The CW's Naomi, based on the 2019 Wonder Comics breakout hit from Brian Michael Bendis, David S. Walker, and Jamal Campbell recently premiered and launched the DC rising star into yet another part of the multiverse -- this time, the Arrowverse. Under the direction of writer/producer Ava DuVernay, the series follows Naomi (Kaci Walfall) as she discovers the truth about herself following a superhuman scuffle in her small northwestern town.
Episode 1 of the show also introduced the shady Zumbado, the owner of a local car and the town's resident pariah. Zumbado, played by Cranston Johnson (Happ and Leonard, Atlanta), seems to be the only person in Naomi's orbit who doesn't quite fit into the soon-to-be heroine's charmed, happy life. However, in a recent interview with Johnson, the Zumbado actor revealed that there may be much more to the sinister figure than it seems -- and that fans should be careful about labeling anyone in the show too quickly.
CBR: How would you describe Zumbado as the person who plays him?
Cranston Johnson: Zumbado is an enigmatic, mysterious person [whose motivation] we don't really know. He seems dangerous. He seems like someone everyone tries to avoid at all costs. People are uncomfortable around him. I think it's going to be interesting to see why these things are either true or false. There's a mysterious element to him that we can't put our finger on right now at this point.
And it's important that Zumbado is the way he is because there aren't many -- though that's slowly changing -- Black supervillains in television as there ought to be by this point. What does it mean to you to be able to bring another Black character into a role we don't typically get to fill?
Anytime that I can represent something that is underrepresented, I think it's a great responsibility, but it's also something that I'm grateful to do. To be in the lane that Zumbado is in [is something] that I accepted as a great challenge. I think we have a great protagonist with Kaci, so I have to match or equal what she's bringing -- and of course, we're gonna be a counterbalance with each other. I take my job of creating a layered character [seriuously]. I don't want him to be one-dimensional, I want him to have these layers that the audience can view and can appreciate as they're watching.
To me, Zumbado being one-note and running around screaming and yelling... I think that that's the easy thing to do. My job is to make you think and to open a dialogue about what he's doing. I take that as a challenge and I accept it. I'm excited about the fans getting to see how the story unfolds. We are following some of the stuff that's in the comic book, but we also venture off into our own lane with some of these storylines, so we can satisfy both the people who have read [and enjoyed] the comics and people who are brand new to the Naomi story -- it's gonna be a little something for everybody.
What should fans look out for from Zumbado as the season progresses? What do you want them to pay most attention to from him?
So the tagline of our show is, "Don't believe everything you think." So I would love for the viewers, as they continue to watch our show, is to make these discoveries for themselves. Don't believe everything. For example, the rumors circulating in Port Oswego on the show are that Zumbado is this crook and this evil figure that should be avoided at all costs. Do your own research on Zumbado, watch the show. Don't believe everything you think, right? That's what the goal of our show is, to take you out of the conditioned mindset that you have, to research things on your own, and to come up with your own conclusions about everything. So I challenge everyone to do that. We're gonna be able to learn a lot more about all of our characters as the show continues to unfold. So be careful about putting labels on people right away.
Beyond the main characters, the entire cast of Naomi is diverse in a way rarely seen on network TV. Why do you think it's important that this cast is so multicultural?
The world has many different shapes, sizes, and colors of people, right? Art should reflect that same thing. So to me, it seems like a no-brainer to have a diverse cast because the viewership is diverse and you want to appeal to as many people as you can, to inspire, to entertain, whatever it is. It seems like it would be a no-brainer, but it's not in the industry. A lot of the time, it's heavy-handed on one side. So to be a part of a show where it's multicultural, to me that's exciting, it's inspirational, it's liberating to work with different people from different backgrounds. And just getting to know some of my castmates off-camera... You couldn't have put together a more genuine, more fun group of people than what we have. I love the representation of the diversity that we have because that's how our world is. I want the art to be [a reflection of that].
