[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hi, and welcome to another episode of the Cosmic Cafe, the companion interview podcast to thecosmicscircus.com. I'm isla Ruby, and we are talking all things Moon girl and devil dinosaur today. Season two of the animated Marvel show premieres this week, and we have an exciting interview with some of the creative minds behind the show. We got to chat with Rodney Cloudon and Steve loder, executive producers of the show. This is actually our second time talking with the duo, and it was great checking in with them again about this season of Moon girl and devil dinosaur.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Enjoy.
It's nice to talk to you again.
So congratulations on your annie nominations and also your Emmy wins.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Yes, thank you.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: So I'm very excited about this season. I just finished watching the first four episodes, and I have a lot of.
[00:00:58] Speaker C: Questions we're here to answer, but we can.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Okay, so I'll just get right into it. Can you kind of talk about Lunella dealing with the fallout of kind of the knowledge that her, mimi was this amazing scientist?
Will we see that this season?
What will come into play?
[00:01:20] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. No, that's an important part of the season. The fact that now someone else in Lunella's inner circle knows who she is changes things a lot. But I think mimi is also discovered to be an incredible scientist. So together, I think technologically, you know, it's going to level Lunella up just having her as being part of the team. But I think emotionally it's also a big deal because I think Lunella needs someone to really know what she's going through and to kind of help her through it a little bit.
[00:01:59] Speaker C: And there's an aspect of the duality of being a superhero and being a 13 year old girl who's holding this secret and the fact that mimi is kind of going through the same thing now.
How do we tell the family?
How do we tell the family? What do we tell the family? How are they going to respond to this?
There's the anxiety of that and how that would change the whole dynamic of the whole family structure and how they deal with each other.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: I like that there was a lot of, I think, daydreaming about how her family would find out. And I think in the episode with Marvin, there's, like, this daydream and her family's under the table, and she's, like, blessed. And I just thought that was kind of an interesting way to explore that.
So there's a line in the first episode this season I thought was really powerful, and it seemed to kind of be also a theme this season and I was hoping you could talk about that. And if I'm totally wrong, that's okay too.
But the line was you don't need magic powers to do the impossible. And I think Lunella says this to the beyonder who has lost his powers.
Will that play at all for Lunella this season? Because there's a moment where she almost has a crisis of faith over her science abilities.
[00:03:24] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Season one is Lunella becoming moongirl. Season two is Lunella being moon girl.
And now that she's an established superhero, things have changed. Villains have leveled up against her.
There's a lot more conflict of her trying to keep her secret from her family.
Friendships are strained.
She's going through a lot this season and we do discover at certain points in time that the technology does not make the person.
That quote I think is pretty spot on as far as definitely a thematic direction that this season takes.
[00:04:08] Speaker C: And that's kind of the through line in terms of even coming carrying over from season one because she's not a person that jumps far, flies, or is super strength, but as we say, her brain is her superpower and that's something that she uses to make something out of nothing and is able to still bring that defense and that superhero energy to the Les neighborhood which people respect. And now she's like a legitimate superhero that people are looking at to help.
[00:04:41] Speaker B: The a or is there a favorite piece of tech or kind of invention or solution that Lunella came up with either this season or the last season that you guys really liked?
[00:04:54] Speaker D: Her moon scanner device, I think goes through a lot of changes this season. There seems to be a tendency for it to get wrecked and destroyed quite often and reinvented.
I think our aged technology, we stay pretty retro as far as technology goes.
[00:05:15] Speaker C: She is the superhero power is the power of upcycling.
[00:05:20] Speaker D: Exactly. Yeah. So I think we move from cassettes to mp3 s or cds actually at some point. But that's as far as we think.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: It might be a Zoom for season three.
[00:05:31] Speaker D: I don't know. Yeah, Zoom. Yeah.
Maybe with Peter Quill's zoom.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: That would be fun.
Can you talk about. So I want to talk again about this kid Cree. Can you talk about. And sorry about my dog. This journey to acceptance that he's on kind of his father and Lunella's journey.
[00:05:54] Speaker D: Yeah, kid Cree is a great character. Sholo, you probably know from Cobra Kai and Blue Beetle. He's so funny and he's so incredible.
