CraveOnline got a chance to talk to the VP of Creative Development at Marvel Animation, Craig Kyle. Craig also wrote the new animated film, Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of the Panther. I saw the film Ultimate Avengers 2 during the Los Angeles Film Festival and got to ask Craig some questions about the film in specific and Marvel Animation in general. Check out part one of our interview with the self proclaimed fanboy and come back next week for part two.
Ahmad Childress: First of all how do you like the job?
Craig Kyle: It’s a great job. I have been with Marvel almost seven years now. When I came over, the only animated series they had going was X-Men Evolution and that was just about to enter its second season when I came on board. It’s amazing, there were about eight of us in the studio division and since then it’s ballooned in to… I think we have almost fifty people over here. It’s been an amazing few years over here at Marvel. I have a great job. I am a fanboy through and through and to work with this stuff day in [and] day out… It is a lot of hard work but it is a dream come true.AC: How did you decide on the story for Ultimate Avengers 2:Rise of the Panther?
CK: Largely they are both based on The Ultimates. What you find when you are expanding a comic book story to film is that there are just changes that need to be made. A lot of fans think you can just grab panels, cut together an anamatic and there’s your story. It just doesn’t work that that way, I wish it did. It would save us a lot of money and a lot of time. As you are explaining the story, questions start to come up and you have to start answering things. One of the questions coming was why? Why are the aliens here, what could be so important that they are willing to cut the planet in half to get it.
AC: The Black Panther was not in the original Ultimates series, what prompted you to include him in UA2?
CK: Really, when were writing story one we were already building in the bones for Wakanda and Panther’s role in movie two. It was an unavoidable destination we were going to reach in our second movie. I hope you agree that really going from movie one to movie two, it does make sense and it does answer why they were doing what they were gonna do.
AC: It really does, in the first film you did not have a lot of time to address why the aliens were there. You had to delve in to the hero stories.
CK: The plan was always to approach this like a comic. You don’t want to have an incomplete film. I feel like we have completed enough of Cap’s (Captain America) journey to where you are satisfied. At least he’s going to give this life a chance and the hero’s kind of found his place in the modern world. The ongoing story was the alien agenda and that’s answered in this film.
More with Craig Kyle, next week.
