Two of the biggest stars of DC Comics’ Fourth World Saga are coming to the small screen in the near future. The intrepid duo of escape artist Mister Miracle and his hard-hitting paramour Big Barda will star in their own animated series, which will be part of the new DC Cinematic Universe. Details about the series are largely being kept behind the Source Wall for now, but we do know that Halt and Catch Fire‘s Mackenzie Davis will voice Barda in the series. Collider’s Christina Radish recently spoke to Davis about the series during her promotional tour for her new Netflix series, Below.
Both characters are from the so-called Fourth World, a setting and characters created by comics legend Jack Kirby in the 1970s. Mister Miracle is Scott Free, the scion of the peaceful planet New Genesis; however, as part of a peace deal with the hellish Apokolips, Scott was handed over to its sinister leader, the dreaded Darkseid. Raised in a cruel orphanage by the twisted Granny Goodness, he eventually met and fell in love with the Amazonian Big Barda, a member of Darkseid’s enforcers, the Female Furies. Barda shared his feelings, and the two went on the run from Darkseid and his legions of evil.
The series will be inspired by the 2017 Mister Miracle miniseries, by Tom King and Mitch Gerads; King also penned Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which served to inspire this summer’s Supergirl. Davis wasn’t familiar with the character beforehand, but was drawn in by the series’ scripts and its source material, telling Collider: “I got involved because they reached out while I was shooting in Newfoundland, and I met with them and put my voice down. I was not familiar with anything, just because I have a very limited field of focus and I just didn’t know about Tom King, and I didn’t know about Mister Miracle and Big Barda. And then, I read the scripts and Tom’s graphic novel.”
The King-Gerards 12-issue miniseries isn’t standard superhero fare. While Barda and Scott have one of the healthier relationships in DC Comics (Kirby modeled their playful banter off the rapport he had with his wife, Roz Kirby), they face a battle harder than any they’ve ever fought when they’re confronted with the nihilistic power of Darkseid’s Anti-Life Equation. That darkness attracted Davis to the project, she explained:
“It’s so beautiful. It’s very dark. Well, not dark, but it’s dealing with true pain and depression. It’s placed in this superhero world, but it’s about a couple and a suicide attempt and a marriage and loving somebody and holding the pain that they’re in. And then, there is this greater context that they’re in. But Tom has just written the most exquisite, painful, grounded show that happens to be about these two superheroes. It’s kind of crazy.”
“It’s so beautiful. It’s very dark. Well, not dark, but it’s dealing with true pain and depression. It’s placed in this superhero world, but it’s about a couple and a suicide attempt and a marriage and loving somebody and holding the pain that they’re in. And then, there is this greater context that they’re in. But Tom has just written the most exquisite, painful, grounded show that happens to be about these two superheroes. It’s kind of crazy.”
She’ll be co-starring with Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), who’ll play Mister Miracle. While many animated productions have their voice tracks recorded solo, this series has the two actors working in tandem. “I’m recording with Josh, always. I think it would be hard. It’s such a two-hander of this couple dealing with a traumatic event and trying to navigate the healing of that and their marriage continuing,” Davis told Collider. “It’s quite a dense thing. I can’t imagine doing it, just saying the lines out into a void. I got to record with Josh, and he was incredible.”
The casting of Davis and Hutcherson, whose real-life height disparity mirrors that of their characters, has fueled speculation that they might be called upon to play the characters in live-action as well. Having the same actors play characters in live-action and animation was one of the key points of James Gunn‘s “Gods and Monsters” slate of projects, when they were first announced. So far, that’s seen Viola Davis (Amanda Waller), Frank Grillo (Rick Flag Sr.), and Steve Agee (John Economos) portray their characters in both mediums. While Davis can neither confirm nor deny a live-action project with her character in the works, she’s certainly willing to wield a Mega-Rod.
