The first season of Invincibledebuted in March 2021 to immediate critical acclaim. With a stunning animation style, dynamic characters, and captivating superhero world, it was a hit with fans as well. So it came as no surprise that Invincible was immediately renewed for a second and third season in April 2021, while the first season was still ongoing. With a show as lauded as Invincible is, and with its speedy renewal, it is curious why fans have had to wait two years for Season 2. Well, series creator, Robert Kirkman, has a valid explanation.
Speaking to Collider’s Perri Nemiroff at San Diego Comic-Con, when asked about the long gap between seasons, Kirkman attributed the two-year wait to a number of factors. “It's three things. It's the animation process which is difficult in and of itself. Two, very complicated show. We have a larger cast than you might see in any other show.” Season 2 of Invincible is set to deliver new and exciting cast members. To start with, as the trailer revealed, Sterling K. Brown, Chloe Bennet, Tatiana Maslany, Ben Schwartz, Peter Cullen, Lea Thompson, Calista Flockhart, Scoot McNairy, Phil LaMarr, and Daveed Diggs are just some of the guest stars of the season.
Beyond the talent of its cast and animation process, Invincible solidified its place as one of the best animated shows of recent history with its stylistic visuals, no-holds-barred action, and commitment to pushing the limits of animation with Emmy-worthy storytelling. The factors that fans have come to appreciate about the show, also contributed to length between Season 1 and 2. As Kirkman explains:
We're an hour long animated show which is very unusual, but we have so many characters and so many settings, even in just one episode that we're really kind of pushing the limits of what can be done in animation. So it takes a long time to make it. But it has also taken a long time to learn how to do it and figure it out because we're doing a lot of things that you don't necessarily do in animation.
RELATED: 'Invincible' Returns Early With Special Atom Eve Standalone Episode on Prime Video
Unsurprisingly, Kirkman also lists COVID as a reason for the wait, as the pandemic notably delayed several movies and television shows across the industry, with many productions having to find new and safer ways to work.
We debuted in 2021, and when we got the pick up for Season 2 and 3, we had to kind of figure [it] out. We finished the show as COVID was starting, Season 1, and so we had to figure out completely new processes to work with all the restrictions that came from that. Animation studios were shut down quite a bit during COVID because animators work in a lot of cases in large rooms and in giant groups. So we had to figure out like a whole new way of working and that slowed things down quite a bit.
The good news is that fans will no longer have to wait so long for a new season, with Kirkman assuring a shorter gap between season 2 and 3. “I'm very happy to report that the process of figuring out all the complexity of the show and building the factory that can generate this show has made it to where this is the longest period that there will be between seasons. So things should move much more smoothly from this point on,” Kirkman states.
Steven Yeun, Zazie Beetz, Sandra Oh, Seth Rogen, Gillian Jacobs, Jason Mantzoukas, Andrew Rannells, Ross Marquand, Zachary Quinto, Khary Payton,and J. K. Simmons will make their action packed return later this year when the anticipated second season of Invincible arrives on November 3.
Until then, fans can check out the newly released Invincible special which chronicles the origins of Atom Eve and Kirkman's full comments below:
