The passing of beloved character actor Lance Reddick shocked Hollywood last year, and left the prolific actor with a number of unfinished projects. One of those was the Max animated series Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, in which Reddick played Lex Luthor, taking a handoff from Giancarlo Esposito, who voiced the role in Harley Quinn. The two shows share a continuity — but also a schedule and production staff, so some changes like that are bound to happen…and you don’t get much luckier than having somebody like Reddick end up in a role like Lex, even if only for a season.
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He also apparently got nearly all of the season finished before he passed away, making this a posthumous role that will see the light of day for fans to enjoy. Speaking with ComicBook recently, executive producer Dean Lorey recalled working with Reddick, and teed up what fans can expect, and the subtle way Reddick’s Lex is different from Esposito’s.
After his passing, a number of Reddick’s projects — including Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Netflix’s Shirley — released. Audiences are still waiting on his final screen appearance, which is in the John Wick spinoff Ballerina.
“He was wonderful. We all loved him,” Lorey told ComicBook. “We loved working with him, and we loved his take on Lex. Giancarlo [Esposito] was terrific, and he played Lex a little more as a businessman and all of that, which we thought was great. But what Lance brought in was more gravity to him, maybe a little bit more depth. We just so warmed to his take. Obviously, it was a giant shock to us, as it was to everybody, when he passed. But he’d, luckily, completed recording most of his episodes, so we were glad that we at least had that that we could give people. But we really loved him.”
Kite Man: Hell Yeah! stars Matt Oberg as Kite Man, Stephanie Hsu as Golden Glider, James Adomian as Bane, Natasia Demetriou as Malice, Janelle James as Queen of Fables, Jonathan Banks as Noonan, Keith David as Darkseid, Michael Imperioli as Joe/Moe Dubelz, Rory Scovel as Gus the Goon, Lance Reddick as Lex Luthor, and Judith Light as Helen Villigan.
Executive producers are Dean Lorey, Justin Halpern, Patrick Shumacker, Kaley Cuoco, and Sam Register. Based on the characters from DC. Production companies, Delicious Non-Sequitur, Lorey Stories, and Yes, Norman Productions in association with Warner Bros. Animation.
Kite Man: Hell Yeah! premieres exclusively on Max on Thursday, July 18th, with new episodes debuting on Thursdays.
