Giancarlo Volpe serves as producer of fan-favorite series
Green Lantern: The Animated Series, which recently wrapped up it's first season. The show will return "this fall" alongside
Young Justice: Invasion with new episodes, so I went ahead and asked the producer what we can expect from the show this fall. Although he didn't reveal anything too specific, he does reveal some details about Anti-Monitor, new Lanterns, and more.
Q:
You worked on Avatar: The Last Airbender. What are your thoughts on The Legend of Korra?
I love it! Besides being friends with (co-creators) Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, I'm also big fans of their work. I really admire how they're able to break all the rules of what a kid's show is supposed to be, and do it so masterfully. Their story telling style is very unconventional, and they take their work so seriously. My only regret is that I was too busy on Green Lantern to help them out.
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Q:
Were you a fan of the Green Lantern comics before taking the job of producing the show?
I get asked this question a lot, and the quick response is "not really". I knew who Green Lantern was, (when I was a kid, I watched him in "The Superfriends", long before Bruce did a much better version with "Justice League") but I was not an avid reader of the books. Around the time I was interviewing for this job, a friend of mine recommended some of Geoff John's graphic novels. I thought he did an excellent job capturing the essence of Hal Jordan as well as the rest of the GL universe. His work was invaluable research for our show.
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Q:
Why were the Red Lanterns chosen to be the first main villains?
I really liked the whole emotional spectrum element they were doing in the comics. If the Green Lanterns police the galaxy using will-power (ie, a non-emotion) then you need a very volatile emotion to counter them. "Fear" and "anger" are two that come immediately to mind. And since Sinestro was ruled out for season one, the Red Lanterns were the next best pick. I also really love that they have a deep, bitter history with the Guardians. It makes for good drama. Bruce even pointed out that red is opposite to green on the color wheel. It just makes sense on so many levels.
Q:
Thanks to the sizzle reel at Comic-Con, we now see that the Anti-Monitor will be the main villain of Season 2. How will he differ from Atrocitus?
You'll have to tune in for exact details, but I'll give you this - Where Atrocitus' whole vendetta is aimed specifically against the Guardians, the Anti Monitor is completely impersonal. It's not looking for revenge, it just sees all life as a swarm of insects that will never be missed if it snuffs them out. In a lot of ways, that's even more horrifying.
Q:
We also see the introduction of Ch'p and Tomar-Re. Can we expect to see either of them more than once?
Let's put it this way - it would not be prudent to spend that much time and money on a CG model that we only use once.
Q:
Guy Gardner has replaced Hal on Earth. How will this affect Hal? Will the two have a rivalry?
You get a hint of that in the teaser footage we released at Comic Con. They are definitely not best friends. You'll have to watch the season opener to see exactly how it plays out.
Q:
Carol Ferris is an integral part of Hal's mythology, will we see her more in Season 2 now that Hal has found his way back to Earth?
Absolutely. In season one Carol was quite literally left behind while Hal battled the Red Lanterns in frontier space. But now that he's no longer stranded out there, he has lots of opportunities to be with Carol and sweep her off her feet...or totally screw things up. You know, whatever's easiest.
Q:
One character everyone wants to see is Sinestro. Can you tell us if we can expect him to show?
We leaked the answer to this one at Wonder Con, 2012. I'm kind of surprised it didn't make a bigger splash on the interwebs. I guess it's because at the time no one was really following me on Twitter yet.
What was the question again?
Even though Mr. Volpe didn't reveal anything too specific, he gave us enough details to maintain the hype. The cast and crew of this show absolutely adore their fans, and often interact with them in several ways.
Green Lantern: The Animated Series has brilliant writing and animation, so I definitely recommend going out to buy the DVDs. Giancarlo Volpe can be found on Twitter at
@Giancarlo_Volpe, so go ahead and try to squeeze some details out of him, but don't be rude! You can check out concept art from the show by clicking
here.
Are you more of a fan of Marvel Animation? If so, stay tuned because I'll have a great interview for you coming this week!