Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors is winding up for the punch. As a followup to the Marvel Rising: Initiation shorts, the 80-minute animated feature will reunite fan-favorite characters like Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl and Patriot against Hala the Accuser, a Kree warlord. Secret Warriors will also introduce a handful of new characters to the franchise, including America Chavez and Inferno. Together, they will have to prove they have what it takes to save themselves, their friends -- and the world.
Ahead of the made-for-TV movie's September 30 premiere, Senior Vice President of Marvel Animation Cort Lane spoke to CBR about the project, its development and its future. He offered some insight into how the Secret Warriors' core team forms, the reasoning behind the title choice, the threat Hala poses to our characters and more. He also weighed in on his favorite character beats, the difference between Secret Warriors and Initiation and the appeal of series stars like Dove Cameron and Tyler Posey.
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CBR: Tell me a little about how the Marvel Rising project came together.
Lane: That is a long and circuitous story! It came together for many reasons. One is we have been observing that half our box office is female of various ages. We've been watching in consumer products and in publishing. Certain female characters really pop as being relevant to women and girls, and so we saw there was an opportunity -- a very clear opportunity, more than there ever has been -- to do something that was more girl-targeted.
Now I say that, we're not excluding boys in any way from this project. We actually wanted to make sure that boys would be excited by the stories we have to tell here and the heroes that we are featuring as well, but there was a unique opportunity to go broad with something specifically featuring more female characters, and so we did a lot of research. We talked a lot about which characters we'd like to feature, which characters girls and women were connecting with in publishing, and then we had conversations with girls to make sure that our choices for those characters -- you know, we had a roster of characters to feature that they would emotionally connect with, and some of them they connect with emotionally more than others and that helped us narrow it down a little bit.
Then we started to develop a story about how we introduce those characters one by one and how we tell their personal stories and how they all connect together as stories about young people who are trying to figure out their place in the world, who are trying to do the right thing, who have new powers that they're trying to use to do good but might mess up along the way and become the next generation of great Marvel heroes.
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At SDCC's Marvel Rising panel, you mentioned that you had conversations with girls during development. What was that process like?
It was very interesting! What was most exciting about it is they're already Marvel fans. There wasn't a lot of convincing: "Oh, would you watch something --" "Of course we'd watch something like this!" But we put in front of them a lot of characters, and then talked about their personal stories and their powers and personalities, and girls were really looking for characters that were very different in terms of personality. Like, each of them had interesting sort of character arcs. They wanted conflict. They wanted friendship. And so we started to put together sort of a matrix of how the characters could interact with each other and deliver on the kind of storytelling and art that girls were especially excited about.
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You also mentioned that Mairghread Scott absolutely nailed her pitch for the project. What set hers apart?
Yes, she was a writer on this project, and she in particular put together the narrative of how the characters were introduced one by one and the context for that and really establishing Kamala as the POV character. She did a wonderful job on pitching a story that would accomplish all of the character arcs that we wanted to cover.
What separates Secret Warriors from Initiation?
Well, Secret Warriors was meant to do a couple things. One, give a flavor for the franchise and to tee it up; introduce some of the characters, but not all of them; but -- more than that -- just, because you know we want to reach girls every place that they are, and so Initiation is especially available and, for a long time, even exclusive on YouTube, because kids are there a lot. You know, to have an 80-minute feature, something they can really sink their teeth into as a big event tent-pole, this content available on Disney Channel, is another way to reach them. So -- and you'll see on [Marvel] HQ -- all these other pieces of content. You see lots of social media stuff connected with this property that's already come out, and the music featurette of Dove Cameron singing "Born Ready" -- all of that stuff is just meant to reach them in different ways, so they can connect with these characters.
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You've really enlisted some major talent for the project, from Ming-Na Wen to Tyler Posey to Dove Cameron. What was the audition process like?
[laughs] Well, some of these people are a little too important to audition! But what we understood, from their previous performances and other projects, was that they could hit the emotional beats that we needed for the characters here. We also made a conscious effort -- frankly, if we're going to reach girls -- then why not select actors that they know and love from other projects that they have a connection with? So that was a conscious goal as well, but all these actors had to deliver on the character arcs that we were playing out in Secret Warriors.
In the trailer, we got a bit of a tease as to what brings these characters together, but -- in your own words -- what kicks off the events of Secret Warriors?
Oh, that's a good question. I don't want to give too much away! What I will say is that a number of young people who have powers are finding themselves in conflict, and it's not a conflict they understand. A few of these young heroes are brave enough to ask the question why and try to get to the bottom of it. As they go along -- it starts with Kamala and Doreen, Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl -- and as they encounter other heroes and gather them along, they do band together and find the answer, and the answer is something much deeper and darker than they could have anticipated. It really means saving our world, and they're not even sure they're up to the task, but they have no other choice but to do the best they can. Along the way, they prove to themselves that they really have what it takes to be great heroes.
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Secret Warriors is, of course, a title that comes with some comics continuity baggage. Can we expect to see throwbacks to comic series or is this something completely new or maybe a little bit of both?
All I will say is there's reasons for the choice and I can't talk about future projects and how they might connect with that. I can't talk about anything in the future related to Marvel Rising, but there were a lot of reasons for that. And personally, even, just the connection of Daisy Johnson to the story and then the idea that these kids, they're secret. The world doesn't know yet how amazing they are, but the world will find out eventually.
