SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the Season 4 premiere of “Invincible,” now streaming on Prime Video.
The “Invincible” Season 4 premiere did something that the show, and Robert Kirkman‘s original superhero comic book series, has never done before: show fans the early days of Nolan (J.K. Simmons), and how his alien planet Viltrum was nearly wiped out by a virus.
Episode 1 of the three-part premiere included a brief flashback of Nolan starting out as Omni-Man at his first costume fitting with Debbie (Sandra Oh), but Episode 2 ratcheted things up. It began with an extended look back at teenage Nolan teaching child Viltrumites the violent ways of their culture. Then, Nolan’s parents put his fighting skills to the test with a brutal beatdown, but things quickly take a turn as Viltrumites around the planet start coughing up blood. The race of powerful aliens becomes decimated by the Scourge Virus, which kills 99.9% of their world — except for Nolan, Grand Regent Thragg (Lee Pace) and a handful of others. In a chilling sequence, the survivors jettison the corpses to create rings around their planet. The rest of the episode goes back to present day, where Nolan, Allen (Seth Rogen), Telia (Tatiana Maslany) and their “Star Trek”-inspired crew search the galaxy for ways to kill the remaining Viltrumites.
Back on Earth, Mark (Steven Yeun) faces off against new and old threats, including the talking T-Rex Dinosaurus (Matthew Rhys), Universa (Danai Gurira) and the alien Sequids. But Mark isn’t taking any more chances with the Sequids, and kills their leader, shocking his fellow heroes. That puts him in some hot water with Cecil (Walton Goggins), who’s also dealing with Conquest’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) escape from his underground bunker. There’s also another attack from the rapidly aging Flaxan aliens, but their assault is stopped Mark and the Guardians of the Globe. However, Monster Girl (Grey Griffin) and Rex/Robot (Zachary Quinto) go through a portal and get trapped in the Flaxans’ dimension.
The biggest twist was saved for the end of Episode 3. With her powers not working, Eve (Gillian Jacobs) is searching for answers and takes a pregnancy test. It turns out she’s pregnant, but decides to not tell Mark yet. As the Viltrumite War looms ahead, it’s another major life moment for Mark and his growing family.
In an interview with Variety, co-showrunners Robert Kirkman and Simon Racioppa break down the Season 4 premiere, those brand-new flashbacks and what Eve’s pregnancy means for the show going forward.
I want to start with the flashbacks in the premiere. The previous seasons didn’t have very many flashbacks, and neither did the comic. How did you decide to show this moment from Debbie and Nolan’s past together in Episode 1?
Simon Racioppa: It was a desire to show that Nolan is not out of Debbie’s head. She was with him for over 20 years. Even now, it’s been a couple years since she’s seen him last, but that doesn’t just go away. She’s dating somebody else, but he’s still a huge part of her thoughts. He still has a presence in her life, even though he’s literally not there. She’s also reinterpreting things. Suddenly all these memories that you have, you’re like, “Oh, that’s what that was about.” It takes on a different light. So that’s what she’s going through, and it’s also setting up what’s coming up for her, too. It’s reminding the audience that Nolan is still part of her life and maybe setting up some expectations for what might be coming up later in the season.
Robert Kirkman: It’s also nice when you get to a fourth season of a show to reveal to the audience, “You think you know these characters, there are more bits and pieces to their personality that we haven’t quite revealed to you yet.” There’s more of a sense of discovery this deep into the show.
Racioppa: Everybody has different memories of a relationship. There are good memories and bad memories. Yeah, Nolan did some terrible things back in Season 1, but Debbie still has some good memories of life with him. There were lots of good moments. Otherwise she never would have been with him for 20 years.
Episode 2 starts with another flashback to young Nolan’s life on Viltrum when the Scourge Virus breaks out. Where did the idea come from to show this extended sequence?
Kirkman: There was some talk about making that the first episode and making our first episode the second. But, ultimately, we decided to make it land where it landed. It’s a very important episode. As we’re getting closer to the Viltrumite War, we wanted to make sure that the Viltrumites weren’t this unknown space tyrant force that you didn’t know anything about. We kept things very close to the vest over Seasons 1, 2 and 3 over exactly what was going on with them, and who they were as a people. To have this chunk of the episode that reveals so much of their backstory was really important. I have to hand it to Simon, who wrote that episode, there are really cool elements that are completely unique to the show that give you really great insight into the Viltrumites. As Alan says, you start to feel a little bit of sympathy for them for the first time ever. It puts us in a great place, moving into this war.
