Stephen Oyoung is perhaps best known for his standout performance as Mister Negative in Marvel's Spider-Man, but he's now making the leap to the DC Universe for Gotham Knights. The highly anticipated game, believed to be a loose Batman: Arkham Knight sequel/spinoff, will see gamers take control of Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and Red Hood, with the latter played by Stephen.
Recently, we had the opportunity to talk to the Gotham Knights star by email, and had to ask both what fans can expect from his Red Hood, and how much of his work is inspired by what's come before.
"The team at WB Montreal is doing everything they can to make Red Hood as dynamic a character as possible. He's not a one note guy," Stephen explained before teasing a deep dive into Jason Todd. "We all know Jason's backstory, his anger, his disappointments, his pain. So the temptation is just to lean super heavy into that. But there's more to him. That's been super fun to play with."
"As far as Arkham Knight, that portrayal is iconic. I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm not influenced by it. I think about it a lot. But at the end of the day I don't think anyone wants a copy of someone else's performance, no matter how close it is. I think I have a realistic base in my action-performing/ stunt background, so I try to bring that kind of energy to the scenarios. Basically this is just a long way of saying I'm trying to steal what's great from Arkham Knight and bring some of my own flavor to it!"
Now, you obviously don't need us to tell you what an iconic, beloved character Jason is, and Stephen went on to elaborate on what we should be on the lookout for when it comes to his interpretation.
"Without getting into too much trouble I can say the writing team is phenomenal! They're finding ways to surprise you. Again, we're all hyper aware of bringing out the humanity in our Jason and making him as emotionally nuanced and dynamic as possible while still honoring his painful past." However, that doesn't mean we won't get some action! "And yes, he's handy with guns!"
We'll have much more to share with you from Stephen soon, but in the meantime, you can find him on Twitter @mrstephenoyoung and Instagram @stephenoyoung. The actor is also involved with OperationSmile.org, a worthy cause we highly recommend you check out!