Warning! Mild spoilers ahead for Jupiter’s Legacy season 1.
Jupiter’s Legacy is now out on Netflix. The series, adapted from the comic book by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely, takes a unique approach to the superhero genre. It’s not the average story about superheroes fighting to take down a villain and saving people. Rather, Jupiter’s Legacy is all about how the superheroes and their children interact with the changing world around them and the expectations set forth by the past generations.
In Jupiter’s Legacy, Matt Lanter (Timeless, Star Wars: The Clone Wars) plays George Hutchence (aka, Skyfox), the best friend of Sheldon Sampson (aka, The Utopian), the leader of the Union of Justice. George is a crucial part of the series; he’s one of the six founding members of the Union and the father of Hutch Hutchence. In the present day, however, Skyfox’s whereabouts are unknown, but it’s revealed he became a villain at some point after the Union was established.
Screen Rant had the opportunity to speak with Lanter about his role as George/Skyfox, the friendship between his character and Josh Duhamel’s Sheldon, getting to step into the role of a superhero, and more.
You’re no stranger to the sci-fi or superhero genre. How would you compare the role of Sky Fox to playing Anakin pre-Darth Vader in Star Wars: The Clone Wars?
Matt Lanter: Yeah, there’s a lot of similarities. They’re definitely not lost on me. They’re both charismatic guys, both full of bravado and they’re kind of both rule breakers and they do what they want. And then, of course, they both fall. I think they also both think they’re doing the right thing, with the exception of murdering little Jedis. [laughs] They both think they’re just in what they’re doing and they think they’re helping the world around them.
What would happen if your character in Jupiter’s Legacy met up with Wyatt from Timeless? How would their reaction be? Would they just bounce off of each other?
Matt Lanter: I think Wyatt would be a lot more quiet about it, but I think he would think this guy is pretty interesting. Wyatt wasn’t really a guy for flair and George is all about flair. I think they would get along great. They both have some stories to tell each other at the bar is what they’d be doing. They’re both drinkers. George would be telling Wyatt of his escapades and Saint-Tropez and his gaggle of women. George would love to hear some of Wyatt’s war stories and things like that. So, they’d get along pretty good.
Your George Hutchinson leaps off the pages of the comic book. I’m wondering if you can describe the code that the Union goes by? And can you also describe how George’s opinion of the code changes over the course of the story?
Matt Lanter: It’s really a great question. Hopefully that question I can better answer next year when we’re doing this again or something. We haven’t really had an opportunity yet to experience much of George’s experience with the code, something obviously Sheldon established after we attain the powers. I would have to assume that he thinks Sheldon has great intentions with the code.
I don’t think that he would resist the code on that molecular level that Walter does. If you’ve read the comics, you probably know that George is a little bit of a free thinker, he’s a bit of a free spirit and he does what he thinks is right. He’s a rule breaker, not a rule follower, and Sheldon is such a rule follower. And I think that sometimes that inhibits you. George probably realizes that. Obviously he loves Sheldon. I think he thinks he has the best of intentions, but he probably feels like being a rule follower a hundred percent of the time inhibits growth and progress. We’ll hopefully get to see some of that.
I was a big fan of your and Sheldon’s friendship. How did you and Josh Duhamel form a good rapport?
Matt Lanter: That was really important to me. I think it helps us establish that relationship. Much like we’ve kind of mentioned Anakin, that establishment, if you guys have seen the Clone Wars, of Anakin and Ahsoka and that relationship… you see all these losses in Anakin’s life really helps propel him to a dark place. Well, I took some of that from Anakin’s story and brought that in. The more that we establish the loyalty and the love that George has for Sheldon and just as his best friend, he’s always got his buddy’s back.
Sheldon’s talking crazy and saying, ‘Hey, let’s go get on a ship and sail out in the middle of nowhere,’ and George kind of says, ‘Hey, okay buddy, I got your back. Whatever it is, I got your back.’ I love that. I definitely wanted to portray that because I think it sets up what’s to come and makes it a stronger fall and more sad that Walter really drives that wedge between them. Josh [Duhamel] is an easy guy to get along with. He’s just a nice, normal dude. Just the salt of the earth guy. It wasn’t hard at all. He’s just a really good dude. He’s a great casting pick for the Utopian.
It might give George a big head to know that he’s the greatest supervillain of all time, but I wondered if you could speak to how it went into your performance, knowing that audiences wouldn’t really get to see that side of George and that we really only got to see the free thinker, the good friend, the guy who was there for everyone else. Audiences are left in the dark on a lot of that.