I feel like we've heard so much about the core team, but not too much about the series antagonist. So tell me: who is Hala?
Well, Hala is a character from publishing. She is a Kree Accuser. Ming-Na Wen really enjoyed digging into playing a villain, but a villain who really believes that she's in the right. You know, she believes that the Kree are the dominant race in the galaxy. This experiment of Inhumans on Earth is something that is sort of like a hanging thread that she's decided to take care of and sort of call the best of these young Inhumans. She's really behind a lot of the events of the story, and anything else I say will give away too much of the plot.
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Obviously, you've worked with a lot of these characters before, but was there one in particular you were excited for in Marvel Rising?
Oh, that's such a tough question! Well, I've been a Carol Danvers fan since I was a kid, so getting to tell a story where we get to see some different sides of her is very exciting for me. At the same time, Squirrel Girl is one heck of a fun character and her and Tippy-Toe and the comedy they bring to the story I think is just fantastic. I like that she's a character who is unapologetic about being silly and goofy, but also being incredibly capable. I think she gives all kids the freedom to understand that they can be their authentic selves and do the right thing and be cool and it's all good.
Secret Warriors will show a lot of characters meeting up for the first time in animation. Which character interaction is your favorite?
Well, I'm going to say that there's something incredibly cute and kind of flirtatious about the interaction between Squirrel Girl and Patriot. They are on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how they define being a hero and how they behave as a hero. He is by the rules and by the books and a bit stiff, and she is just loose and goofy and she takes things as they come and she doesn't really have a plan and the two of them are so different, but the way they interact with each other is adorable to watch.
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Do you have a favorite moment or scene you could tease?
So one of the best parts of working on this project was getting to commission and help put together the theme song "Born Ready." I've never gotten to work on something like that before! And was so happy with the song that, when we were able to put it into the climactic battle (and I won't give any details for your readers about that battle), but how it works on an emotional level during that massive scene and how it's really about these characters show themselves and showing the world they have what it takes, which is what the song is about, that -- for me -- gives me goosebumps when I watch it. When we did the mix review with that song in the score, it was just a really profoundly affecting moment for me. It made me feel proud to be involved in this kind of storytelling, these aspirational characters that kids can watch and feel like, "Wow! Anybody can take control and show the world what they have, that they have what it takes."
Tell me a little more about how that theme song was developed.
So we worked with the Disney music folks, because that's not something we've had the experience in doing, so we wanted to work with the experts. It was really interesting working on a pop song, because the first part of the process is you really just sort of go out with a creative brief, that our internal team developed about what Marvel Rising's themes are and the kind of song you're hoping to get in terms of tempo and attitude and style, and then you get a bunch -- just a ton -- of spec songs. They're not usually full songs; they might be just 30 seconds or 45 seconds of the song, and then you wade through them and then you have this like very interesting creative choice about suits the story, what represents this franchise best, what song is just the coolest song that girls are going to want to sing along and dance to. Me, as a grown man, I don't really know what that is, so the younger female members of my team sat down with me. [laughs] Fortunately, I agreed with them. Apparently, I'm not that far off!
We knew that Dove [Cameron] was singing it, so we wanted to make sure it was something that sort of fit her vibe and her voice, and so we did that as well and we wanted her to be part of the process, so we included her. She was busy filming in Vancouver, so we had to go up to Vancouver to record the song with her and make the music featurette and that was a really fun experience as well, because it was really sort of self-contained. We went up to Vancouver, this amazing studio in Vancouver, so it wasn't just something we did for a few hours here in Burbank or Glendale. It was a trip to make this song, and that was really exciting.
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Marvel Rising is, of course, a multi-platform project with its own comic book series. How closely do you work with the comic's creative team?
Oh, constantly! We're all, you know -- the animation team, the live-action TV team and the publishing team are all under an amazing executive named Dan Buckley, who makes sure we all sort of engage with each other. I mean, we have regular conference calls where we talk about what everybody is doing and then we have Sana Amanat, who you may know, who is in charge of content strategy across the different divisions. She makes sure that everybody is connected and she was very involved in Marvel Rising development. So then the interaction is very involved back-and-forth, and even with the live-action team as well, where you can see that we're using Chloe Bennet and we're using live-action actors from some of their projects.
At the end of the day, when all is said and done, what do you hope viewers take away from Marvel Rising?
I would just have to say that, if nothing else... man, this sounds so simplistic, because I want this project to work for boys and girls and audiences of all ages, but just how complex and interesting female superheroes can be, how diverse and different and how their perspectives and personalities can all be so unique but they can all be so powerful from a storytelling perspective. Just that girls kick a lot of butt.
Premiering Sunday, September 30 at 10 pm.m ET/PT on Disney Channel and Disney XD, Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors stars Chloe Bennet as Quake, Milana Vayntrub as Squirrel Girl, Kathreen Khavari as Ms. Marvel, Kamil McFadden as Patriot, Tyler Posey as Inferno, BooBoo Stewart as Exile, Cierra Ramirez as America Chavez, Kim Raver as Captain Marvel, Ming-Na Wen as Hala, and Dee Bradley Baker as Tippy Toe & Lockjaw.