ComicBook.com sat down with Executive Producer Marc Guggenheim at San Diego Comic Con and spoke with him about the CW Seed animated series Vixen based on the DC Comics character with the same name.
Coming next month, we’ve got Vixen…but it’s clearly not taking place next month. When is that series happening, relative to the other CW series, considering that we see Ollie in the old suit and everything?
Yeah, it basically takes place around Episode 315 or 316 of Arrow, in that timeframe. We were shooting 314 when we wrote Vixenso we sort of tied it to the continuity not of when it ultimately came out because that would require us projecting very, very far into the future, but we just committed to our timeline of around when we were writing it.
We knew, of course, at that point that Oliver would be going off to the League of Assassins and changing his costume as a result, so this takes place just right before that.
Animation is quick work, and you can do it remotely. Will something like Vixen be a good opportunity to bring someone like Susannah or Colton back in?
Yeah. The truth is, both Colton and Susannah really have standing invitations to return to the show in any form. I will say, actually, Susannah actually did return to the show in Season Three to record her voice for Episode 313 when Oliver was in Hong Kong and he made the phone call to his mother and heard her answering machine message.
We actually didn’t have that from a previous episode, so we needed Susannah to record that and she was kind enough to do that for us.
I wondered at the time whether you actually brought her back just for that!
It is very cool. We were grateful to Susannah.
The funny thing is, we have a group of actors that do a lot of our ADR — it’s called “loop group.” And there was actually someone who did a very passable Susannah, but I just asked “Can someone please call Susannah and see if we can get her?”
Just the level of detail and commitment to the concept is something I know our audience appreciates. And Susannah was very gracious and lovely and agreed to do it.
I just think it’s the kind of thing that sharp eyes and sharp ears respect. I know it’s the kind of thing I pay attention to when I’m watching the show.
You guys are bringing in Anarky — and you had a character in Season 2.5 that was very much like Harold. Have you read a lot of that era, the kind of Norm Breyfogle era on Batman?
Yeah, I am a big fan of the Norm Breyfogle years, totally. No, he’s terrific.
I will say the character in Arrow 2.5, Lodi, wasn’t really based on any other character, but was created for the purposes of the comic. He’s a higher intelligence, and the intention there was to make him disfigured because this was a guy who screwed around with weapons and I figured at one point one of those weapons might have backfired on him.
[Note: Breyfogle recently suffered a stroke, and his family have for fans who want to help with his thousands of dollars in medical bills.]
You have a ton of stuff going on right now, including three shows you’re producing.
Well, two. Two that you know about. [Laughs]
I was counting Vixen.
Oh, you were counting Vixen. Then, yes, three. For sure, this is the busiest I’ve ever been but I’ve actually — knock on wood — been more stressed and less busy before. Right now, I actually feel pretty good. I feel like despite all that’s going on, I’m just excited about everything that I’m working on. I’m also cognizant of the fact that it won’t stay like this forever; this is a moment of time, but it’s really really wonderful. I’m enjoying having this much on my plate, which is rare for me.
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