Invincible season 2 could be a long way off yet, according to comments made by the R-rated animated show's lead voice actor.
Steven Yeun, who stars as series protagonist Mark Grayson, told Collider that he hasn't been called upon to begin recording lines for Invincible season 2. That'll be disappointing for fans of the hit animated series to hear, but Yeun added a caveat that means Invincible's second season will finally move into gear in the near future.
Asked how production on the show's next instalment was going, Yeun said: "We haven’t started. I know we’re starting at some point soon.
"I’ve talked to Robert [Kirkman, Invincible's co-creator], here and there. He’s super excited about it. He thinks Season 2 is gonna be even better than Season 1, which I have no doubt about. If you go to his source material, Invincible is an incredible comic, and just thinking about how much story hasn’t been told from that run, it’s gonna be bonkers. I’m really excited about it."
Yeun was also quizzed on how taken aback he was by Invincible's success. The Amazon Prime show, which is largely based on Kirkman and Cory Walker's beloved graphic novel series, started as something of a slow burn but, as we said in our review, Invincible's first season quickly gathered pace. That's before it delivered a season finale that was one of the most shocking (not to mention memeable) TV moments of 2021 – an ending that certainly sets up some major comic storylines for seasons 2 and 3.
Asked if he expected the fervent response that Invincible received, Yeun said: "I’ll be honest, I did not expect this level of response. People really enjoyed the show. That’s not to say that I thought the show wouldn’t be enjoyed. I just didn’t know how many people were coming to it like that.
"To me, I think it speaks to America’s appetite now for adult animation, which is really cool. I grew up on it. I think all of us, of our generation and below, grew up on it. I think we’re probably on the precipice of right before things really pop off. I think we’re gonna get some hopefully [Hayao] Miyazaki levels of animation. We do with Pixar, but I just mean coming from different places. It’s a new world."
Analysis: will we have to wait until 2023 for Invincible season 2?
On first glance, Yeun's comments suggest that any work is yet to begin on Invincible season 2. After all, the actor's use of the word "we" implies that the series' chief creative team haven't begun writing or storyboarding aspects of season 2.
In our view, though, some pre-production work on Invincible's second season will have been completed already. The season 1 finale aired on Amazon Prime in late April last year, which means there have been nine months for some aspects of development to have taken place.
True, the likes of Kirkman and Rogen are busy on other projects. But we're pretty confident in saying that conversations about season 2's plot, character introductions, themes and potential animation upgrades will have been discussed internally. Indeed, Kirkman has already commented on which characters will be included in Invincible's second season. There are plenty of story threads from season 1 that need to be resolved or picked up, too, alongside the sheer wealth of plot ideas that can be adapted from Kirkman and Walker's source material.
So yes, Invincible season 2 is unlikely to launch in 2022 – but Kirkman, Yeun and company could surprise us with a late Q4 2022 release. That, though, would be a tough ask, and would require a fair deal of crunch to get an episode or two out before the end of this year.
We suspect, then, that Invincible's second instalment won't arrive until early 2023. But, given how good its first season was, and how much work needs to be conducted to make season 2 even better, we're happy to wait.
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