Creature Commandos has been giving fans a lot to talk about since kicking off its run on Max this December, delivering a show filled with more than just over-the-top action and action sequences.
While fans might have come to the show expecting laughs and action from the James Gunn DC Universe animated series about a ragtag group of monsters, they’ve quickly come to realize that the show’s secret to success is its emotional and surprisingly gut-wrenching storylines that have unexpectedly tugged at our heartstrings and brought tears to our eyes.
There is perhaps no better example of this than the show’s fourth episode, “Chasing Squirrels,” which launched on Dec. 19 and explores the tragic backstory of Weasel.
Audiences first met Weasel in The Suicide Squad and his origin within the DCU has been a bit of a mystery. The weasel-like humanoid cannot speak which has made it impossible for him to tell his story, so when we’re involved that he first landed in custody for supposedly killing a group of children we believed the story we were told. However, as Creature Commandos revealed, there is much more to the story than we’ve been led to believe and the truth is more tragic than you’d ever have expected.
Four episodes into its run, Creature Commandos has done a brilliant job of peeling back the layers of its complicated characters to show that there is always more than meets the eyes, reaffirming the old adage, “Never judge a book by its cover.” The show’s bold and unexpectedly emotional storylines are what has helped audiences fall in love with yet another rag-tag group of characters thrust together in the most unusual of circumstances.
Characters such as Weasel and his Creature Commandos teammate Nina Mazursky, whose own back story has yet to be revealed and is teased to somehow be even more heartbreaking, but don’t just take our word for it.
Bam Smack Pow had the chance to catch up with Creature Commandos stars Sean Gunn (Weasel, GI Robot) and Zoë Chao (Nina Mazursky) to talk about the show’s surprising plot takes on their characters and the emotional arcs that make the show so special.
Thank you both so much for taking the time to speak with me today! I’d love to begin by asking how you each initially reacted to the story arcs of your characters. Was there anything about GI Robot, Weasel, or Nina that surprised you?
Gunn: To me, I really just loved the scripts from the jump. James had kind of undersold it to me a little bit. When he talked about it he was like, “Oh, yeah, I think we're doing this thing. I wrote this thing that's called Creature Commandos. A bunch of monsters.” He's like, it's fun. It's gonna be really and I'm like, ok, cool.
Then he got the DC job and he's like, yeah, “We’re definitely doing it.” He sent me the scripts and I said to my wife when I read them, “Babe, I think this is my favorite thing James has ever written.” and I wasn't kidding. I was in love with the scripts from the very beginning.
Then to see the whole process and be able to record it and the playing of it. I have such an affinity for both characters that I play both Weasel and GI Robot. Then just to see how much the animation elevates it and how truly spectacular the other voice actors are in the piece. It's really been a thrilling process like that.
Chao: Yeah, me too. Ditto. I'm new to DCU, I'm new to James Gunn and his collective, you know, troublemakers. I just feel so lucky that I get to be a part of his first project with DC. To explore these characters that are not as well known has just been really fun.
Speaking of your character, Nina, Zoë what was your favorite part of bringing her to life and how did you approach playing such a good-natured and sweet character amid the often chaotic world around her?
Chao: She's special because despite having a very traumatic origin story, she remains this open feeling being that is not hardened like the others. I think she sort of pulls out the humanity in Bride and GI Robot and forges these very unexpected friendships. I think her superpower is her big heart.
You touched on the friendship there between Nina and GI, what was it like getting to work together to bring this unexpected friendship between these two characters to the screen?
Gunn: It's really cool. Some of the actors got to work together a little bit. Zoë and Indira work together, David and Frank worked together and Frank and Maria , but for the most part animation is different and you're usually you're flying solo in the booth. I certainly was for all my sessions. At some point, I was able to hear Zoë's voice and performance so that I knew what I was playing off of, but the rest was done in the booth. You know that's the job. It's cool.
Sean, you are, of course, playing two characters who couldn't be more different. How did you switch between their mindsets and the characters while filming?
Gunn: Well, the good thing is that I've done it before. I've done it in Guardians of the Galaxy. In that, I had to play two characters in the same scene multiple times, which was really, really tricky. With [Creature Commandos], I just sort of prepare separately. It's like two different.
I'm sure Zoë could tell you, if you've ever done two projects simultaneously, you kind of treat the two characters differently. Other than my very first session, for the most part, when I would go into the booth, I would either be doing one character or the other but not both.
I'd love to talk about Weasel's back story, which we get to finally explore. Heartbreaking I feel like is the best word just to sum it up. The fun thing about the show that I love so much is just how you have these humorous moments where you're laughing one minute and there are these action sequences and then it's like tugging at your heartstrings the next with these really deeply emotional backstories for these characters. It really is a story about not how people can judge just based on appearances and misread a situation just based on those preconceived notions.
Gunn: I thought of Weasel as a comic relief in The Suicide Squad movie when I first played him. I learned the sounds and tried to find what the character looked like and sounded like and then just sort of threw it at the wall to see what stuck. Then to be able to then go on and take that same character, but try to give him some sort of emotional resonance was a very interesting process. It's one of the more challenging things that I've had to tackle.
James always talked about weasel like he was a big dog. Rather than seeing that as some kind of comedy, anybody who has a dog or loves dogs, knows that they experience joy and pain and sadness and fear and all the things that we experience. They just can only growl and whine and whimper to express those things. So that's kind of what I'm trying to tap into with Weasel.
It's devastating. What he's going through there is devastating and how do you do that without being able to speak? And so that's kind of what I'm going for.
It was brilliant and definitely well achieved because that episode, man, it gets you. Zoë, we haven't gotten to the point in the season yet which has explored Nina's back story. What can you tease about her backstory?
Chao: All I'll say is it's as devastating, if not more than the other Creature Commandos’ origin stories.
You just get to understand why she is the way she is and how strong and resilient she's actually been. I think sometimes people write off kind, nice warm people as being like pushovers or weak, but really it's an active choice. Nina, I think, has fought her whole life to make meaningful connections.
It’s gonna be a doozy. I've read the script, and I have acted in the script and voiced the script, but I have not seen that episode yet and supposedly it packs a punch.
Creature Commandos is streaming now on Max.