The cast of the upcoming podcast Marvel’s Wastelanders: Old Man Star-Lord came together for a virtual “town hall” meeting today to discuss the project. Executive Producer Ellie Pyle also joined for some additional insight as well as some exciting announcements for future projects.
- The panel consisted of:
- Timothy Busfield (The West Wing, For Life) who plays Star-Lord
- Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives) who plays Emma Frost
- Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon, The Color Purple) who plays Red
- Executive Producer Ellie Pyle
- Bushfield talked a bit about the challenges of doing voice work for this podcast to bring Peter Quill to life:
- “For the most part, especially with playing the character of Quill in this, and Star-Lord in this, I needed to ramp into stuff. I couldn’t just pick up lines and then think ‘how would I say this?’ I was really trying to act it out as much as I could because of the emotional journey that he goes on and making sure that it was grounded.”
- Glover discussed his inspiration for the character of Red, crediting his grand parents:
- “He’s a farmer, it’s easy for me in some sort of ways of understanding and being able to work with the material from the standpoint that I spent so much of my life on a farm. My grandparents were farmers.”
- “I lived with my grandparents on that farm so much, they were the greatest storytellers,” he said. “I’d sit around them and listen to them tell stories. They were great storytellers and their laughter was bigger than life, they were bigger than life.”
- Williams, who plays Emma Frost, talked about bringing yet another powerful character to life:
- “Emma is one of the most powerful figures in Wasteland and I tend to get these power hungry, driven women that I am yet playing again. But I guess when you do a good job in one people have you in mind.”
- “The good thing about playing a villain is they don’t think that they’re villains and they can justify the death of someone as long as it is a means to an end. That’s the trick about playing the villain. You have to kind of humanize them and have people see what their thought process is, of how they became a villain and what their purpose is.”
- Pyle was asked about the challenges of taking a comic story, which is so reliant on visuals, and turning it into an audio experience:
- “It’s definitely a challenge but its also an amazing opportunity because audio is such a personal medium that you really get to kind of paint the pictures yourselves and you have these voices literally in your head. So we started with Ben Percy’s beautiful writing that, you know, the descriptions that he gets into these speeches – which, he had worked previously on our Wolverine podcasts that we had done, The Long Night and The Lost Trail – but then a lot of that ability to kind of picture the scene comes from the sound design which was done by Mark Henry Phillips who also did the scoring and building out kind of that world beyond just what you’re hearing in the dialogue and the speeches.”
- We also got to hear multiple clips from the podcast, including Star-Lord and Rocket trading som banter, Red warning the duo of the dangers of the Wasteland and Emma’s introduction.
- Before wrapping up, Pyle also had some announcements to make regarding the next two podcasts in the series.
- First up, we learned that the next podcast in the series will be Old Many Hawkeye, starring Stephen Lang as the titular character.
- Lang discussed the character and how he brought him to life:
- “Old Man Hawkeye, what an interesting role he is in so many ways. He’s kind of representative of really the cultural impact that Marvel has had over the years. Which is to say that so much of what we love and admire about a character like Haweke has to do with not his powers, not his strengths but his frailties, his vulnerabilities and his failings. And I think that’s one of the real hallmarks of Marvel. Now it’s become a little bit, it’s not uncommon. But back in the day when I became really, really aware of Marvel, it was new to see superheroes and protagonists who were vulnerable, who had weaknesses, who had flaws. And certainly Hawkeye, he’s got his share of flaws.”
- And finally, Pyle also announced that the third podcast in the series will be Grey Widow and that the title character will be played by none other than Susan Sarandon.
- We did not get specific dates on those two podcasts.
Synopsis:
- In a shadowy alternate future of the Marvel Universe, the Villains have finally won and Heroes are nothing but a bad memory. Marvel's Wastelanders: Old Man Star-Lord finds Peter Quill and Rocket a little paunchier, a little slower, and a lot saltier than they were during the glory days of the Guardians of the Galaxy. They quickly discover the Earth isn't what it used to be either, when they crash land 30 years after Doctor Doom takes over a barren, desolate wasteland and all the world's super villains seized control, including outlaw Ghost Riders and the bloodthirsty Kraven the Hunter.
The Cast:
- Timothy Busfield (The West Wing, For Life) as Star-Lord
- Chris Elliott (Schitt’s Creek, Eagleheart) as Rocket
- Nadine Malouf (High Fidelity, The Looming Tower) as Cora
- Patrick Page (Hadestown, upcoming The Gilded Age) as Kraven the Hunter
- Vanessa Williams (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives) as Emma Frost
- Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon, The Color Purple) as Red