There have been knocks on Marvel in the past for not embracing its more adult audience. However, Hit-Monkey and Deadpool & Wolverine look to change that discourse. While hype continues to build for the movie, Hit-Monkey embraces violence in ways other Marvel properties have not. Josh Gordon, the co-creator of Hit-Monkey, spoke to FandomWire about his Marvel animated series. We discuss working with a talent like Jason Sudeikis, a long layoff between seasons, and a certain red-suited merc that’s teamed up with Monkey in the comic books.
Josh Gordon and Will Speck reexamined the show’s direction before season 2
While Hit-Monkey received praise for its first season, it did not return for almost another three years. However, Gordon argues that this helped them develop the second season. “It’s interesting you end up marinating in what you made. You watch it with fresh eyes, and you think about it in your off minutes. Having that gap gave us an opportunity to really think about what we wanted to say with the second season.”
Hit-Monkey Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger, with Monkey and Bryce heading to New York. However, Season 2 takes a step back before taking us through NYC. “That took a little bit of work to figure out how to remind the audience where they are and take them back to a scene that they never got to see. It informs the whole season. If it didn’t work, I thought the audience would be slightly confused.” However, after discovering that Bryce has been sent back to Earth on a mission from the literal Devil (voiced by Keith David), we reach a very unique New York for Marvel.
“Hit-Monkey is an interesting little corner of the Marvel Universe. He touched Deadpool and a few other characters, but it was never as if he became an Avenger.” This informed the series, which features Lady Bullseye and Silver Samurai in Season 1 but almost no more prominent Marvel characters in Season 2. “What we always liked about Hit-Monkey was that it inhabited a more realistic kind of version of the Marvel universe. There are superheroes, but there’s less of them. They don’t populate every scene, and that allowed us to focus more on his story.”
Jason Sudeikis returns as Bryce – the Ghost of a hitman
Season 1 of Hit-Monkey got a lot of mileage out of Jason Sudeikis’ vocal performance. However, between the two seasons, Sudeikis also launched Ted Lasso, which became a cultural phenomenon. Anyone worried he would bow out of the more adult comedy in Hit-Monkey does not need to worry. Gordon reveals they always had bigger plans for Bryce in a follow-up season.
“When we pitched the original season, we always knew that if there was a second season, we’d want to bring it back to where Bryce came from. It would also expand the world a little bit.” Bryce becomes Monkey’s connection to newcomers Cristin Milioti and Leslie Jones. While this enhanced the heart, it also allowed Sudeikis to go even bigger this season.
“He’s amazing. He’s a natural improviser and is such a humble guy. We spent ten days recording with him over the season. He so understands the character and is so generous. Because he’s an improv guy, even if he didn’t love a joke, you can see his brain working, and then he’ll just spit out two other versions. Oh my God, these are gifts. He’s a real pro and a really amazing guy to work with.”
Josh Gordon and Will Speck wanted live-action energy in animation. Floyd County Productions delivered.
One of Hit-Monkey‘s best aspects stems from the very cool animation. Floyd County Productions (Archer, Dicktown) immediately identified what they were looking for with the show. “We wanted to bring that live-action energy into the animated world.” Gordon and Speck asked animators to get into the weeds regarding storytelling, and they delivered. “For instance, we were letterboxing it in 240, applying a slightly anamorphic focal length to some of the series. Let’s try to treat this like cinema. The great thing about animation is how creative you can be.”
Floyd County Productions also had a leg up from their previous shows in how to elevate the comedy. While they were not the only animation house approached when Season 1 began, they won the bid handily. “It was their ability to hybrid humor with real emotion and the action sequences.” They brought on a team that stayed consistent across the seasons. “Neil Holman, who’s been our director, co-writer and executive producer Kevin Mellon, all the people at Floyd County, and Matt Thompson are all these incredibly talented people. It’s really a dream team that they built around them.”
Working with Fred Tatasciore on a non-verbal character
Despite walking on his hind legs and wearing a dope suit, Monkey does not speak English, Spanish or any human language. This could have been a hold-up for audiences, but actor Fred Tatasciore nails the nuances of wild Japanese Macaque. “Fred is totally incredible. You need a legendary voice guy when you have to create a monkey that doesn’t, you know, talk? Like Chewbacca, you have to be able to kind of understand the tone and emotion of what he’s saying.”
Tatasciore is not new to Marvel. He’s also voiced Devil Dinosaur and The Hulk in previous years. Yet Tatascriore has almost 1000 credits to his name from movies, TV, and video games. His experience proved helpful. “Fred is such a versatile actor. He would give you a performance, and then sometimes three or four versions of that performance that bring the character literally to life. The early cuts were so weak until he started to kind of lay in his stuff, and then you’re like, Oh, thank God. He was so good.”
In fact, Gordon brought him on board another project. “We did a movie between season one and season two, which is Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, and brought Fred in. He is the the voice of Lyle on any guttural sounds. He’s such an incredible talent.”
Hit-Monkey, Deadpool, and Bryce
Anyone who has read the Hit-Monkey comics likely fell into his crossovers with Deadpool. It’s not surprising after all: they’re both odd assassins who work for the criminal underground on occasion. “He obviously, you know, shared several comics in later issues, and it worked amazingly well.” While Gordon notes there may not be much crossover with the larger MCU, Hit-Monkey, and Deadpool are more in the same vein.
However, Bryce makes the dynamic more difficult. “I think they would both drive Monkey equally crazy, but they would also drive each other crazy. Bryce and Deadpool would fucking hate each other.” The similarities do not end there. “they both have this damaged, sarcastic kind of view of the world. I think they would loathe each other.” It’s probably fair to say Hit-Monkey does not have a Deadpool cameo, specifically because Bryce plays in the same comedic key. Still, comic book fans dare to dream.
Hit-Monkey Season 1 & 2 are now available on Hulu.
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