Based on the futuristic DC superhero team created by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino, the latest Warner Bros Animation heads to the 31st century and introduces the Legion Academy. It’s here where Supergirl joins a new generation of fellow heroes, including Mon-El and Brainiac 5, who are training to hone their powers with the hopes of joining the Legion of Super-Heroes.
To celebrate the film’s release, we had the opportunity to sit down with Spider-Man voice actor Robbie Yuri Lowenthal– who voices Mon-El – to discuss his take on the character, his favourite member of the recent Legion of Super-Heroes line-up and also what else is in the pipeline for him.
How did you first get involved with the project?
They actually reached out to me about the project, which was extremely flattering and rare. Usually I’m just, you know, auditioning, auditioning, auditioning, and it’s a group of people, many of whom I’ve worked with before. And when they were, you know, putting together the cast, I guess they must have thought, hey, you’re in mind because of this – and I’m honoured and will be forever grateful that they did.
And what were your first impressions when you read the script? Because Mon-El is definitely an intriguing character!
Yeah, he absolutely is. And well, I mean, for me, I had dipped my toes into the Legion world many years ago on the Legion of Super Heroes show that got a two brilliant (if I may say so) seasons, but came at the wrong time to really build a fan base. I feel like I keep hoping that people will you know, find it on on Blu-ray and and then fall in love with the way that I was in love with it and still am. So it was it was fun to come back to the world of the Legion.
Long live the Legion you know. Ever since doing the show though, I’ve carried a torch for the Legion of superheroes and so getting to come back and play in that world again was super fun and I was so excited. Then of course, you know, as probably many fans of the Legion are, like I was most excited when reading the script to see which Legionnaires we were going to get to see because there are so many of them. That literally could have been anyone you know, and I always love seeing what the lineups are lgonna be? So, that was super fun.
Did you have a favourite character from the lineup? Because I mean, arms Fall Off Boy has to be like near the top right?!
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You took the words right out of my mouth. And I think Arms Fall Off Boy, portrayed brilliantly by Ben Dusk, that character really truly exemplifies you know, why the Legion is different from other super groups. You know, they’re all much younger and they’re dealing with growing up at the same time as saving the world and they all have these weird powers. Some of whom – I mean some are obvious you know, if you have gravity powers or if you have electrical powers that’s like okay, I get it.
But so many of them have powers that really make for for creative writing and storytelling and character development to see how those powers will you know, somehow become useful and to see why they were chosen for that. And then of course, the Legion’s substitute heroes, which is even more fun, because you know, they’re there. They haven’t been chosen. And you just want to see, you know how weird those powers are. But I love the story always evolves and you know that those powers become something important. And that’s always exactly what I was talking about watching the Legion story and you’re right Arms Fall Off Boy perfectly exemplifies what the Legion is all about.
So Chris Wood did a fantastic job with his arc in the Supergirl TV show. Did you take any inspiration from his portrayal? Or did you focus on adding your own flourishes to the character?
I haven’t seen that series yet – it’s so hard for me to keep up with all of the superhero shows that are these days, despite my six year old son trying to get me through as many as possible. Or let’s be honest, it’s me forcing him to watch those shows! But I was not familiar with his performance. I was familiar with the character somewhat from the comics and from when he makes an appearance in the original Legion show that I was on. And so I came with sort of what I brought naturally and what I knew about the character, and then we all crafted it together in the room with, you know, voice director, West Gleason and the team to create the monorail that they wanted for this story.
And the suit looks so good! Did you get to see any animation when you’re recording it or?
No, when we were recording there wasn’t anything. What will often happen is, we’ll do a first round of recording, then they’ll animate it and realise, oh, hey, we have this fight here that looks different than, sort of the random sounds that we recorded, so let’s do something more specific. Or you know, they rewrote something to make it fit better, so we have to redo a certain bit. So at that point, which was, you know, fairly late in the game, then I did get to see some of the animation. And I was already excited to start with, but of course getting to see it is the fun stuff. So it was great to really see how awesome it was becoming!
And your recording process – are you finally back in studios together? Are you sort still in your home setup?
I think we started when we were all in our home studios. I miss the days of group recordings, I miss hanging out with other actors and having another actor opposite me, you know, for my performance that I can, you know, sort of be with and and react off of. I will occasionally ask the director “hey, who’s playing this?” because, you know, I’ve been doing this long enough that odds are pretty good that I’ll know the actor and I can at least imagine them, you know – although there are a lot of famous people that I’ve never met on this! So, I wasn’t necessarily able to do that because we were recording solo. But we’re big fans of the Disney Zombies movies in this household and so so I can at least imagine Meg Donnelly as Supergirl. So that was good. But I do miss working with other actors like right in the same room.
So this isn’t your first foray in the DC Universe. Are there any characters you’d love to play down the line at all?
Oh, man, I you know, I grew up reading these comic books, and I continue to read them. Although it’s hard to keep up with all the comics that are there. But the answer is a resounding yes. I mean, I’ll always be chasing Batman, like most actors. I’ve never gotten to play anybody in the Lantern Corps. I got to play Mr. Miracle very briefly once but I’ve always loved Mr. Miracle, so I’d love to do something again with him. Like I said, I grew up with these characters and there’s so many different stories to tell. Let’s just say the well will never run dry of characters to play! It’s always fun to work on a show like this. I have this little sort of mental checkbox, like that’s another L to my list, you know, Kal-El, Jor-El and now Mon-El, you know, I can’t overstate how much I love my job. And you know, it really is a dream come true.
Definitely! So what’s next for you? What’s it in the pipeline coming up?
You know, that’s always tough question because they’re like, hey, don’t talk about that thing you’re working on. But, I’ve got some games – I do a lot of work in video games as well – so we’ve got somegames coming up. Project Redfall is coming out soon and the new Spider-Man game and I’m working on some some shows that haven’t been announced yet. So there’s definitely things happening and then my my wife and I are creators as well as we’re we’ve always got the pot simmering so, lots to look forward to!
Legion of Super-Heroes is coming to Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download starting 6th February 2023 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
