Doom Patrol, which is arguably television’s wackiest show (in all the best ways) returns for its second season this week. For this season, in addition to being on DC Universe, it will also air on HBO Max.
The official description: DC’s strangest group of heroes — Cliff Steele aka Robotman (Brendan Fraser), Larry Trainor aka Negative Man (Matt Bomer), Rita Farr aka Elasti-Woman (April Bowlby), Jane aka Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero), and Victor Stone aka Cyborg (Joivan Wade) — are back again to save the world. That is, if they can find a way to grow up…both figuratively and literally. Following the defeat of Mr. Nobody, the members of the Doom Patrol now find themselves mini-sized and stranded on Cliff’s toy race car track. Here they begin to deal with their feelings of betrayal by Niles Caulder aka The Chief (Timothy Dalton), while confronting their own personal baggage. And as each member faces the challenge of growing beyond their own past traumatic experiences, they must come together to embrace and protect the newest member of the family: Dorothy Spinner (Abigail Shapiro), Niles’ daughter, whose powers remain a mysterious but real threat to bringing on the end of the world.
Wade recently spoke to Shadow And Act about the series and the differences between season 1 and season 2. “I think that the biggest difference is that [in] season 1, we were exploring characters, setting up characters, giving our audience an opportunity to understand them and grow with these characters. And essentially introduce them, even down to the amount of time we had to spend on discovering who a character is. And yes, there is a certain amount of that where you can do it in [the] story, but there is also a certain amount that you just can’t because you have to get that narrative across.”
“In season 2, it’s so exciting [because] we’re now off the mark,” he continued. “Everyone now understands where these characters are and we can kind of get straight off the bat in episode 1 with [the] story. I think the difference between 1 and 2 is growth. All of the characters this season, there is a big theme of growth and these characters growing and what that means for each of these characters to grow. The pacing is great, everything that you saw in season 1s there, but now we’re seeing momentum and real story drive.”
On the character of Vic, Wade explained, “I think Vic has a responsibility to be the hero, the anchor, and to help his fellow family through what they are going through. I think he takes a different position. I don’t think he feels lonesome or in a sense where he doesn’t have enough to give. These are problems that no one wants to be going through and Vic has a load of problems of his own. Vic’s problem is very real and very big to the point where he has to go and sort them out. The reason why he’s with the Doom Patrol in the first place is because of what he’s doing. He stopped fighting crime, what he’s been doing for all of these years, in order to join the Doom Patrol in order to explore and get something he’s yearning for. Although all the characters have their own wars [and] I don’t think Vic sees it that way [he’s going through different issues than they are]. He sees it as life or death. When they are going through something, he takes that role as Cyborg and is there to step in and do damage control.”
The actor says that what may surprise people the most about this new season is that somehow the show managed to get even more interesting.“We can get weirder and wackier,” he said. I think season 1 was probably the weirdest and wackiest show that most people have seen, especially within the superhero world — and [I’d] even go as far as to challenge that and say TV show period. And as an actor, you’re putting that pressure on your writers to say ‘Are we going to be able to deliver in the same sphere that we did in season 1?’ and they give you the first 3, 4 scripts of season 2 and you’re like ‘I should never have said that, clearly.’ [laughs]”
Wade has also started his own YouTube channel in which he gives acting advice, inspirational tips and much more.
Check out the full interview below, in which he talks about Spider-Man Miles Morales being a dream role and much more:
Photo: Warner Bros. Television
