Summary
- Creature Commandos' final episode marks the culmination of a unique and colorful rebooted DC universe.
- David Harbour discusses his portrayal of Eric Frankenstein and praises James Gunn's involvement in the animated series.
- Harbour teases potential live-action appearances for Frankenstein, reflects on Stranger Things, and shares insights on Thunderbolts.
With just one final episode of Creature Commandos left, there are still a lot of stories left to tell. Not only is the series the first in James Gunn and Peter Safran's newly rebooted DCU, but the series brings with it a unique and colorful cast of characters who are far more than just your typical comic book superheroes. For the last six weeks, we've watched the Creature Commandos, led by Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo), head out to Pokolistan to aid Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova) in stopping the Amazonian Circe (Anya Chalotra). Along the way, Task Force M has been thrown into one bad situation after another. Leading them is the Bride (Indira Varma), who has her own baggage in the physical form of Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour), the being she was literally created to be a companion for.
As we saw in "The Tourmaline Necklace," although the Bride might have been created for Eric, she certainly did not ever warm to him. And when she fell in love with Victor Frankenstein (Peter Serafinowicz) instead, Eric flew into a rage and killed his creator. The centuries after Victor's death are filled with Eric chasing/stalking the Bride around the world, trying to get her to fall in love with him despite her repeated rebuffs.
We spoke with Harbour about playing, who I like to call, the worst boyfriend in the world and what it was like working on this animated project with Gunn (watch the full interview in the player above). Harbour confessed that although he had previously worked as a voice actor, he was still getting used to the work. He talked about what Gunn did to help accommodate him, including working directly with scene partners and allowing him room to improvise. We talked about the potential of seeing Frankenstein in live-action. On top of that, we checked in with him on Stranger Things and Thunderbolts, two projects that Harbor has coming down the pipeline this year. He discussed his reaction to the finale of Stranger Things and talked briefly about what it was like to work in an ensemble cast for the MCU's big anti-hero outing.
David Habour on Improvising in 'Creature Commandos' and Working With James Gunn
"It felt like he was there bringing the joy and the passion. It was just great."
COLLIDER: I am in love with this series. I watched it all in one sitting, and I laughed and I cried. It was a lot of emotions to experience at once, honestly. What was it like for your first experience working with James Gunn on an animated series?
DAVID HARBOUR: It was amazing. He's an extremely generous, extremely smart big kid, and I think he has such passion for this whole thing. In a weird way, I didn't expect, for this animated show, him to have as much passion and investment and involvement as he does. Sometimes animation can be the product of a different department, and it can be just something that's tacked onto a larger machine of movies or whatever. This was his baby, and it felt like he was there shepherding the whole thing. It felt like he was there bringing the joy and the passion. It was just great.
What stands out to you about working on this series that is different from working on other voice-acting jobs?
HARBOUR: I've done a couple, but I haven't done that much voice-acting stuff, so I'm still kind of getting used to it. The thing that was really fun about this was he set me up as an actor first, as opposed to a voice artist. I'm sure the people who are more sophisticated with voice acting, I'm sure they can just go into the booth and do their thing, and they understand the structure of it. Me, I'm more of like a straight actor. So, he brought in [Frank] Grillo on Zoom so we could have some back and forth, and we could overlap, we could improv some stuff, and we could throw out some stuff. There was something about that that felt more like an organic rehearsal process to me and allowed me some freedom, and that was really nice.
For sure. I feel like that's not as common with these types of jobs because normally, you're just in a booth alone. It's amazing that he brought somebody else in and that you could improv, which I’m sure is a little bit freeing for you.
HARBOUR: Yeah, I think he probably knows me and knows my strengths and weaknesses. I think he does know that I haven't done that much animated stuff, so it was really a good setup. It's nice when you have people really sensitive to what's gonna get the best out of their actors because so often, you are the last department that people care about. [Laughs] As long as it looks good, it sounds good, the light is good, we're moving on. So, I think there was something about James where he really cares about performance, and he really set me up for success.
Will Harbour Ever Appear as a Live-Action Frankenstein in the DCU?
"It's just fun that all these characters exist in the same universe, and who knows where they'd end up?"
That's great. Have you talked to James at all about this live-action appearance that you might have in the future, which I'm projecting into the ether?
HARBOUR: [Laughs] Are you putting it out there, Therese? Okay, cool. I'm just like, “Go ahead. Put it out there!” Because I do think it'd be super fun. We talked about it casually. There's nothing planned, but I talked to him a little bit about the realities of what that would look like in terms of CG or practical effects, and he had all kinds of different thoughts and ideas. But I think they're still building their universe, and that's fun. As they build it, I think they're gonna see what people like or what works, and that's gonna be a component to what they go forward with. But it is such a fun idea to have, like, Batman run into an angry Frankenstein, or Superman, or whatever! It's just fun that all these characters exist in the same universe, and who knows where they'd end up? It’d be kind of cool.