Racioppa: We wanted to make sure that they came across as layered, complex and complicated, because they are half of Mark’s heritage. It plays a role in his thinking and who he is, from the start of the series all the way to the end. That wouldn’t resonate, or have the importance it needs to, if the Viltrumites were just bad space guys. They’re a full society. There are reasons for why they act the way they act, why they do the things they do. We wanted to — maybe not answer every question you have — but certainly illuminate them to a degree that you can start thinking, “So that’s why they’re here. That’s why they’re doing this. That’s why Nolan is who he is, and, by extension, maybe that’s why Mark is who he is as well.”
How did you come up with the looks for Nolan and his parents? Young Nolan looks a lot like Mark, and his father resembles present-day Nolan.
Kirkman: Those parallels were very deliberate, and that was something that was kind of baked in. You’re seeing Nolan at a time similar to where we saw Mark when the show started. This was Mark’s family dynamic and life; then this is Nolan’s family dynamic, how a Viltrumite grows up, how they’re taught. To a certain extent, you see the full life cycle of Viltrumite life in these little glimpses of how at varying ages they’re doing things. Hopefully it gives you a really clear picture as to why Nolan turned out the way he did. Showing what his society deems normal is very important, and it goes a long way to — not necessarily justify his actions — but making you more easily understand his actions.
Racioppa: It’s all from the comics. We expand upon and open up the space between the panels. We thought it was important to take you there when the Scourge Virus happened to make you part of that as an audience member, versus having a character speak about it. This is nice thing about animation; in live-action maybe that would have had to be a conversation, unless your budget was extremely high. We’re able to go there and show it and actually have it happen on screen in real time, even as a flashback.
Robert, when you were writing the comics, did you already have these ideas and storylines in mind? Or was this fully made for the show?
Kirkman: Those actual aspects were fully made for the show. There are always notions of how Viltrumite life worked and various different things. I’m present in the writers’ room, and right there in the mix when we’re working these things out. I’m able to give my opinion of, like, “I kind of pictured it being like this.” There are some things that I had that didn’t necessarily work their way into the pages of the comic book, but I had them worked out behind the scenes. I’m able to flesh those things out with the writers. That was one of those moments where I never got around to showing this, but this is how I see things working. There are also a lot of things that I never considered when I was writing the comic book series. When we’re in the room, a question will be asked and it’s like, “Never thought about that! Hold on a second.” And in the moment I get to be like, “Well, you know, if this means this, and that means that, then I was thinking maybe this could be that.” It’s great to be able to put a fresh coat of paint on something that’s 20 years old, find a new nook and cranny that I’d never explored, flesh it out and feel like it’s as authentic as if it had shown up in the comic book 20 years ago.
Racioppa: One of the best things about having Robert is that there are extra pages of the comic that only exist in his head that we get to pull out as we work on the show. Maybe didn’t make their way into the comic, but they’re there. Then we’re like, “Oh, that’s great. So that’s the backstory of that character. That’s awesome. Let’s put it in the show. Take that page out of your head and let’s put it in the script.”
We learn a bit about this in the comics, but why did Nolan survive the Scourge Virus when it wiped out nearly all of the Viltrumites?
Kirkman: It’s possible it may come up in the future. It’s certainly unknown for now. Viruses work in different ways; some people survive and some people don’t. It’s possible that there are more elements to that character that will be revealed as time goes on.
Eve is revealed to be pregnant at the end of Episode 3. How is that going to raise the stakes for Marc once he finds out?
Kirkman: You want to keep things as heightened as possible. We’re sending Mark out into space to fight a war. We want to give people the sense that there are still very important things happening on Earth, even if you may not see it. Leaving him with that tidbit, and to be the undercurrent of some unknowns as to what may be occurring, was really important to us. Having these characters deal with real-life things and relationships keep it as grounded as possible. It’s a big storyline that’s going to be heightening quite a bit of things for these characters moving forward.
Racioppa: The world exists beyond Mark. There are other things that will happen around him. If he leaves for a while, Earth doesn’t stop and wait for him to return. Things are happening for other characters. Eve’s her own person. They’re in a relationship, but she has her own wants, desires, issues, triumphs that are going to happen whether Mark is there or not. So that’s important to us to make that feel real, and not just that everybody is serving Mark. Everybody has their own story and drama to go through.
Also in Episode 3, Robot and Monster Girl disappear into the alien Flaxan world, which comic readers know is part of a major storyline up ahead. Will we see them again this season?
Kirkman: You just have to watch the rest of the episodes. I will say that is a huge storyline that we’ll be setting up. Anyone who’s read the comics is very familiar with that. It would be insane if we were able to also fit that into Season 4. So we’ll have to see.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