“Yeah, she’s really cool. I think it would be really fun to explore in live action. She’s really funny and strong and angry and has a very traumatic childhood. There’s lots of interesting stuff about her. Coming from complete unfamiliarity, and now knowing her quite well, I think she’s incredible… For me, everything has been a discovery. I believe Big Barda and Mister Miracle were less prominent characters in the DC world, and then Tom King wrote this extraordinary graphic novel a few years ago that really brought a lot of attention to them. And that’s what we’re using for our show.”
</blockquote>“Yeah, she’s really cool. I think it would be really fun to explore in live action. She’s really funny and strong and angry and has a very traumatic childhood. There’s lots of interesting stuff about her. Coming from complete unfamiliarity, and now knowing her quite well, I think she’s incredible… For me, everything has been a discovery. I believe Big Barda and Mister Miracle were less prominent characters in the DC world, and then Tom King wrote this extraordinary graphic novel a few years ago that really brought a lot of attention to them. And that’s what we’re using for our show.”
Mister Miracle is in development and is slated to be released in 2028.
Four teams, four completely different reasons to put yourself in danger
for strangers. This is the roster you actually belong on, what they would want from you, and what it
would cost you to stay.Enjoying this article? Support our work with a small crypto donation.You belong where the stakes are largest and the personalities are
loudest. This is a team of people who are all used to being the most important person in the
room, which is exactly why it works and exactly why it keeps nearly falling apart.
- The Avengers are not friends who became a team. They are a team that slowly and
reluctantly became friends, and you would recognise every stage of that process.- You can hold your own among big egos without needing to win every exchange, which is the
real entry requirement here.- The arguing is part of the method. This group does its best thinking mid-disagreement,
usually at volume, usually in a very expensive building.- When the sky opens, they are who shows up. You would want to be standing in that line.
You have never had the luxury of being thanked for this. The
X-Men protect a world that has never once been comfortable with them existing, and something
in you understands exactly why they keep doing it anyway.
- This is the only team on the list whose central conflict is not a villain. It is being
wanted gone by the same people they keep saving.- You know what it is to be the outsider in a room and to decide, anyway, that you will
not make yourself smaller so everyone else is comfortable.- The X-Men are the most genuine found family in comics. People arrive with nowhere else
to go and are never once asked to explain themselves.- You would not be joining for the glory. There has never been any.
You do not want colleagues, you want your people. The Titans are
the team where the friendship came first and the world-saving turned up afterwards as an
inconvenient side effect.
- Every Titan is somebody’s sidekick who decided to stop being one. That decision, not the
villain of the week, is what the team is actually about.- You would be joining people who are all working themselves out at the same time as you,
which is far less lonely than being the only one.- The Titans lose regularly. Then they eat together and come back better, which is a more
honest model of growing up than any other team here manages.- The tower would be loud, chaotic, and the first place that ever felt like yours.
You are not asking who to trust. You worked out the answer a
while ago and it was nobody in a cape. This is where you go once you have decided the people
in charge need watching, and that nobody else is going to do it.
- The Boys have no powers, no mandate and no funding. What they have is leverage,
patience, and a very high tolerance for consequences.- You are the person in the room who notices the thing everybody else has quietly agreed
not to mention.- This is not a heroic team and it has never pretended otherwise. It is a group of damaged
people doing necessary work in ways nobody would call clean.- You would not sleep well. You would keep going anyway.
What Is ‘Below’ About?
Below stars Josh Hartnett as Calvin Penney, a resident of the small fishing community of Snook’s Cove, Newfoundland. The idyllic town is soon terrorized by a monstrous sea creature that Calvin takes it upon himself to battle, alongside marine biologist Dr. Fonda Howander (Davis). The Netflix miniseries was created and showrun by Jesse McKeown (The Umbrella Academy); it currently holds a sterling 87% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. All six episodes of the series are now streaming on Netflix.
Mister Miracle is in development and is slated to be released in 2028. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
Mister Miracle
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