Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes San Diego Animated Recap Exclusive 2007!

I'll be interviewing the Legion of Super Heroes cartoon folks (as well as Greg "Gargoyles" Wiseman about Spider-Man and possibly folks from The Batman and Superman: Doomsday) at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday for Comics2Film.com.

What questions should I ask? I'll try to talk to as many folks from the show as I can, but I specifically asked for Alex Polinsky and director Brandon Vietti.

Also I just talked to a guy at WB who confirmed Phil Morris is Imperiex and Alex Polinsky will be Chameleon Boy (in addition to Matter-Eater Lad and Chlorophyll Kid).

4:15-5:45 Warner Bros. Animation: The Batman/Legion of Super-Heroes—This action-packed 90 minutes is split between two Warner Bros. Animation standouts: The Batman and Legion of Super Heroes. The Caped Crusader crew just picked up its fourth Emmy Award heading into a season that promises even more punch, courtesy of guest appearances from some Justice League pals. Supervising producer Alan Burnett (The Batman), producer-director Michael Goguen (Batman: The Animated Series), renowned voice director Andrea Romano, and the voice of Batman himself, Rino Romano, will discuss the upcoming surprises. LOSH enters its second season with double the action as the group adds new members—and a new ally from across the space-time continuum—just in time to face a daunting new villain. Producer James Tucker (Justice League Unlimited), director Brandon Vietti (Superman Doomsday), and story editor/writer Michael Jelenic (The Batman) will be joined on the panel by cast members Yuri Lowenthal (Superman on LOSH), Phil Morris (Seinfeld, Smallville), and Alex Polinsky (Charles in Charge). TV Guide senior editor Rich Sands will moderate both halves of the panel. Room 6B

Wow, you must be pretty excited to be interviewing the people involved in the cartoon(I know I would be)! Now let's see, what would be some good questions? Oh, I know...

What inspired them to take the series in a new direction?

What will Chameleon Boy's personality be like and will he be a regular on the show?

Will the Substitutes be making another appearance?

Well, that's I can come up with for now. I hope I've helped.

Great questions AG! I'll definitely ask as many as I can (more Subs!).

I, too, am curious to know why they are advancing the timeline so radically in only the second season. (I'm all for the Legionnaires growing up, but gradually.)

I also wonder if they are planning to retain the featured characters who do not appear in the promo image, e.g., Bouncing Boy, Phantom Girl, Triplicate Girl, and Saturn Girl.

What new/old classic Legionnaires will we see more of in season two.

What classic villians will we see in season two.

wish list:
Wildfire
Karate Kid
Blok
Chameleon Boy
Dawnstar
Element Lad
Invisible Kid
Mon-El
Tyroc
Ultra Boy
Time Trapper
Computo
Universo
Dark Circle
Khunds
Dominators
Mordru
Nemisis Kid
Molecule Master
Pulsar Stargrave
Tornado Twins
Rond Vidar
R.J.Brande
Heroes of Lallor
The Wanderers
Legion Academy

How do the producers and directors feel about the fact that so far only boy characters are making it into toy-form?

Will characters like Sun Boy, Element Lad and Dream Girl 'graduate' to more featured roles this season?

Will other DCU heroes ever guest-star with this LSH?

The SUBS were great; have they thought about giving the HEROES OF LALLOR or the WANDERERS a turn as well?

more Triplicate Girl!!! make sure we need to convince them to produce Triplicate Girl action figure and it will be sold out!!! more profit for them.

Will Ferro Lad stay dead, or else!

Why was there a wholesale change in the creative staff between seasons? The first season was supposedly very highly-rated, so why change? Except for the head producer James Tucker, they lost the other producer Linda Steiner, lead story editor Rob Hoegee, all three directors (Ben Jones, Tim Maltby, and Lauren Montgomery), numerous writers, character designers, and background artists.

Oh, and who will be the "core team" this season, just those seen in the promo?

