Earlier this year, a new slate of DC animated television projects was announced including My Adventures with Green Lantern. Set in the same continuity as My Adventures with Superman, this Green Lantern animated series follows a high school version of fan-favorite character Jessica Cruz. Today it was officially revealed via an Entertainment Weekly exclusive that actress Auliʻi Cravalho would be voicing the titular superhero.
The actress seemingly teased her upcoming role in an Instagram post last October when she dressed as the character for Halloween.
My Adventures with Superman just premiered its third season which which saw Karen Graci join the series as producer and head writer. Graci’s previous credits include the Disney animated series Hailey’s On It which incidentally starred Cravalho as the titular character. Graci’s positive experience on Hailey’s On It did play a bit of a factor when it came to the casting process. According to producer Jake Wyatt:
“Casting brought us a lot of fantastic reads for Jessica. But when I heard Auli’i, there was this complexity of emotion to her read — a natural, almost oblivious charm that she brought to Jess — and I knew she was the one. But I hadn’t even looked at the name, I just ran out of my office like, ‘Have ya’ll heard this take??’ Then Stephanie [Gonzaga] and Karen [Graci] told me that it was Auli’i, that she was already a princess, how she’d done brilliant work with Karen on a previous show, and that was that.
As revealed in a recent interview with the The Beat, some of the big swings this season, specifically an original song sequence, can be credited to Graci. Given Auliʻi Cravalho’s extensive music talent, most notably her breakout role in Disney’s Moana, one is tempted to assume we can expect Jessica Cruz to do some singing.
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Wyatt, who is a co-showrunner on both My Adventures with Superman and the upcoming My Adventures with Green Lantern, teased what to expect from Jessica Cruz when she debuts.
“We’d already planned for the second episode to showcase how Supergirl [Kiana Madeira], in particular, was changing their world. We wanted to look at how different people had very different reactions to the same Kryptonian. So when word came down from the brass that Green Lantern was greenlit, we wanted our pre-Lantern Jessica Cruz to give us the girl-on-the-street view of Supergirl. How would a shy, relatively powerless teenager see this powerful, young super-woman out there changing the world? And what would it be like for Supergirl to see herself through Jess’s eyes?”
As previously revealed, executive producers for My Adventures with Green Lantern are Jake Wyatt and Stephanie Gonzaga.
Catch the first appearance of Jessica Cruz voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho in the upcoming My Adventures with Superman episode, “Mobile Suit Toyman,” airing on June 20 at midnight ET/PT.
