenier rose to fame playing the character of Vincent Chase on HBO’s hit series “Entourage.” The show followed Chase, a young and charismatic actor, as he and his group of friends navigate the culture in Hollywood.

“Entourage” ran for eight seasons from 2004 to 2011. When the show wrapped, Grenier talked about leaving the character, saying, “Vince has changed my DNA. I think there’s always going to be a little Vince with me at all times. ‘Entourage’ really has and will continue to define an era, he told Parade.

Apart from the series, Grenier also appeared in movies, including the “Entourage” movie, “The Devil Wears Prada,” and “Drive Me Crazy.”

The Actor Moved To Texas In 2020

In 2016, Grenier spent some time in Texas and did some environmental work before purchasing a property. He moved to the 46-acre ranch in 2020, where he currently resides with his wife, Jordan Roemmele, and their two young sons, Seiko and Evren, born in 2023 and 2025, respectively.

Grenier told People that he enjoyed the lifestyle in Texas, and he felt accepted by the people there. “A lot of times in cities, I’ve always felt like a little bit like I have to keep up with the Joneses,” he explained.

Taking care of the ranch has been the actor’s focus, as it helps him with regard to mental health and learning new skills. “It allows you to make more informed, wiser choices when it comes to how you live, how you treat others, and in particular, how you treat the environment,” he shared.

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Adrian Grenier Is More Picky With Roles

One of the reasons why Grenier took the role in “Self Custody” is that he related to the character and understood the topic. “You know, as a bitcoin guy, a bitcoin maxi and somebody who believes in crypto as an ideology and a philosophy, it was almost tailor-made for me,” he shared.

In the short film, he plays an entrepreneur who gave his employee a bonus in bitcoin. According to Grenier, they are looking into the possibility of developing “Short Custody” into a movie or a series.

Since taking a step back from Hollywood, Grenier said that he feels lucky to be in a position where he can choose the projects he takes on. It has to be something that resonates with him and reflects his values. “This was a project that met my standards, I guess, just in terms of quality of filmmaking and storyline,” he shared.

Adrian Grenier Was Disappointed Over ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ Snub

As previously reported by The Blast, Grenier was disappointed that he wasn’t included in “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” In the first movie, he played the role of Nate Cooper, the love interest of Anne Hathaway’s character Andy Sachs.

The actor said he would have loved to be in the sequel, but he wasn’t approached. He believes the reason was because of the backlash against the character he played, whom fans described as selfish and unsupportive.

Despite not being included, Grenier said he’s still a fan of the movie, adding that his exclusion “leaves room for a beautiful spinoff in which Nate has his own film.”

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