Matt Lanter: Yeah, you’re right. It’s a great question. Again, kind of falling back on that Anakin/Ahsoka relationship and just seeing how kind of great and charismatic and likable he was really helped me. I really wanted to make sure that George felt earnest and like he really truly cared and felt like Sheldon was family. Establishing that bond and that relationship is really going to help make that fall greater and more tragic when he does. I didn’t really have it in my head. My job in season 1, as we saw in the past, was to show my caring, my understanding, my loyalty, and then establish the character as just fun and somebody that you want to be around.
I saw George have a certain magnetism about him and I hope audiences feel the same way. I hope there’s going to be a divide in people that are angry at George, that he’s defected from the group. And then I hope there’s a group that’s with him, that says, ‘No, this guy’s right. He’s doing the right thing. He’s been framed.’ The greatest supervillain of all time, I guess we don’t quite know yet. Is that a label that’s been slapped on him by Walt and then subsequently the Union and subsequently the entire world when he doesn’t really deserve that? I’m actually not sure yet what we’re going to see out of him or does he actually get into some pretty villainous things in the future? I hope we’ll get to find out.
Did you know the comics and Mark Millar’s world before you got the part? And if so, what was your first reaction when you were told that you are going to be part of this great universe and when you first read the script?
Matt Lanter: No, I was not familiar with the comics. I was familiar with the projects that Mark Miller has done such as Wanted and The Kingsman franchise and Kick-Ass. I didn’t know this comic, but I’m really not a comic reader, which is actually interesting because after I read the comics, I was really into comics. But I had not read the comics until after I received the first script. I sent the tape to Steven DeKnight and I did what I thought George was off the page and sort of a bit of a combination of a Tony Stark, a Captain Jack Sparrow, and a little Paul Newman.
I sent the tape to Steven and they called me into the office… I’m pretty sure they had already cast me and I didn’t even know it at that point. I went in and he pitched the whole show to me as if he was hoping to get me on board. I was actually asking about the importance of George and the importance of Skyfox. I had not read the comics yet at that point. After I read the comics, obviously I was very excited. I just left that meeting saying, ‘This all sounds incredible. You guys seem like you’re setting something up here that could run for years and could just have a huge following.’ And it’s exciting to be a part of that.
There’s two very distinct storylines going on in Jupiter’s Legacy. There is the original six and the journey to the Island, and then there’s the present day, which George has a lot to do with, but isn’t actually physically there. So what was it like for you to finally see everything come together and see both storylines play simultaneously next to each other?
Matt Lanter: It was very, very cool. I had spent very little time with a few of these other folks outside of our [training] together. I would have training sessions with Elena [Kampouris] and Andrew [Horton], but I never got to work with them and never got to see them perform. I really only could imagine what it would look like from their table read. So, to see it when I first saw the series was a really pleasant surprise. We’ve got a fantastic group of actors. I really loved watching Ian [Quinlan], who plays Hutch. I really thought he was great and very charismatic and very proud that he’s my son. Selfishly, it’s hard to remember there’s a show happening outside of the scenes that my world is set in, but super special to see it all come together. And I really think it came together beautifully.
You mentioned Hutch. George isn’t really afforded any time with his son onscreen. Did you have any discussions offscreen about what that relationship could and would look like in a future season?
Not really, to be honest, because we’re not there yet. I don’t know Ian that well. I’ve said hello to him in passing a few times and texted him a few times here and there, but, not really. That’s the exciting thing about season 2 is hopefully we’ll see George or Skyfox in present day and I kind of get to play a brand new character.
How was it with the blonde hair? Because it must’ve been a shift.
Blondes have more fun. My wife didn’t like it, but I liked it. It was very Zack Morris of me.
I heard there was some trouble shooting a lot of the island scenes. Do you have any fun or interesting stories or challenges from shooting the island scenes?
The trials and tribulations that you see onscreen were trials and tribulations happening offscreen as well. It was a lot. The weather was freezing cold, so when you’re seeing us getting pelted with water on the ship, that’s all real, it’s freezing water, it’s freezing outside. We were trekking through the woods of the island. It was bright and sunny one day, the next day it was snowing in Toronto. So the snow that you see onscreen was not planned and it is real. It was tough, but as an actor, it wasn’t very glamorous. I actually think it really helped bond us, the six of us, the OG superheroes, in a really cool way.
