WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Jupiter's Legacy Season 1, which is available now on Netflix.
Jupiter's Legacy focuses on a team of superheroes, but what would a superhero be without a supervillain who can match them in both strength and intelligence? For the members of the Union of Justice, Blackstar is that supervillain. When we meet him on the show, the character is locked down in a Supermax prison, but it quickly becomes clear he's not only able to physically trounce the Union's many heroes, he's able to take them on intellectually too. Blackstar is embodied by Tyler Mane, who began his career as a professional wrestler in the WCW. Since transitioning to acting, he's played everything from Sabretooth in X-Men to Michael Myers in Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween. Now, he's gaining all new fans for his work in Jupiter's Legacy, where he often steals scenes with his brash, knowing take on Blackstar.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Mane discussed the process of bringing Blackstar to life, including wearing the character's extensive prosthetics and filming his action-packed fight scenes, and revealed what he hopes to explore in the second season of Jupiter's Legacy.
CBR: Were you familiar with the Jupiter's Legacy comics and Blackstar before you started this project?
Tyler Mane: No, they asked me to audition for Blackstar, and with my wife being in the comic book game, Renae Geerlings, I said, "Hey, honey, I gotta get these comic books. I want to do my research." So she was right on it. We got them and I went through the comic books and I was really excited about the storyline, and then I got to Blackstar and I was like, "Oh." He didn't stick around too long in the comic books, so I'm kind of glad that they decided instead of doing it as a feature, as a series so that we could see a little more of Blackstar and dive into his character and how he is.
What was the process of developing him?
When I just read [the script], I said, "Okay, that's a lot like me." To anyone who knows me, I can seem a little cocky, sarcastic, snide. And then you add in the intelligence, the power and put an adamantium battery in his chest, you've got the great, ultimate supervillain. And with the look and what [make-up special effects company] KNB Effects did with the character, creating Blackstar and bringing him to life -- I mean, I was blown away. Blown away.
You actually play two separate versions of Blackstar. One is a clone who we actually see a lot more of before we see the original version. Did you develop two separate versions of him?
So, when you see him in the fight scenes, you see him going to town. But, where you really see Blackstar is when you see him being his cocky self in his cell with Brainwave, and bringing that side to life was just fantastic.
You're wearing what looks like a ton of prosthetics and makeup. How was the character's look created and how long did it take to put on?
Just to get the head and neck pieces put on, I had eight different pieces that were glued completely tight to my skin. And that process would take about two and a half hours or so of just sitting in the chair, but it actually helped me get into character because every time a piece was applied, I would feel more and more like Blackstar. And then when [Blackstar Makeup Artist] Kevin [Wasner] would final airbrush me and blend everything together and I'd open my eyes and I'd see Blackstar and I could move and you could see my face move and just every little snicker, every morning I'd come out of makeup and I'd be like, "Yeah, Blackstar's back." It was just a pleasure to play a character like that, that has all that intricacy to them.
You took part in a couple of massive fight scenes. What was the process of filming those?
The fight scenes were very, very well-orchestrated. We had months of prep time to work on those. I have to take my hat off to my stunt double Nate Andrade who helped bring Blackstar to life. Without him I wouldn't have been able to do it, because when you put that suit on, it is so snug to my body -- it was molded to my body -- and then trying to move, every step, every punch, every movement would just be draining you. And we even had to have a cooling suit inside the unit. So we'd kind of take turns going out there and throwing some punches and things like that, and then we'd swap off and then get plugged into the cooling unit. It took its toll on both of us, I think.
You used to be a wrestler. Does filming fight scenes feel similar to you?
Yeah, I love doing the action and getting that going. And then just being able to bring a character to life and have him be as an intense character as Blackstar is was fantastic. It's a dream come true to be able to play a supervillain like Blackstar.
Even though we don't see Blackstar's backstory, it seems like he has a relationship with the other superheroes. Was that something you discussed with the other actors or was that something you developed separately as part of the character?
Stuff that I was developing as the character -- there wasn't that much from the comic books to go into, but I kind of see a little bit of Blackstar in myself. I was a tall skinny kid, glasses, braces, I was picked on, I was slightly dyslexic as a kid, and you get this attitude where you feel like you got to prove yourself. And I think Blackstar is a little bit like that.