So he really brought that character to life. And that character is established in the Marvel comic book as well. So it's a character we definitely were excited to bring to the screen. But, yeah, he definitely provides a different level to Nello's life. I mean, here's now a boy who is into stem and science and technology as much as she is. But he's a character that doesn't want to be a superhero. He doesn't want to be a warrior. He wants to do technology. He wants to invent and create things. And so I think it creates an interesting dynamic between Lunella and Marvin, who's kid Cree in the story, because, yeah, they come from similar places and they have similar views on things, but there's definitely some conflict.
[00:06:59] Speaker C: It's interesting because that he is this kid who has to disguise himself to do this, to use this technology, and she also has this to be in a superhero outfit, to use technology. So, like you said, there is a commonality in terms of things. And unlike Lunella, Marvin's father is not as supportive of his genius. He doesn't see that. So he has that conflict. And to have someone like Lunella to relate to that he can have an outlet for his nerdiness is something that helps to build that relationship with him.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: As a mom, I kind of really appreciated at the end of that sequence that his father kind of accepted him and his brilliance. And I just thought that was really a lovely message just for kids. And I really like that we have the Kree here, but also Molecule man makes an appearance. Can you talk know, was there anyone you really wanted to include but couldn't? Was there anyone that you got the okay to include this season that you were surprised that you didn't think.
[00:08:17] Speaker D: That was a surprise? I think mean, we have a really great relationship with Marvel, and we wanted to make sure that we were complimentary to the MCU, and we certainly didn't want to step on what they were doing because it's so great. So we wanted to do some characters that you may not have kind of seen a lot. We have a Marvel character, Turbo, in the back half of this is, which is a Marvel character, but probably hasn't gotten her due in the comics, but you get a really wonderful experience with her in one of the episodes. And we bring back Maria Hill. And we definitely have some Marvel surprises in this season, probably more so than in season one. Season one, we kind of wanted to make sure that Lunella Lafayette's story can kind of stand on its own. But with season two, it felt like, we could have fun by bringing in even more Marvel influences.
[00:09:17] Speaker C: And even with the design of Molecule man, we took it and we put our own moon girl spin on.
So it's not the molecule man that people would probably recognize from the comic books and ever. James almost does the voice of Molecule man, and he just brought this incredible anger and pain to the character that it's a very nuanced and multilayered character than you would think, say, get from the comic books.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Now, I know you have a lot of amazing guest stars, and I don't know if you can share this, but can you share who voiced Turbo, or is that later to come?
[00:10:02] Speaker D: That's a good question. I'm not sure I see it on the line. Can we say that's fine?
[00:10:07] Speaker C: Yeah. There's an Erica ishi voice of Turbo.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:10:15] Speaker D: Good. Sorry.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: No, that's fantastic. I know we're getting really close on time. I have two. One. So they're dancing pecs in the fourth season or in the fourth episode at the very end. I just want to know who came up with that, because that was really, like, at the end credits kind of roddy.
[00:10:33] Speaker D: Was that Sam?
[00:10:35] Speaker C: It probably was Sam.
[00:10:36] Speaker D: Sam Lee, one of our directors. Yeah. Is probably the likely culprit.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: That was really funny. And is there anything else you want people to know about this season? Is there anything that hasn't been said about Moon girl yet?
[00:10:54] Speaker D: This season is an absolute roller coaster.
What we've seen in season one is becoming a superhero is one thing, but being a superhero is something else.
And we definitely throw a lot of stuff Lunello's way, and we definitely have a lot of conflict, but we also have a lot of music and a lot of comedy. We've definitely juiced up this season for sure. It is quite an.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Know. I know this season isn't even on the air yet, but has there been talk of a third season that you got your second season announcement really early? Is there discussions?
[00:11:33] Speaker D: We hope so. I mean, I think a lot of it has to do with the fans. The more that we were premiering February 2 on Disney Channel and with two episodes, and then we were dropping 14 episodes on Disney plus the next day on February 3.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:11:50] Speaker D: So the more people watch, particularly in the early kind of drop times, is really good for us, because then it shows that there's an audience for the show, and we definitely have plans for season three. We've already figured it out. We know exactly. We want to go in season three.
[00:12:08] Speaker C: There's a whole map with line, string and everything. It's all figured it out. Just waiting for that.
[00:12:17] Speaker D: We're hoping that people tune in, particularly early on wound girl season two so we can continue the story because we love them.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Keep making them.
[00:12:27] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Well, I love that. Thank you so much and congratulations again. I can't wait to watch the rest of the episodes. Thank you so much.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: Thank you for listening. You can find the companion article for this podcast along with all the other.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: News for those who like superheroes, science.
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[00:12:49] Speaker B: Have a great day.
