The producers behind Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Steve Loter and Rodney Clouden, revealed one big change for Lunella Lafayette in Season 2 of her animated series.
Season 1 served as a fantastic origin story for the 13-year-old super genius and her pet T-Rex, seamlessly introducing the wild concept to audiences. However, they needed to make some sweeping changes in the process, which included neglecting her original Inhuman trait.
Season 1 ended on a massive cliffhanger, with Lunella getting sucked into a portal to the unknown with no way back. But not only will she return, she’ll be doing so with a reinvigorated focus.
A Big Change For Moon Girl
In an exclusive interview with The Direct’s Russ Milheim, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Executive Producers Steve Loter and Rodney Clouden discussed a big change in store for Lunella Lafayette in Season 2.
Loter confirmed that while the first season of the show was about Lunella as a girl who is learning to become a superhero, the next slate of episodes presents her as a full-fledged superhero with superheroic challenges:
“Well, Season 1 of the 'Moon Girl' was about [Lunaella] Lafayette becoming a superhero. Season 2 is about her being a superhero. So it's a lot of different challenges. One, because now that the public knows her, the villains are leveling up against her. The conflicts between her superheroing life and her family life is coming to a head because trying to keep the secret is extremely stressful for a 13-year-old or for anybody, frankly.”
He continued, explaining how “her friendships are put to the test:”
“And her friendships are put to the test because of all of this conflict going on around her. So it's a big season for Lunella Lafayette, but we still have plenty of comedy and plenty of music. But yeah, it's gonna be a journey.”
One of the big changes Lunella started the show off with was the exclusion of her Inhuman origins—a DNA trait that links her to the likes of Black Bolt, Medusa, Ms. Marvel, and more Marvel Comics characters.
But why make those changes? Loter admitted that they felt like that would have “pulled away from her relatability:”
“Well, I mean... media that gets translated from one form to another is gonna go through, probably, you know, some pretty drastic changes depending on what kind of story you want to tell. And there was definitely a direction we wanted to go with this show with a relatable 13-year-old old, and I felt like that issue was something where it kind of pulled away from her relatability as an everyday superhero whose superpower is her brain.”
Despite avoiding such a big element of the character from her source material, the producer shared how “Marvel has been an incredible partner through all of this:”
“So we definitely pulled, you know, some aspects from the comics because we love it, but we definitely went our own way in other directions to make sure that it worked for this medium. And Marvel has been an incredible partner through all of this because they've understood why we're changing and what direction we were going.”
With Season 2, fans will be introduced to Edward James Olmos’ Molecule Man. The character is described by Loter as someone who has gone through “a lot of loss,” making him “somewhat of a relatable character:”
“Well, in all the episodes we've ever done for the show, we've always kind of started with the relatable human emotion, thematically, so is this episode about jealousy and patience, anger, fear. And then we found the right villain to kind of complement her story. Molecule Man is a really interesting character because the character has gone through, certainly in the first episode, a lot of loss, and he's somewhat of a relatable character.”
“It’s the rage of injustice that really drives his villainy,” the producer explained, regarding Molecule Man, and how the character is “easily the most dangerous character Lunella has ever faced:”
“But it's the rage of injustice that really drives his villainy. So, with Edward James Olmos' performance on there, that character is definitely a force to be reckoned with. [He's] easily the most dangerous character Lunella has ever faced, and I think it has a long-lasting impact on her, and definitely, she's shaken by her encounter with Molecule Man, and I think that does affect a good portion of the season.”
Another big character joining the fray will be Kid Kree, someone a little closer to Lunella’s age and level of existence.
Commenting on what makes Kid Kree the perfect foil for Moon Girl, Clouden admitted one fun part of their dynamic was the “will they won't they aspect:”
”Well, you get that aspect of this a little bit of like, will they won't they aspect of that you get. Being a teenage girl dealing with emotions and things like that, but also, Kid Kree is in the actual Marvel Moon Girl comic. So, it was great to just kind of pay homage to that actual character that was in the comic book.”
“They’re both into science,” confirmed the producer, something that, at least for Kid Kree, goes against his father’s expectations:
“So, and to create this kind of weird tension and also this camaraderie that they have because they're both into science and what Kid Kree goes through as Marvin—or Mel-Varr actually, with his father, who can't relate to him being into science. He wants him to be a warrior... But he's, 'I love science.'”
Clouden pointed to the fact that they both don’t initially know the other’s costumed identities as another great part of their story:
“So, to find someone [like] Lunella as a soul mate, or soul nerd as Casey would say, and then he can then have his outlet to do his science with it was something that we love[d] playing around with... And then also the fact that, oh, they don't know that they are both enemies or antagonists against each other. So there's like a lot of good to play around with that kind of storyline also.”
The entire interview can be seen below:
Lunella Embraces Being a Superhero, While Struggling With PTSD
While one might argue Lunella has been a superhero since the first episode of Season 1, it seems audiences should expect to see her doubling down on that profession for these new episodes.
Another big part of that will be an exploration of the PTSD she’ll be coping with after experiencing what she went through on the other side of the inter-dimensional portal from Season 1's finale. While such a quick return from the unknown might seem devoid of consequences, Lunella’s psyche would beg to differ.
Perhaps she could use some advice from some other heroes around town—Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, and Luke Cage are just a few that come to mind. Maybe they could throw in a younger Miles Morales as well.
Some new faces fans should expect to see in Season 2 include the cosmically powerful Molecule Man and the young but determined Kid Kree.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Season 2 premieres on February 2 only on Disney+.
