Robert Kirkman’s hit seriesInvincibledelivers (sometimes literally) eye-popping levels of gore. The show is unafraid to show its characters being savagely beaten, broken, and ripped apart to almost horrifying effect. Season 1 even sawits title character played bySteven Yeuntossed around like a ragdoll and smashed into bits by the almighty Battle Beast and even his own father Omni-Man. As Prime Video finally airs its long-awaited second season, don’t expectthe gritty superhero comic adaptationto tone it down at any point in its run.
Duringour premiere screening and Q&A for Season 2, Kirkman spoke to Collider’sSteve Weintraubabout the level of violence and mature content present inInvincibleand how much he’s allowed to get away with. As it turns out, the answer is all of it. Prime Video has become one of the destinations for more adult superhero content with Kirkman’s series sharing a platform with the crown jewel of the genre,The Boys, as well asits recent spinoffGen V.
Invinciblegets away with some wild things with its gore. Highlights from Season 1 include Omni-Man’s murder of the Guardians of the Globe and the infamous train scene in which Nolan holds Mark up to a speeding locomotive, letting Invincible’s body smash through innocent passengers with guts flying everywhere. Yet, it never approachesthe levels of mature content theEric Kripkeseries offers, as Kirkman asks, “Has Prime Video never watchedThe Boys?” With that context,he knows he’ll have a green light for just about anythinghe wants to bring to the screen:
“I mean, that’s not spoken, but that’s how I’m operating. If they ever gave us a note, I’d be like, ‘are you guys kidding? We’ve never had anyone crawl inside a penis.’ It’s funny because my sensibilities are a little bit more Puritan than Seth [Rogen] and Evan [Goldberg]’s so, you know, we do weird violence and stuff like that but we don’t go nearly as far with the sexual stuff. We haven’t really had any problems with that and I do feel like we’re part of a team and I think that’s cool. And so when Amazon does give us notes, they’re very much like, ‘hey, you mentioned this and this one scene and I’m, I’m wondering about this here.'”
Kirkman Has Never Been Asked to Tone Down ‘Invincible’s Violence
For the time being, Prime Video has never confronted Kirkman about the gore and mature themes ofInvincible. It shows already in Season 2, as Mark Graysongets back into the fightdespitehis fears of becoming like his father. Among other things, the first episode sees the introduction and horrific transformation ofAngstrom Levy, this season’s multiversal big badwho’s ready to make Invincible’s life a living hell. Kirkman finds Amazon’s executives helpful in pointing out some of the necessary changes in the content to make the show better overall, though he’s none too eager about taking suggestions on the gore:
“I was talking to Mitchell, one of our executives yesterday and he was like, ‘I wanted to think of us as the first audience’ and I think that’s a really good way of putting it because they chime in with things from time to time where they’re just like, ‘this made me ask this question and I’m worried that audiences will be asking this question and we’re like, oh, we don’t want audiences to ask that question, so let’s fix that.” And that’s a really good process, but they have never been like ‘less eyeballs here,’ to which I would say, ‘f— off.'”
The first episode ofInvincibleSeason 2 is now streaming on Prime Video. Readour review for Part 1andour character guidefor everything and everyone you need to know about the superhero series’ long-awaited return.
Invincible
Invincible is an adult animated superhero series that revolves around 17-year-old Mark Grayson, who’s just like every other guy his age — except his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet, Omni-Man. But as Mark develops powers of his own, he discovers his father’s legacy may not be as heroic as it seems.
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