Disney XD is launching a new Marvel animated series this weekend with “Marvel’s Avengers Assemble;” which reunites Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye in animated form, with Falcon joining as a new Avenger.
Recently, we spoke with Jeph Loeb, Head of Marvel’s Television division about where the animated series takes this team of superheroes. “Avengers Assemble” premieres this Sunday, July 7 as the team face-offs against the Red Skull.
CraveOnline: Does “Avengers Assemble” have to coordinate with what the live-action “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” show is doing?
Jeph Loeb: Let’s just say, it helps that it’s all at Marvel Television. I think the bigger question that you’re asking is: how does it all tie together? The answer really is it’s all Marvel. In the same kind of way that Marvel Television, both divisions, live-action and animation talks regularly with the studio and talks regularly with publishing, what we’re trying to do is create a show that feels very much like Marvel, which for us is epic adventure that has a human spirit to it, with some great levity and humor.
Certainly Joss Whedon’s work on Marvel’s The Avengers was and remains our high point goal. That’s the place where we take our inspiration from, but just like what Jonathan Hickman is doing over in the publishing group right now doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s happening in the movies, the animated series has to be able to live on its own, but still live in that same world.
That’s actually my next question. Can anything in the comic books impact what’s going on in the series, or vice versa? Can they tie together?
As much as we can. The idea is to make sure that if you’re looking for that kind of fun continuity, it’s there. But mostly what’s important is that the characters feel like the characters that you know and love, so that Tony Stark feels like Tony Stark and Peter Parker feels like Peter Parker. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re not going to have a situation where in the comics, someone else becomes Iron Man for a while. Is that going to be reflected over in the animated series? Probably not and that simply has to do with the fact that we are anywhere from a year and a half to two years away from where we’ll be able to actually show something.
So when you’ve got that kind of lead out, you don’t know where you’re going to be and comics are very nimble in their ability to be able to turn on a dime and change stories and have terrific surprises. Our job in the show is to create great stories that feel like The Avengers. And if it feels like anything, we’re hoping that it feels like the movie.
The movie left Red Skull back in WWII. What was the decision to bring him back as a villain in “Avengers Assemble?”
Well, again, part of what we’re doing is it’s not a direct 1:1. We believe that the Red Skull is a terrific villain. We certainly also, as we’ve said elsewhere, we’re not contradicting any of the stories that happened in “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.” In that animated universe, the Red Skull exists. He’s also just a terrific badass so why not use him?
How has becoming the head of Marvel Television helped you in developing Marvel TV series, versus when you were champion shows as a basic producer?
I’d like to think that, aside from the fact that I’ve learned to actually go without sleep altogether, which is a skill that I had almost perfected as a producer. But now as the head of Marvel Television I can live without it, really more than anything is it enables us to work within the network world and in the production world. So for me personally, it’s an opportunity for the chocolate side of my brain to talk to the peanut butter side of my brain.
What we love about Marvel TV is that the people that are involved are people who come from the world of Marvel and come often from publishing. So it wasn’t just my experience as a producer on shows like “Smallville” and “Lost” and “Heroes” that has really helped in that world, but I also worked in animation as well.
Then the added benefit of having our writing staff and co-executive producers be the Man of Action [studios]. The Man of Action studios comes from such terrific creations as “Ben 10” and “Generator Rex,” but also we had the benefit of two years of working with them on “Ultimate Spider-Man.” So when it came time for who was going to build this incredible property into the crown jewel of our animation department, we didn’t have to look any further than folks that we think are some of the best writers working in animation today. That’s Joe Kelly and Joe Casey and Duncan Rouleau and Steve Seagle.
Those guys, in addition to that, Marvel fans will know from their work in comics as well. It really is, more than anything else, it’s not just me who benefited from coming from the television world. It’s that everybody that’s involved in this project, in one way or the other, comes from Marvel and I think that’s really what’s important.
With “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” we’re happy that Agent Phil Coulson is back, but I think we all expected something more than the explanation that he faked his death. Could there possibly be more to that story?
All I can tell you is that’s a level 7 question and I’m not cleared for that.
Of course. Is there any hope for the “Punisher” TV series still?
We don’t really comment on where we are with development as you know, but there’s always hope.
One show of yours I really followed was “Day One” and it was interesting how that got whittled down. It’s never even been seen, has it?
Not as far as I know. It’s an amazing show. Jesse Alexander is a giant talent. This is what happens in television.
Could you tell us a little about that show for those of us who were hoping to see it?
I think we should probably keep this conversation about Marvel television. Another day, sure.
Sure. So with “Avengers Assemble,” are we dealing with Hulk all the time and not Bruce Banner?
At least for the time being. Our fun for the show is being able to have a Hulk all the time. Certainly Bruce’s personality is part of it. That’s one of the things that Joss did so well, which was to establish that they really are one and the same. In terms of seeing Bruce himself, that’s not someone that we’ll see at least for the time being. Part of the reason is that this is one of the magic things about animation, that you’re able to have a Hulk all the time as opposed to in a live-action movie, that would just be gigantically expensive.
It seems like there’s a lot of great tension between Black Widow and Hawkeye. Is there going to be a nice will they/won’t they dynamic with them?
I think, as with all the Avengers, particularly on this series, it really is about how everybody gets along and it isn’t whether they’re exactly a family or whether it is that they’re a team or whether it is that it’s in a workplace. We’re hoping to present a show where our characters, and if it’s Natasha and Clint or if it’s Tony and Steve, it really is about how do these people get together and really become Earth’s mightiest heroes.
