It's been 14 years in the real world for since Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles was released, but for the Parr family and their neighbors, almost no time has passed at all -- and things haven't gotten any easier for superheroes.

Luckily, they've got some new friends to come to their aide: friends like the smooth-talking Winston Deavor, voiced by comedian and Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk, who harbors a deep affection for everything incredible, no matter how illegal it may be.

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But Winston may not be exactly what he seems -- and Odenkirk is well aware of just how tricky it is to garner trust for the new guy, especially when that new guy wears a slick suit and happens to have more money than he knows what to do with. CBR sat down with the actor at the Incredibles 2 press junket in Los Angeles to talk about the challenges of portraying an earnest fan, dealing with tropes and the evolutionary process Winston underwent from writer/director Brad Bird's screenplay to the finished product.

CBR: So, your character in Incredibles 2 -- we'll call him a fanboy...

Bob Odenkirk: Though at first when you meet him, you're not sure if he really means what he says.

Exactly! That's really what I wanted to start here -- there's a trope in superhero stories where we see fans who break bad. The fan who becomes possessive of what they want from their favorite things -- Syndrome in the original Incredibles is a great example of this phenomena, really. Was that something you considered? Was that a challenge that you faced when building this character to keep him earnest?

I think the journey that Brad Bird went on writing this character was exactly what you're talking about, because I saw over the course of the four or five rewrites that I interacted with that the character became more genuine. It doesn't change how he's introduced. That first scene didn't change. It's just his energy became less questionable, more unflagging. He never lost his exuberant joy at working with and pulling off this plan. And I loved that. I love that.

It's kind of a switcheroo, right? It tricks you because the first time you meet them you're like, this is, he's definitely the villain, he's definitely the bad guy -- and I don't want to give it away to audiences who are maybe reading this -- but I think [viewers] will be surprised at where it goes, because there is a villain. It's not who you think it is, I would say.

Now, you've been involved in franchises with very passionate fan bases. Is that something that you've encountered, or have you learned anything being on the receiving end of that level of fandom attention?

The hardest thing to tell sometimes is whether the person is earnest in their love for the project, or if they're one of those fringe people just trying to cash in. They can look very similar for a while, and you have to be careful because you might think someone is trying to use you, or use the fame of the project to advanced themselves financially or whatever, but really they just really love you and your work or the show or the movie. So you've got to approach people with the notion that there are genuine, right? It's a hard thing to do. You can't always tell what things really mean to people. It's actually really strange.

Even something like Breaking Bad, which is dark and violent and is about a person doing bad things -- some people, it's saved their lives in a way. Maybe it got them through a medical treatment and kept their mind off what they were going through, you know? You can't always tell what will inspire people. So you have to approach it and you have to hear people's appreciation with at least a sense that it might be utterly genuine.

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You mentioned going through rewrites and a whole process of re-records. Can you talk about the process you went through to get involved in this movie to begin with?

Brad Bird called me and invited me to be a part of it and he talked about this character a little, and at first it sounded a little like some characters I've played before. We did the first recording session and I felt like it was really resonant with things I've played. But then five months later, six months later, we did the second recording session and a lot had changed.

I don't think a lot changed with the story with the family. In fact, I saw very early on [some scenes with the family]. So the family dynamic and Mr. Incredible juggling the kids, that was committed -- [Bird] knew the sequences even if he hadn't mapped them out. But this bigger story, the action story, that went through a few more changes as the bad guy became clearer to him, and who it was and what they were doing and what their motivations were.

So my character became more innocent, starting in the second rewrite and the third rewrite, after which it was pretty set. By the third rewrite things were like… wow, he's becoming more genuine. And I love that because -- I play a lot really duplicitous people, so I love playing somebody who was kind of a kid inside.

So that begs the question, was there anything that really resonated in this new character archetype for you? Are you a fanboy in anything?

Hmmm… I read a lot. I go in a bookstore and I would like to buy every book. I have too many books that I haven't read, but I actually do read a lot so I get through things, too. But I think the only place I feel like a fanboy, where I want to kind of just buy everything, is in a bookstore.

OK! That definitely counts. Now I know I'm putting you on the spot, but: favorite book?

I'm going to go Adam Resnick's Will Not Attend.

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In the process of all of these rewrites, was there anything was there anything that you recorded that didn't make it into the final cut you wished would have gotten by?

I was just reminded of the scene where my character confronts a bad guy. I don't even remember recording [it]. It must have been very early on, but that would be interesting. I guess it's going to be a DVD extra.

Watching the movie, what I was surprised [about] — I can’t tell if [the character design] was a somewhat flattering caricature [of me] or, was it in one way or another slightly derogatory. [Laughs] I mean, it's definitely caricature, it has exaggerations. But people seem to like it.

I got some compliments, people saying they thought it was cool and fun. I liked the gesturing in the final project. That's me in the audio booth. They really used a lot of the things I did and things I acted it out.

Even when there's just a mic and Brad standing there doing the other voices, I definitely acted everything out because that's just going to build the character somehow. You've got to play him.

Written and directed by Brad Bird, Disney/Pixar's Incredibles 2 is in theaters now.