In recent years, it's been all the rage for episodes of long-running shows not only to balloon in length, but to bring their stories home with a feature-length finale. See: Stranger Things, and this week's Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. But on the eve of Invincible season 4, co-showrunners Robert Kirkman and Simon Racioppa say the Prime Video superhero series will stay true to its small-screen origins to the very end.
"I'll regret saying this if we ever do it, but I think that when a television show moves into a movie finale, the structure doesn't usually translate, and it feels off to me," Kirkman says, in conversation with GamesRadar+ ahead of season 4's debut. "Maybe there's a way to do it that just hasn't really been done yet, where it would work and be a good payoff. But I think that you don't want to truncate your final stories to fit in a movie. The beauty of television is that you get this large canvas to play on. So, I'm against it until we do it, and then I've changed my mind!"
In the past, Kirkman and co. have suggested that Invincible would need to run for 7-8 seasons to faithfully cover the events of the comics, though he tells GamesRadar+ that plan is somewhat "malleable". Despite this, one thing fans definitely shouldn't expect is for Invincible's grand finale to be feature-length.
"The promise of the show is these hour-long episodes that take you to a place you haven't been before across a season," notes Racioppa. "I think that's how it should end, but you know what? Let's do screenings of the last episodes in theaters. Like, there you could have it both ways, right?"
"Yeah. Come on, Peaky Blinders. Give me another season," adds Kirkman, with a grin.
Invincible season 4 is almost upon us, and Kirkman says fans "finally going to get what they're asking for" this year with the introduction of Grand Regent of the Viltrum Empire, Thragg (Lee Pace), and an escalation in the Viltrumite threat. "The focus [previously] was establishing Mark and building Mark as a character and showing what's going on on Earth. But this season is different."
Stars Steven Yeun and Gillian Jacobs also discussed where we find Mark and Eve at the beginning of season 4. "Right now you're watching Mark as he's coming to understand maybe a little bit of the loss of his attachment to his idealism," Yeun told GamesRadar+. If our glowing Invincible season 4 review is anything to go by, this season is not to be missed.
Invincible season 4 releases on Prime Video from March 18. Make sure you never miss an episode with our Invincible season 4 release schedule.
