Invincible live-action movie will exist separate from Amazon's animated series

The Invincible movie and animated show "can exist and complement each other," says Robert Kirkman.

The Invincible movie, revealed in 2017 as an adaptation of Robert Kirkman's original comics, is still very much alive and kicking.

Kirkman confirmed to EW that the big-screen adaptation remains in the "very early going" stages but will be a separate live-action version than the upcoming adult animated series on Amazon Prime Video.

"That is still very much in development. That hasn't changed. We're just taking a long time," the comic creator told EW of the film in an interview for the Amazon show. "But we've been fortunate enough to have a two-track plan with Invincible. Right now we've got the animated series at Amazon, which is now on the cusp of launching, and then we're also still developing it as a film series with Universal, with Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg attached. So, those two things are still very much happening concurrently, which is somewhat weird, I guess. But there've been Spider-Man animated series and Spider-Man movies at the same time. So, I think we're in good company."

'Invincible'
'Invincible'. Amazon Studios

Rogen and Goldberg were revealed nearly four years ago to be writing, directing, and producing a movie based on Invincible, which tracks the story of Mark Grayson, the son of the world's most powerful superhero, Omni-Man, who develops his own powers and fights to follow in his dad's footsteps. Updates since then have been few and far between, and eventually Amazon announced it would premiere an animated Invincible series. Now, we know both projects are separate takes on the Skybound and Images comics.

Aside from the live-action aspect of the movie, Kirkman says, "There will definitely be some significant differences between the movie and the television show. People will easily be able to tell them apart... We're definitely working to make sure that the two can exist and complement each other."

The Walking Dead and Minari standout Steven Yeun voices Mark in Amazon's Invincible, which premieres its first three episodes on the streaming platform on March 26 before switching to a weekly format — similar to how Amazon rolled out The Boys. The star-studded cast features J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man alongside the voice talents of Sandra Oh (Killing Eve), Gillian Jacobs (Community), Andrew Rannells (Black Monday), Zazie Beetz (Deadpool 2), Mark Hamill (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Walton Goggins (Justified), and more. As the young Mark comes into his newfound abilities, he grapples with the realization that his dad's legacy may not be as heroic as he believes.

Kirkman executive produces the series with Simon Racioppa, David Alpert, and Catherine Winder.

Animation became the preferred medium because, as Kirkman noted, "there hasn't been a mature animated version of a superhero show" before series like Harley Quinn came along. "It's a great way for us to stand apart in a crowded landscape. But more than that, I think that it allows us to more properly adapt the Invincible comic. The Invincible comic will have one battle on earth, and then the next scene will be a battle in space, and then there'll be an alien invasion, and then there'll be another guy that attacks after the alien invasion. There's no way that we could keep this level of insanity up in live-action. We would have to do a tremendous amount of bottle episodes to level it all out." That explains why the live-action adaptation is taking so long.

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