Marvel's 616 director Paul Scheer wants to introduce you to a Marvel Comics superhero team like no other: Brute Force. As he discovers in his episode "Lost and Found," Brute Force is an elite squadron of intelligent, cybernetically enhanced animals with a thirst for justice. The 1990 miniseries by Simon Furman and Jose Delbo introduced Soar, Wreckless, Lionheart, Hip Hop and Surfstreak. Now, Scheer has brought them -- and several other forgotten Marvel heroes -- back to life for the small screen.
Speaking to CBR, Scheer and Marvel's 616 executive producer Sarah Amos shared their process of discovery for "Lost and Found." They described the series as a "love letter" to Marvel fans and revealed which lost character surprised them the most. They also discussed how they joined the project, where this episode fits into the series at large, why researching Brute Force cured them of their skepticism about the industry and more.
CBR: So when does the Brute Force animated series release on Disney+? #SaveTheScheerCut!
Paul Scheer: [laughs] Look, from your mouth to [Disney CEO] Bob Chapek's ears! Let's get this going. Can you get [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige on the phone? We need him to rubber stamp this.
How did you become involved in the project? What drew you to Marvel Comics?
Scheer: Well, you know, I have a history with Marvel. Not only have I written a handful of books for Marvel, I've actually been in a Marvel book as myself! I am a villain in Astonishing Ant-Man #4. So I have a deep connection to Marvel, besides it just being part of my DNA. I think the first book I ever read was a Spider-Man comic book.
So when Sarah [Amos] had this idea to do a documentary series exploring and celebrating this rich history of Marvel Comics, it was a conversation that started incredibly casually. It was with their production partner Supper Club and we were talking about what's interesting in this world, what's the story that we can tell, and I think that's the way that most comic books start off, too. Like, what is a story that we want to explore, that we can find relatable, that we've have a connection with?
And to me, it was this slightly tongue-in-cheek but honestly, true premise! To make it in Hollywood now, you need to have a Marvel character. I mean, we see it time and time again. It is the secret of success. I mean, the the dream of all dreams is to be involved in a successful Marvel project. Let's go!
I saw the success of Guardians of the Galaxy, which is, I think to most people before the films, a book that not many people knew. Very similar to the way that we talked about in the documentary, Reggie Hudlin came across Black Panther. It was, yes, a book that existed, but what he brought to it was this new life, this new energy, and Marvel has been known to pair creators who are passionate with properties that they either have created or to reinvigorate those properties.
So for me, it was about: what are these other characters that exist? You know, I think of it as the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Every box has a treasure in it; let's open up some of those boxes. I found the best way to do that, to kind of share the secret language that we all have as Marvel fans, is to talk to people about their favorite weird Marvel characters. They're not bad. They just are the ones that probably aren't the forward-facing ones. They're not the top five that come to most non-Marvel fans minds, right?
I think most people can just probably name like, oh, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Black Panther, you know, but to me, it was kind of going in here and just digging in and finding like, "Wait, what was that about? Oh, I didn't read that one!" And I just love that. I love that there's so much more left to be mined in this world.
Amos: Look, I mean, this series really started, beyond just even Paul's episode, as a bunch of us at Marvel -- including myself, other co-executive producers, Harry Go, John Cerilli, Steven Wacker and others -- really just wanting to showcase a lot of the legacy, the stories, the creators that maybe people weren't as familiar with, right?
Marvel is, in so many ways, as Stan [Lee] always would say, the world outside your window.We wanted to take a step back and really show how we've been influenced by that world, but also to some degree, how we have influenced that world. From there, when we started working with our production company Supper Club and our partners in this, it really just all snowballed so quickly, and they brought in so many directors and producers and folks who were passionate about Marvel or passionate about storytelling or passionate about different places in the world.
Then we just started to connect all the pieces together, and the beauty of Marvel is there's so much, right? There's 80 years. There's everything from comedy to gritty street drama and everything in between. So we had so much to play with that then just became watching these pieces fall together and going on this journey of really discovery for all of us across these eight episodes until we got to a final product that we hope is a bit of a love letter to Marvel, a love letter to our fans, and hopefully we'll bring in some new fans, because there is a degree to which I think this series can really resonate with people who maybe currently wouldn't call themselves Marvel fans, but are going to get sucked in by an episode like "Spotlight," that Alison Brie directed, that really is as much about high school theater and growing up as it is actually about Marvel characters.
What is something you discovered during your work on the series that surprised you?
Scheer: You know, in my episode, I think what was really surprising was the particular passion behind the creation of these characters. We talked a little bit about Brute Force, and when I got to meet the person came up with the idea of Brute Force, to sit with him and his original drawings, and look at how he was inspired by science, right? He believed in robotics, and he believed that if he combined robotics and animals, we could create this kind of foreshadowing of our future. What if the animals talked? What if we could make them into literal vehicles? The idea of animals into a vehicle sounds like, "Oh, you're just making a toy."
But what was surprising was this person who created it did not approach it that way. He approached it, really, as someone who saw this as our future and was passionate about that and that, to me, really, kind of -- I think it made me less skeptical, right, because I think we live in a world where, you know, all of a sudden, it's like, Connect Four: The Movie. I think we're so predeterminate, like, "Okay, they're just trying to get money out of this." And I think what Marvel really does is it empowers the most bizarre ideas, and that is why that most people who've never read a Marvel comic book know about a tree and a raccoon that save the universe! But on paper, that may be like, "Wait a second. We got Spider-Man. Wait, we got a tree!?" You know what I'm saying? And so I love that. I just love that the passion is what I think makes these characters accessible and that you come back to.
Amos: I think, for me, so many things. I do say Street Poet Ray. I did not see Street Poet Ray coming. I did not suspect Street Poet Ray. And then there was Street Poet Ray. That's all I'm going to say.
Scheer: I forgot all that Street Poet Ray! Yes!
Amos: I want everyone to explore and discover Street Poet Ray on their own. But it was really true across every episode, right? We went in with an idea of what we wanted to do, but each episode had surprises and had new discoveries for myself, for folks who had worked at Marvel for 10/15 years, interviews that we unearthed, footage that we didn't know existed.
I mean, the entirety of the Japanese Spider-Man episode was just a discovery for the whole team as we went. I think that comes across in the final product. Each episode really is taking you on this journey, and there's such joy in the eyes of our subjects, through the lens of the filmmaker. It really is just a series that should be filled with fun and just an appreciation for the fandom that Marvel has created.
To Paul's point, nobody sets out to make bad art, right?
Scheer: No! 100%! I've worked on many movies, and no one has ever set out to make a bad movie, and I've been in bad movies.
Executive produced by Jason Sterman, Brian McGinn and David Gelb, the eight-episode first season of Marvel's 616 is now available on Disney+.