Invincible has established itself as an extremely strong conder in a time of superhero fatigue. Where other projects are finding it difficult to maintain relevance, it would seem that the Steven Yeun series is soaring. With the second part of season 2 being in full swing, fans have become more and more excited about the direction the story is taking.
However, as happens with all successful projects, the patience of the fans has begun to wear thin and they cannot help but constantly want more from the creators. Many of them have already started asking about the third season of the series before the second has even ended.
It would seem that this demand has stuck out to the creators, who have responded in the most directly indirect way possible; breaking the fourth wall.
Invincible Episode 7 Addresses the Fans Indirectly
In the seventh episode of Invincible, Mark and Amber meet with Filip Shaff, the creator of the former’s favorite comic, Seance Dog. Here, Mark asks him about the status of the third season of the animated series that was adapted from the comics. Interestingly enough, the comic book creator mentioned that the season would not be out for another year.
“You mean the show? Probably not for another year. Sorry, animation takes a long time.” said Shaff in the series.
The reason for this, as Shaff mentioned, is that animation takes a lot of time to get developed. He emphasized ‘long’, as though talking to the viewers rather than Mark. It would seem that even the animators are getting tired of the fans bombarding them with questions about when the next set of content is going to get released. So much so, that they felt the need to break the fourth wall in a way.
Afterward, Shaff gave some information to the audience about how the series manages to stay on schedule when they have to do so much work.
How Invincible Cuts Corners
After Filip Shaff delivered the unfortunate news to Mark, he asked the comic book creator about how complicated and time-consuming the series would be to make, especially with all of the fight sequences. Shaff revealed that while they can be very long to make, they find other ways they can save time.
“Yeah, those take a while, but we cut corners in other places to make it manageable. You ever notice that sometimes, whoever is speaking has their mouth off-camera so you never see their lips moving?” Shaff went on, “Yeah, or we will cut to the back of someone’s head while they are talking for the same reason.” He added, “It’s crazy what you can get away with.”
They would often use one panel where a character is covering their face so that they don’t have to animate the movements of their mouth as they talk. They would also use wide, still shots to get a similar effect. He then went on to mention some other aspects of animation that get overlooked by audiences, joking about how much they can get away with.
The moment felt almost as though the show was breaking the fourth wall. What made it feel all the more surreal was what Mark said to these easter eggs.
“I’m gonna watch season two much closer.” said Mark.
It is almost as though the animators are asking the audience to pay more attention to the animation of the second season. Simply so that the viewers can also spot the easter egg and the corners that the creators cut for the iconic fight sequences. It is safe to say that the entire scene felt extremely meta and out of place in the show.
