TVPast Forums - Interview with McDuffie about JLU Finale

[quote]quote:McDuffie Discusses The Complexities of "Justice League Unlimited"
By Jim Harvey
07-08-2005, 11:43 PM

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With the current season finale of Justice League Unlimited in high gear, writer and story editor Dwayne McDuffie has his hands full. Besides the heavy planning already going into the next thirteen episodes, he's making sure the current finale story-arc flows smoothly. McDuffie says that a lot of work has gone making sure this finale is just right, causing it to swell in length.

"It happened organically," he says. "We’d developed this storyline over the past two seasons, and as we got closer to the end, we realized the two-parter we had planned wasn’t nearly enough time to wrap everything up properly, so we went with the four-parter."

Calling it their most ambitious arc to date, McDuffie is certain the episode will pays off for fans of the JLU. As for that follow-up episode, "Epilogue"?

"It’s immense."

Not only is it immense, it will have lasting consequences for the DC animated universe. McDuffie believes that change is necessary for a show such as Justice League Unlimited.

"What's the expression?" McDuffie asks. "Change or die?"

McDuffie admits it would've been easier, once Justice League found its groove, to keep doing more episodes of the same show. He believes there's nothing wrong with that, especially if a series (he cites Law & Order as an example) keeps fans entertained, episode after episode, year after year.

"But Bruce Timm is a guy who likes to reinvent the show, challenging our assumptions pretty much every week." McDuffie adds. "This spirit of creative experimentation, the willingness to push at the boundaries of what's considered possible in an adventure series, is what keeps taking the franchise to unexpected and often delightful places."

It would be a lot easier to just keep doing more shows like the ones they’ve already done, he adds, but it would also be a lot less fun, both for the creators and the viewers.

"Everyone who works on these shows is always looking to top what we’ve done before."

This past season has also seen a large number of references to the previous animated DC series. Some have been subtle, some have been obvious, and others have involved part of an episode's plot. Some fans were worried this was too much for the casual viewers, who may be turned off by the "fan service" that many thought was invading the series.

So are these episode geared towards the fans who've been watching the DC animated universe grow since day one?

"Absolutely not."

The episodes are written with the casual viewer in mind, McDuffie says. Everything they need to understand the episode is provided, but if you've watched the series you'll get more out of it. "Sort of like Easter eggs."

McDuffie explains: "For instance, if you never saw Clock King before ‘Task Force X,’ you still understand who he is and how he operates. That said, there’s one episode coming up this season that’s a huge exception to this rule, where we indulged ourselves to send a Valentine to long- time Timmverse fans, but that’s the one and only time."

With that information in mind, McDuffie adds this nugget concerning the finale, and what fans can expect in the final episodes of the season.

"There are hints everywhere, judging from what I’ve read on The World's Finest," he says. "But the thing that most people guessing need to keep in mind is this: Characters don’t have perfect knowledge of the world. They get things wrong. Some of them even lie. Don’t take everything at face value."

This applies particularly to two characters who fans have noticed acting a bit unusual this season. Batman and Superman have been at the forefront of many controversial events this past season: Superman got into a slugfest with Captain Marvel, and Batman has been voicing increasingly paranoid sentiments in the C