You can call him the world's worst boyfriend.
HARBOUR: [Laughs] Yeah, exactly!
David Harbour Reflects on the Final Season of 'Stranger Things'
"It will give you that satisfaction as a fan of the show."
Moving on to some of your other projects, I want to ask really quickly, have you guys wrapped for Stranger Things Season 5 yet or is that still being worked on?
HARBOUR: We're very close.
How do you think fans will react to that finale?
HARBOUR: I've said it before, but I do think the finale is spectacular. I think that it's so satisfying if you've been a fan of the show. It takes a lot of threads that you may have worried about or wondered about — I'm not saying it ties them up into a nice, neat bow, but it gives you the having-eaten-a-big-meal satisfaction that you will crave. Whether that be sad or happy, we don't know, but it will give you that. It will give you that satisfaction as a fan of the show. I don't feel like we're gonna disappoint.
That's good to hear. What was it like filming through these final scenes and doing the table reads for the finale?
HARBOUR: It's very emotional. Those kids were kids when we started. It's been 10 years of our lives, come 2025. We started the series in the late summer of 2015. We shot, and then it came out in 2016. But we've been shooting for nine years, so those kids, some of them were 10 and 11, and now they're in their twenties, and some of them were 15 or 16. So, you've gone through watching the show, and that was their childhood, shooting it for you. I think that that's very profound when you come to a close. I think there’s all kinds of stuff that comes with that, of course. When you read that, that stuff just comes out because these kids are actors, and they know how to get in touch with it, and they know how to feel it, and it just pours out of them. It was really beautiful at that table read to watch them have this moment. As we've been filming, we've had these experiences that are not contrived, which I've been wary of because I feel like so much of this BTS stuff in this business now is so contrived that there's something so nice… And a lot of these things won't be on the BTS because it's just between us what this experience has been. You'll see it in the show. You'll see it in the work. That's always what my focus has been is watch the show, and you'll see the moments between me and Eleven or me and Mike, me and Dustin, me and Joyce. You'll feel all of this because they are such terrific actors, and they bring that out in me. We have all this luxurious love in the room.
David Harbour Talks About the Real Chemistry Between Him and His 'Thunderbolts' Castmates
"It was so unexpected and wacky, and I just fell in love with that team."
Then just a quick question about Thunderbolts. What was it like working on such a large Marvel ensemble, and what are you excited for people to see?
HARBOUR: I loved it. I don't know that I've ever had a better time on a movie. I don't know if I've ever had a better experience with a group of people creatively, either. Every day was creative and rich and fun, but also we weren't afraid to go to the places that scared us, and that allowed us to really live the life of these characters. It was so unexpected and wacky, and I just fell in love with that team. So, I think that what you'll see is, again, a real chemistry. Wyatt [Russell], Sebastian [Stan], Florence [Pugh], Hannah [John-Kamen], Julia [Louis-Dreyfus], everybody, we just really wanted to mess with each other. We really admired each other for each other's bad qualities, too. I think that we sort of got under the hoods of each other, as anti-heroes would do, and made each other feel things and think things that were provocative at times, and it just made the chemistry between us so strong. I was like, “Wow, I love being able to be a part of this and to do this work.” I feel like you'll feel that we really are a team that doesn't want to be a team. [Laughs]
The team that HR forced you all to be.
HARBOUR: [Laughs] Exactly. No, HR was like, “These guys cannot be in the same room,” and we ended up here.
Then just a final wrap-up question, which I'm sure I'm not going to get too much from, but I'm just curious, have the Russo Brothers locked you down for a little movie called The Avengers in the future?
HARBOUR: Sorry? I can’t…
[Laughs] The sniper is coming in.
HARBOUR: I couldn't hear anything. I don't know.
I respect the avoidance of answering that question. I didn't think I was gonna get that much from it.
he finale of Creature Commandos streams on Max on January 9, 2025. Watch all previous episodes on Max.
Creature Commandos
- Release Date
- December 5, 2024
- Network
- Max
- Directors
- Matt Peters
Cast
-
The Bride (voice) -
Sean GunnGI Robot / Weasel (voice)
WHERE TO WATCH
In "Creature Commandos," Amanda Waller assembles a covert team of monstrous operatives, including a werewolf, vampire, and gorgon, to undertake high-risk missions deemed too perilous for human agents.
- Franchise(s)
- DC
- Main Genre
- Animation
- Seasons
- 1
- Creator(s)
- James Gunn
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