And I think you see that in another character in this TV series, with Brainwave. When Walter was trying to explain to them at the beginning, "Hey, this is not the thing to do in the 1920s." [Would it have] been different if they would have followed his lead? Probably. And then it comes down to the whole morality of it. You got Utopian who thinks it's all black and white, but there's [subjective] realities to it and Utopian believes that it's objective, which is, you got to live by this code. And with times changing, you have to figure out which way to go and what's right for everyone. And I kind of test him at the end on that, where I make him make a choice: is it going to be your family, or are you gonna stick to your damn code?
In that moment, it seems Blackstar is willing to give his life to make a point and to make sure that Utopian has to make what, for him, is an impossible choice. How did you understand Blackstar's motivations in that moment?
It was all about testing Utopian. I think deep down, Blackstar knew he would pick his code. But there are other Union members that are seeing that things need to change, even Lady Liberty to a degree. So it was something that I knew I could push him on. I could push those buttons just enough. And then when Flare II comes in and decides that she is going to help out, it kind of throws me off my game a little bit. But the interesting thing is it takes several of them to take down Blackstar.
I think that's what people love about him. It takes several heroes to take him down, but at the same time, he's an intellectual. We see him reading and using his glasses. How did you add that nuance to him?
I guess that kind of all developed when I was back at KNB and we were picking the glasses that I was going to wear. I just tried on that one pair and it just kind of felt right. And then we threw the chain on and it just gave that little kind of cocky nuance and kind of added the level of intelligence to him that he needed.
And I think it's kind of funny that my choice reading is romance novels though. [Laughs.] I guess he's looking for love in all the wrong places.
You've played a supervillain before as Sabretooth in X-Men. What stands out about that experience for you?
I've been very lucky throughout my career to play the characters that I've been able to play. And the thing with Sabretooth, he was more of like, well -- like Ian [McKellan who played Magneto] said to me, "You're the closest thing to a sidekick I've ever had." And I'm like, "Yeah, that's kind of what it was." I was his sidekick in that. Whereas in Jupiter's Legacy, Blackstar stands on his own, and he's got his abilities and he gets to push the limits and boundaries a little more.
Blackstar doesn't die in the finale of Jupiter's Legacy's first season. Is there any chance he will be back in Season 2?
Well, you know, fingers crossed. Hopefully, the public wants to see more. I'd love to explore the backstory of Blackstar and see where that goes. And who knows, maybe even team up with someone and get some real business taken care of.
What projects are coming up next for you?
Through Mane Entertainment, I've always been interested in comic books, and I've got a project called The Last Spartan, which we're developing. And I had a conversation with some of my friends like David Hayter, Tom DeSanto, who I worked with on the X-Men, and they said, "Well this property would be a great graphic novel." So that is what we're doing next with Mane Entertainment, and we have already picked our writer. Christopher Priest is going to be writing The Last Spartan for us, and we're going to be doing a graphic novel.
Where can we see you next onscreen?
We are re-releasing Playing With Fire. It's going to get a theatrical run. I believe it's in June or July. So that is the next place people will be able to see me where I bring the character of Axe to life on Playing With Fire with John Cena.
You've done so much in your career. Is there anything else you aspire to do?
You know, I'm just enjoying the ride. I've just started doing a little series, Cocktails of the World, where I'm going to be dabbling with different bourbons and scotches and whiskies. So I'm looking forward to doing that too. That's another fantastic, fun thing that I'm able to do. So you never know where I'm going to be going next.
You can follow Tyler Mane on Instagram @therealtylermane , Facebook @Tyler.mane.9 and Twitter @TYLER_MANE.
Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy stars Josh Duhamel as The Utopian, Ben Daniels as Brainwave, Leslie Bibb as Lady Liberty, Elena Kampouris as Chloe Sampson, Andrew Horton as Brandon Sampson, Mike Wade as The Flare, Anna Akana as Raikou and Matt Lanter as Skyfox. Season 1 is available on Netflix now.