Legion Of Super-Heroes Director Talks Animating The Movie’s Action Scenes And Why He Was ‘Excited’ To Tell This DC Superhero Team’s Story
Although not as well known as the Justice League and the Teen Titans, the Legion of Super-Heroes has been one of DC Comics’ most prominent superhero teams for 65 years, so naturally the characters in this corner of DC’s lore have been adapted into other projects. The latest of these is the last of the direct-to-video animated DC movies, Legion of Super-Heroes, which follows Aldis Hodge-led Green Lantern: Beware My Power to flesh out the Tomorrowverse continuity. And like Beware My Power and its predecessor Justice Society: World War II, Legion of Super-Heroes was directed by Jeff Wamester, who spoke with CinemaBlend about creating the film’s action scenes and explained why he was “excited to tell the story of this team.
Legion of Super-Heroes marks another DC movie Jeff Wamester has straight-forward characters with a variety of powers and special abilities, as Justice Society: World War II saw Barry Allen, aka The Flash, team up with Flash, Hourman, Black from Earth-2 Canary, Wonder Woman and Hawkman, and John Stewart joined forces with Green Arrow, Hawkgirl and Adam Strange in Green Lantern: Beware My Power. Regarding Legion of Super-Heroes, I asked Wamester to discuss the process of animating the action scenes to make sure each character stands out, and he replied:
The characters we chose were there because they were visually easy to express… It’s really easy with Bouncing Boy and Arms-Fall-Off Boy and Triplicate Girl. Right off the bat, we can tell you exactly what their powers are, right? So when we get into the fight scenes, it’s sort of preset, and then because their powers are really unique, I mean, it’s kind of hard to beat Arms-Fall-Off Boy, don’t is this not? You know what I mean? As long as you do something with it, it’ll be fun. The same with Bouncing Boy and Triplicate Girl, it doesn’t take much effort, to be honest, to make them cool and have fun with them. They win their time.
Although Meg Donnelly’s Supergirl (who we will see fighting Solomon Grundy) and Harry Shum Jr. are the main characters of Legion of Super-Heroes, they are surrounded in this film by Bouncing Boy, Triplicate Girl, Mon-El, Arm-Fall -Off Boy, Dawnstar, and Phantom Girl as classmates at Legion Academy, and Shadow Lass, Timber Wolf, and Chemical King as teachers, plus Superman, Batman, and The Flash all appearing in scenes current film. As for Legion members, Jeff Wamester explained that he and his team featured this line-up because it helped them stand out more and viewers could easily follow who’s who. This is in contrast to a storyline where there’s a bunch of people using the same powers, like super strength or super speed, which might still be cool to watch, but doesn’t have as much pizzazz.
Legion of Super-Heroes comes four years after the team was spotlighted in another Justice League animated film against The Fatal Five, and with the team getting their own animated series which ran from 2006 to 2008, she was featured in shows like Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, Smallville, and Supergirl. On what makes the Legion such an appealing superhero team, Jeff Wamester had this to say:
For me, a lot of Legion is seeing a whole new world of superpowers and different characters and interpretations, rather than trying to fit them into the world we have now. [live in]. Most comics are, ‘What is it now? If these characters are here now, how would it be? Versus seeing a future where it’s like ‘What challenges do they have? What are they dealing with? What kind of powers and how would we apply those powers in this kind of world in a different setting? It makes me want to tell this kind of story.
Having struggled with her new life on Earth, Legion of Super-Heroes sees Kara Zor-El being taken to the 31st century by her cousin Kal-El, taken over by Darren Criss, so she can attend Legion Academy and learn to perfect his abilities. It doesn’t take long for Kara to make new friends, but in addition to coming up against Brainiac 5, a descendant of one of Superman’s greatest enemies, she’ll also come into conflict with the Dark Circle, a terrorist organization. seeking to obtain a weapon from the Legion safe,
Written by Teen Titans Go! and Josie Campbell from Justice League Action, the Legion of Super-Heroes cast also includes Jensen Ackles returning as Batman, Matt Bomer returning as The Flash, Cynthia Hamidi as Dawnstar, Gideon Adlon as Phantom Girl, Ely Henry as Bouncing Boy, Robbie Daymond as Timber Wolf & Brainiac 4, Yuri Lowenthal as Mon-El, Eric Lopez as Cosmic Boy & Chemical King, Darin De Paul as Brainiac & Solomon Grundy, Ben Diskin as Arms Fall Off Boy & Brainiac 2, Victoria Grace as Shadow Lass, Jennifer Hale as Alura, Daisy Lightfoot as Triplicate Girl, and Zeno Robinson as Invisible Kid & Brainiac 3.
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You can grab Legion of Super-Heroes on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and Digital from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment from Tuesday, February 7. If you want to check out past Tomorrowverse movies or dive into the DC Animated Universe Timeline, these deals can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription.