Hit-Monkey: Executive Producers Discuss Season 2's Move to NYC, Possible MCU and Deadpool Crossovers
Hit-Monkey Season 2 is now streaming on Hulu.
Hit-Monkey is back for a second season on Hulu. After running roughshod on Tokyo in its first installment, the Will Speck and Josh Gordon creation heads to New York City in its sophomore installment.
"We were both New Yorkers. went to school there, born there," Gordon explained to ComicBook. "We really wanted to kind of have a darker, moodier version of New York. Something that kind of was timeless. It exists obviously now, but it also has kind of hints of '70s New York. We pulled a lot of references as we went into the animation process of early Scorsese, things like that, movies that were shot in that period in a sort of grittier version of the city."
"I think what was so exciting about starting in Tokyo is it really sort of lent itself to the genre because it felt like Yakuza Revenge. I think we wanted to bring that spirit and lift it to New York as opposed to it feeling like a fish out of water," Speck added. "We were really excited because there's so many fantastical things that happened, that are unexpected, that subvert the city and turn it literally upside down. It was fun to do that and to create kind of mood and tone in a world that we were so familiar with."
Playing in that New York City sandbox has fans immediately linking Hit-Monkey to the greater Marvel world. Marvel Cinematic Universe installments like Iron Man 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Spider-Man: Homecoming and more have all held big battles in the Big Apple. With the MCU recently expanding into canonical animation through the multiverse with What If...? and X-Men '97, questions about Hit-Monkey's place in all of this have arisen.
"The live action world of MCU is something that functions under a whole different set of logics, but I think there's been other filmmakers, us included, who have been so enthusiastic about the character that the idea of including it in a live action world," Speck responded. "It would be thrilling. What we knew is that this was a great incubation place to start the character. Anything is possible in animation. I think that's what's been so fun about it."
Hit-Monkey's appearance in Deadpool #13.
- Marvel Comics)Leaping into live-action is not the only way Hit-Monkey could factor into the greater Marvel world. On the page, Hit-Monkey occasionally crosses over with Deadpool.
"I mean, we'd love to. We're such big fans of his," Speck said when asked about possibly integrating Ryan Reynolds's Wade Wilson in a vocal capacity in future Hit-Monkey seasons. "We're not sure if he's aware of it or not. It's a good question to ask. We have to ask him."
Hit-Monkey Season 2 is now streaming in full on Hulu.