Will we see Mekt next season? Ayla?

Wow all great questions, I'll have to go print these out...Thanks!

I'm coverting this thread into a rundown my Comic-Con Cartoon stuff like I did last year .

So I tried to ask as many questions as I could from the director but he didn't want to give away too much and deffered to producer James Tucker on a lot of stuff. I recorded the interview and audio from the Legion panel so we'll see how that turned out.

Saw OM, Gary and Kabir at the presentation but Gary had to leave early (VIPs you know...). So I spoke briefly with Alex Polanski, Yuri, and the folks that were there. They saw my Legion ring and were all excited about where they could get one. I printed out some of my legion photomanips and gave them to Yuri (Superman's voice actor) and James Tucker. They said they'd seen them online and liked 'em and knew about them. I'm trying to maybe set up an interview next week with James to talk more about the show 'cause I didn't really get a chance to today.

I've got pictures of the panel, the autographed WB card I got, and closeups of some of the voice talent folks at the signing that I'll try to post later. More in depth notes when i get back.

Hola! My feet are bloody stumps from 3 intense days of con but just wanted to upload a photo of the panel...



I looked from the handout card that Gary got but they only had the autograph card that's blank on one side

I'll send you one of the cards Kabir and I snagged, Kev.

Ok, guys. Click here to see the preview clips that mogli so dutifully snagged for me. Please excuse the quality. It's the best we could do.

That's so great Gary! Thanks to you and Kabir for going through the trouble to get that.

Glad to hear they didn't change the theme music (I quite like it). And I like the change to show more Legionnaires prior to the "fist pump". Makes much more sense.

Thank you, Nightcrawler! I was looking all over Youtube for this.

Just to clarify, this video was taken at the DC Booth and because of the background noise, I re-dubbed it with the soundtrack I got from Season One. However, the music is the same for next season.

Kabir was going to capture the video/audio from the screening which would have come out 100 times better, but they claimed they would throw out anyone doing so and confiscate the device. After waiting in line forever to get into the place, I didn't want to risk it.

Wow, that was a kick-ass preview. Thanks Nightcrawler!

Thanks Gary!

Mmmkay here are my cast photos from the Legion at San Diego Comic-Con:

Voice of Matter-Eater Lad, Chameleon Boy, and Chlorophyll Kid:


Voice of Superman, Superman Clone, and Stone Boy:


Voice of Imperiex:


Director of a lot of season 2 episodes:


Story editor/writer of a lot of season 2 episodes:

Yuri looks prepared to play Mastermind in the next X-Men movie.

Great pics! Thanks for sharing Kev!

They showed one of the SDCC preview videos today.

Hey they finally posted my Legion season 2 article at comics2film:
http://www.comics2film.com/index.php?a=story&b=28448

probably most of it you've already heard/read, but I didn't also talk to Brandon Vietti 1 on 1 (even thought he was tight-lipped about most of it). I'll see if I can still get an interview with James Tucker...

Brandon Vietti spills the beans on season 2 of 'Legion of Super Heroes'

By Kevin Leung
August 6, 2007 - 882 reads

New characters, bigger baddies, and bolder stories await fans in the second season of the 'Legion of Super Heroes' on the WB. The second season was previewed last week at San Diego Comic-Con. Comics2Film caught the panel and also spoke with director Brandon Vietti.

Probably the biggest change fans will recognize is that time has passed between season one and two – approximately 1-2 years. Executive producer James Tucker explains, "Well the great thing about Legion is, if you're a Legion fan of the comic book every so often they do a reboot working in different eras, and so going into the second season the mandate was to up kind of the ante."


This change allowed the crew to tell more intense, exciting, and adult (relative) stories where the danger is great. While Vietti enjoyed the first season, he thinks the second season is going to be even better: "I love what they've done with the show – everything's more grown up."


