awesome-alexross

Not everyone realizes that Seth Meyers, Rashida Jones, and Taran Killam are already playing superheroes – the trio, along with a cast list that reads like the credits for an episode of Saturday Night Live, voice original heroes on the Hulu animated comedy series The Awesomes. But Meyers was able to merge the characters’ off-screen faces with their on-screen costumes with the help of artist Alex Ross.

“Our dream is to present this show as the show that stars these people,” said Mike Shoemaker, co-creator of the series. “So the idea to have somebody who can put their faces in – I didn’t think it would happen, but he did it… he took it and just made everyone real.”

Killam said he and Meyers are both huge fans of Ross’s work.

Kingdom Come is one of my favorite graphic novels, for lack of a better definition, and he’s my favorite artist,” he said.

The cast joked that the painting could springboard a live-action episode, and while Meyers said it would be unlikely due to scheduling conflicts, he would like to do a table read with the full cast (fortunately we won’t have to wait long to see Ike Barinholtz in a live action role, as he’s set to appear in the upcoming Suicide Squad film).

Meyers said in addition to having flexibility to book high-profile voice talents due to the nature of animation, doing the series for a company like Hulu, rather than traditional network television, puts less pressure on individual episode ratings.

“I think it’s really been exciting for us to be on Hulu,” he said. “In the network world, the next morning you always find out the ratings and things like that. It’s really refreshing to live in a world where it’s more about building subscribers and content.”

The Awesomes seasons 1 and 2 are available on Hulu, and a third season will debut this year.

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