While audiences are currently enamored by the Amazon Studios animated Invincible series, many might have forgotten that a live-action film was announced years ago—and it is still in development.
The original announcement was made by The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, a full four years before the animated show aired. At the time, it was revealed that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg would write and direct the film, but not much well was known at the time.
Ever since then, however, word has been minimal on the project’s status—generally only including brief confirmations from Invincible creator Robert Kirkman that the movie is still alive.
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Robert Kirkman Provides Update on Invincible Movie
While speaking with The Direct at San Diego Comic-Con during a roundtable interview, Invincible creator Robert Kirkman offered a hopeful update on the long-gestating live-action film.
"It's still in development," the filmmaker shared, adding they feel "the movie absolutely has to be perfect:"
"... It's still in development. We're still working with Universal. You know, the show is going so well. I think the movie absolutely has to be perfect. And so it's taking a lot of time, like getting the pieces aligned and getting everything to work so that we can come out and make it as good as it can possibly be. So it's been in development for a long time, and it's probably going to be in development for a while longer."
Kirkman posited how the movie "has to provide a different experience" while still holding true to the franchise:
"Just because, in relation to the show, it has to provide a different experience, it has to still be true to 'Invincible' in some interesting ways. But it has to be its own thing. It has to stand on its own. And so that's something we're spending a lot of time crafting. But I think when it finally happens, it's gonna be really cool."
The Invincible creator then spoke on the difficulty of adapting the same story through multiple mediums, which now include comics, a show, games, and a movie:
"Well, I think it's difficult. And I think you can, that's why the development process is taking so long because it's tough to figure out, okay, the comic is this one thing, and then this animated series is this other thing, and now this movie has to be this third thing, it has to provide a new experience, but, you know, maybe tell the same story, maybe tell a different story."
Kirkman joked that development for the film could "take so long that Timothée Chalamet can play Omni-Man:"
"Those are the kinds of things we're trying to figure out. And it has to be as good as the show, but in a lot of ways, it has to be better than the show because, you know, movies are tough, and you got to get audiences into theaters. And that's a process. It's very difficult, but we've got a good team behind it. And I think that we're hopefully going to do something pretty cool, but it may take so long that Timothée Chalamet can play Omni-Man."
Another journalist followed up with Kirkman asking about the frustration of condensing the storyline for a movie, to which the filmmaker agreed is definitely a thing, but then pivoted to the show, noting how there it's "an expanding process:"
"The movie process is definitely condensing. And that can be frustrating at times, but it's also a fun challenge. But the animated series, especially for us, I think of it as an expanding process. I think that there's a lot of different scenes if you compare them to the comic, we do more. We put more emotion in them. There's more dialogue going on. There's a little bit more character development happening."
The renowned comic creative went on to elaborate on how, with the show, anything left off the table has been "for story reasons" and that there has actually "been a lot of opportunity to add more stuff to it:"
"We haven't really left anything out of the show for space reasons. It's always for story reasons because we decided, okay, we don't need this, we want to get to this faster, or we don't need to spend as much time on that. And so I think that for me, the making the show process has been like honing the story, Improving the story, but there's been a lot of opportunity to add more stuff to it. It's been a great experience."
What Should Fans Expect From an Invincible Movie?
The most interesting question about an Invincible movie is simply: What exactly will it adapt?
The animated show is already two full seasons in, and it is hard to see how any notable portion of that story could be successfully squeezed into the runtime of less than three episodes worth of content. That is not to mention how the Amazon Studios project does not even seem to be nearing the end of its run, with plenty more seasons to go.
Then there is the fact that simply adapting what the animated show has already done could feel redundant. Perhaps the best course of action would be finding an original story in that world to pursue—or a sequel story that takes place after both the show and comics.
Either way, Amazon Studios’ animated series has made it clear that audiences love these characters and its brutally vibrant world, so the audience for the movie is undoubtedly out there. Now the powers at be just have to make the film a reality.
The Animated Invincible series is now streaming on Amazon Studios' Prime Video.
Read more about Invincible here:
Invincible Season 3 Gets Promising Release Update from Actor & SDCC
Invincible Season 3 Gets Exciting Omni-Man Update from Creator
