Five Things I Learned At The 'Justice League Action' Panel At SDCC

At SDCC's Justice League Action panel, I was able to catch up on all of the latest news about the series.  Last year, Justice League Action debuted at SDCC and at the time fans were skeptical. On the one hand, the humor and short format storytelling seemed to draw more from Teen Titans Go than from Justice League Unlimited.  On the other hand, with Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy leading the voice cast and a deep bench of DC characters featured inspired confidence in fans.

The series has thus far rewarded that confidence.  Viewers can tune in every morning at 7:30 on Cartoon Network and see a take on the Justice League that's funny without being stupid and gives z-list characters their narrative space to shine.  In addition to Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy lending their iconic voices to Batman and Joker, the rest of a cast reads as a who's-who of dream voice casting, including Dana Snyder as Plastic Man and James Woods as Lex Luthor.

At the JLA panel, we were joined by Jim Kreig (producer) , Wes Gleson (casting director), Rachel Kinsey (voice of Wonder Woman.)  Jason Lewis (voice of Superman), Butch Lukic (producer), and the disappointing Diedrich Bader (voice of Booster Gold) and they edu-tained us about the show.  Here are some things that I learned.

As an example of the brilliance of JLA's voice casting, Cloris Leachman will play Granny Goodness in an upcoming episode.  Apparently, America's most beloved octogenarian had quite the potty mouth at the JLA recordings.  When meeting Jason Lewis for the first time, she was unimpressed, scoffing "he's Superman?"  I loves me some Cloris!

Jon Lovitz will be playing an undisclosed Kirby-created character in an upcoming episode, but he wasn't casting's first choice.  They had strongly considered Don Rickles, but given his declining health, he was unavailable.

I swear to God, BleedingCool really needs to credential a cute kid for these conventions.  As the panel opened up for audience q&a, an adorable five year old Supergirl cosplayer approached the microphone and asked if Supergirl would appear on the show.  The panelists freely confirmed that there were plans for the current season.  No subterfuge, no misdirection.  If I asked the same question, I guarantee that Mr. Butch Lukic would have told me to get lost.  I guess I've lost my youthful charms.

Another fan asked if the Red Hood would be appearing in the show, to which the panel said that "he was currently being used by another DC media project."  Could he be in the proposed Nightwing movie or Teen Titans live action show?  Who knows?

You can kind of see a trend in the audience q&a.  "Is X character going to be on the show?"  While no promises could be made with regards to character appearances beyond the first season, Lukic said that, if a second season comes to be, they will go further into the DC library.  Considering that Space Cabbie has appeared in multiple episodes, I'm convinced that even the most well-versed viewer will have to watch with Google at hand.  Dietrich Bader said that he would love to play Penny Plunder.  Don't know who that is?  Think of the Riddler, but instead of riddles, pennies.  Or Captain Boomerang, but instead of boomerangs, well you get the idea.