Vietti, who is himself new to the show in the second season, has had a great time working with the show's crew. Plotting out the second season, Vietti praised his old 'The Batman' coworker Michael Jelenic who joins the show as story editor and writer, "I thought he did a great job and I love working with that guy."

Yuri Lowenthal returns as the voice of Superman but will also be voicing a new futuristic cloned version of the Last Son of Krypton. During the preview clip there's some silhouetted clips suggesting that Drax (the Phantom Zone criminal from Season 1) will be involved with somehow with the clone. M'Onel was one character that the new clone will apparently resemble in terms of personality and attitude. Lowenthal let slip that he'll end up playing three Supermen (Supermans?) in one episode.


On the decision to go with Imperiex as big villain this season Tucker said he wanted to go with a lesser known character who they could pump up and improve upon, "We picked someone who maybe the fans wouldn't care too much about if we tweaked him a little. He's way cooler in the show and I think you'll grow to appreciate him as a villain in his own right."


Phil Morris, the voice of Imperiex, is no stranger to the DC Comics universe having voiced Vandal Savage in 'Justice League', acted as 'Smallville's John Jones (Martian Manhunter), and recorded the voice of King Faraday in the upcoming 'New Frontier' movie. A genre fan to begin with, Morris was very enthusiastic about voicing the over-the-top evil character, "Imperiex is such a bad cat that you don't know if someone's going to get killed in the episode or if he's going to accomplish his task."

Morris and Lowenthal recall Morris' reactions to leaving the voice recording, that he'd would exercise out all his anger and frustration voicing Imperiex and then leaving the studio in a bubbly mood.


Regarding the new Legionnaires for season 2, quite a few characters were mentioned: Karate Kid, Dream Girl, Dawnstar, Star Boy, Tyroc, Invisible Kid, and Chameleon Boy who Vietti noted would be a member of the unofficial core team. Jelenic explains the process for selecting team members, "That's sort of the thing about the Legion there's like a ridiculous amount of characters – there's like hundreds and hundreds and its like who are you going to choose. At the end of that we're talking about who would be a great addition and I think Chameleon Boy is pretty obvious."


In choosing other characters to feature, Tucker looks at what characters' stories are most compelling and will make for great half hour episodes, "Well with animation you have to go by what's the strongest visual. What's going to pop off the screen and people will instantly know what that character's about. Some of the Legion characters aren't quite that visual. And you don't get them right at first glance so that was our first way of picking who to use."

Jelenic thinks Chameleon Boy is the perfect mix of humor and heroism, "We wanted to bring another thing of added comic relief and that's the one thing that Alex [Polinksy] really brings to the character he voices it in such a way where's it's still you know he's a fierce super-hero and he can still kick ass and I think everyone will really like him a lot. We kind of describe him as Eddie Haskell as a shapeshifter."

Alex Polinsky, the voice of Matter-Eater Lad and Chlorophyll Kid in the first season, says that Chameleon Boy will be a smack talker, bantering in higher pitched, impish tones. Because the time passed between seasons, Chameleon Boy will already be a member of the team and his father ( R.J. Brande?) will be helping to finance the team.


Tucker said they save more complicated characters as cameos or else they've gradually pulled them in over the course of the show so that people will get to know them. In the preview clips other 'minor' characters appear such as Blok, Chameleon Boy, and Colossal Boy also appear, many with new costumes. Wildfire was one hero mentioned as being saved for future seasons.

In terms of villains there were mentions of perhaps Computo being involved in the 'creation' of Duo Damsel, Nemesis Kid, Grimbor, the Dark Circle , and a return of the Light Speed Vanguard (Legion of Super Villains).

When asked about merchandising Vietti has heard mentions of an action figure line but notes that August's McDonald's Happy Meal Legion figures will be making it to fans first.

The second season of 'Legion of Super-Heroes' premieres on Saturday, September 22 on the Kid's WB on the CW

Thanks for sharing MEL!
I'm really psyched about season 2!