Invincible’s showrunner and producer Simon Racioppa spoke about the challenges of getting audiences behind Omni-Man's redemption arc in Season 2 after everything he did in Season 1.
The former superhero has a lot going against him. The series started with Nolan Grayson murdering nearly the entire Guardians of the Globe team. By the end of the finale, Omni-Man had wiped out millions of innocents in several destructive acts of violence after being outed.
Needless to say, he is not the type of character one routes for.
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Getting Audiences to Root for Omni-Man Again
In an exclusive interview with The Direct's Russ Milheim, Invincible showrunner and producer Simon Racioppa addressed how they approached bringing Omni-Man (aka Nolan Grayson) back into the story after he did so many horrible things in the animated series.
When asked how they hoped audiences would react to the show trying to get them back on board with Nolan as a character to to root for, Racioppa made it clear that they still want to make sure "everything [Omni-Man] did in Season 1 matters:"
"We want to make sure that everything in Season 1 matters, everything [Omni-Man] did in Season 1 matters. And it matters to our characters and matters to the world, and it matters to him. Nolan starts to realize that, you know, he has deep feelings. He's not just a Viltrumite anymore. You know, he's at least partially human for having lived with Debbie on Earth for 20 years."
What Nolan did is "starting to drag on his psyche," the showrunner confirmed, while also making it clear how the creative team wants audiences to question if there is a way back for him:
"And he's starting to realize that maybe what he did there was not great; it was kind of wrong, and it's starting to drag on his psyche. And I think we just want to show you that we will explore that. And show you that maybe, you know, is there a way back? I mean, that's a question I think all of our audience can ask themselves as they watch it."
At the end of the day, Racioppa explained the show will explore how Nolan is "a complicated person" who is "more than just a mass murderer:"
"But we want to show you that he's a complicated person. He's more than just a mass murderer. Even you know, though, he did some terrible things; he's feeling bad about that. I want to explore that. Can you rehabilitate someone from that kind of situation? I don't know; I think that will be a question for our audience. But we're going to get into that pretty deeply."
Going into the back half of Season 2, he explained some of the tentpoles of what they wanted to achieve on a storytelling front.
Racioppa noted that while they "wanted to build to a really big conclusion," the creatives also tried "to give [fans] something you haven’t seen before:"
"…We wanted to make an exciting, dramatic, emotional show; we wanted to build to a really big conclusion. You know, season one ends with such a bang, we want to try to, not one-up it, but we want to try to build the show. We want to try to give you something you haven't seen before that is just as hard-hitting, and just as emotional, but maybe isn't exactly the same as the previous season."
"We want to make sure the series always feels like it’s evolving," the creative elaborated, which includes making sure that characters are in a different place than where they started:
"So one of our goals was… we want to make you feel something, we want to make you attached to our characters, we want to take things away from you, and maybe give them back in a different way… We wanted to progress our characters. Mark should be different at the end of every season than he was at the start than he was at the end of the season before, so all our characters need to evolve... So we want to make sure the series always feels like it's evolving… forward progress and momentum are important to us."
Can Omni-Man Change In Invincible?
For fans who have read the Invincible comics, the redemption of Nolan Grayson isn't a new idea. But can a wider audience get on board with forgiving such heinous acts?
It's hard to believe anybody could ever fully let go of such things. Omni-Man certainly understands, after all, as even he admitted that he can't ever go back to Earth.
Like it or not, though, he may be the key to stopping the Viltrumites for good.
The first step to that, as first alluded to in Part 1 of Season 2, is Nolan’s old sci-fi books. Comic readers will be well aware that those stories secretly contain some answers that could very well spare Earth from brutal colonization.
Invincible Season 2 is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Read up on more Invincible:
Invincible Season 2 Episode 5 Release Date & Remaining Schedule Confirmed
Invincible Season 2: Who Is Anissa? Controversial Character Explained
Invincible Season 2 Showrunner Defends Changes from the Comics (Exclusive)