How was working with Ava DuVernay on the series?
I have been a fan of hers for several years, but I have been wanting to work with her specifically for about three years before I got this opportunity. When I first moved to Los Angeles from North Carolina back in 2018, I got the opportunity to audition for When They See Us, the Netflix original about teenagers from the Central Park incident. I read for a role on that, got a call about it and it's, like, last minute. So I went in to read for Aisha Coley, who does the casting for Ava, and I walked through the door expecting to see Miss Coley... And who's in there sitting on the couch? It's Ava DuVernay [laughs]!
And this was my first time being in her presence. I was like, "Uh, oh, okay. Don't be nervous, just breathe. You know, it's just a read." So we do the read, and you know, being in the room for 30 minutes is not really the norm. It can happen, but [since] the read went on for a while, I knew that I was doing well. At the end of it, [Ava] asked me, "Do you know why I invited you to read for this role?" I didn't. But [it turns out] she had seen a short film that I did up in New York two years prior to this audition.
[Ava] told me she was really blown away by the performance that I had done in that short film, and she was excited to meet me and to read me. It was so funny that when I left that audition, first of all, I was just blown away by her attention to detail towards her craft. You know, watching a short film and then, following up and doing the homework, and finding the actor. When I left there, I had this mentality, I was like, "Wow, this is gonna happen. I'm gonna be working with her on this show." And, sure enough, like so many things in our industry, for whatever reason, it didn't happen at that time.
But almost three years later on that same April afternoon when I first met her, I was cast as Zumbado in Naomi. To me, it was just a testament for, first and foremost, doing the things that you love in this industry because a lot of people wouldn't have even done that short film, maybe thinking like, "This isn't gonna get me the traction I need. Nobody will ever see this, why am I gonna waste my time doing this?" But I did that project out of love and of passion for it and look how it was reciprocated. Look what manifested from that.
So I think that it's just special that I'm getting to work with [Ava]. She's such an inspirational person, both personal personally, and professionally, [especially] with her activism and everything. I'm just honored. I know that was a long story [laughs], but I just wanted to share that because it's exciting. Ava's special. She's special and it's not just the talent or the writing or the directing or the producing and stuff. It's the person. She's just a very special, genuine person who you can tell really cares about the people she works with. To me, that speaks volumes.
Not long ago there was a press conference with Kaci Walfall and she mentioned that the scene with the two of you in the forest was very physically taxing for her. Did you have the same experience?
[laughs] It wasn't as taxing for me, but it was very intense. It's a pivotal scene during the pilot, so we worked on it a lot, as far as the shooting process. We shot it from a lot of different angles and it covered, I don't know, probably six pages or so of the script. It's a very meaty scene. Of course, I'm the one who -- for the most part -- is in control during the scene. So the intensity was there, but I was relaxed and I was enjoying terrifying her [laughs]. I didn't do all the running around that she was doing, but just the fear and everything that she was projecting... I could see how on her end it'd be extremely physically and mentally exhausting to do that. But for me? I was just cool as a cucumber [laughs]. I enjoyed every moment of it.
Despite there being a few shows that have ended at this point, are there any DCTV/Arrowverse villains that you would like to see Zumbado, work with -- or against?
I'm a growing fan of the whole comic book world. I didn't grow up reading comics and things like that, but I am a fan of several shows [and] movies.
On this show, I've been able to learn so much more about the multiverse and all these different things. Alexander Wraith, who plays Dee, his knowledge is very, very extensive. He's taken me to school almost every day [laughs] -- schooling me on some of these things like the planet that he comes from and what they're known for, and to me, it's fascinating. I've been a sponge and I'm trying to absorb everything. So any of those shows in the Arrowverse or any of the other ones that have crossover appeal and invite Zumbado into those worlds, I would be more than open to it, and I look forward to it. To me, those prospects are very exciting.
Naomi debuts new episodes Tuesdays on The CW at 9 pm ET.