Legion Of Super-Heroes’ Yuri Lowenthal Talks How Working On The Animated DC Movie Compared To His Time On The 2000s Legion Animated Series

The next chapter of the Tomorrowverse is finally here, with Legion of Super-Heroes following after last year’s Aldis Hodge-led Green Lantern: Beware My Power. The latest of the animated DC movies sees Meg Donnelly’s Supergirl traveling to the 31st century to attend Legion Academy, and among her classmates is the Daxamite known as Mon-El, voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, who’s no stranger to this DC Comics superhero team. Lowenthal, who also voices He-Man these days, previously lent his vocals to the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series that aired from 2006 to 2008, and the actor went over with CinemaBlend how working on the Legion’s new movie compared to his time on the show.

Yuri Lowenthal starred in the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series both as both Superman and Kell-El, a.k.a. Superman-X, a clone of the Kryptonian made in the 41st century who was partially inspired by the Mon-El from the comics. A decade and a half after the show ended, Lowenthal is now getting to voice Mon-El proper in this Warner Bros. Home Entertainment release, and when I asked what it was like getting to return to the Legion after so long away, he answered:

That was the one where I really fell in love with the Legion. I wasn’t hugely versed in the Legion of Super-Heroes when I first started that show years ago, but it was really nice to come back because I fell in love with… long live the Legion! And it was nice to come back and see it from a different angle, and it reminded me of all the good times from that first show, which I still carry a white-hot burning torch for and I believe was ahead of its time and still love watching. It’s great to come back because with Legion stories, there’s so many characters to draw from that you always get something different and something cool and special. So it was really nice to come back. Of course, the most exciting thing always about coming back into a Legion story, especially for me now, is which Legionaries are they going to go with?Who are we going to get to see? Which weird powers?… Each time it’s a different chemistry, so I was really excited to come back.

This Legion of Super-Heroes animated movie follows a few years after the team was spotlighted in Justice League vs. The Fatal Five, but this time around, the Legion as a whole has a bigger role to play, with one of the other notable members including Brainiac 5, voiced by Harry Shum Jr. (who’s looking to play a villain in a live-action superhero movie next). And like most of the flicks from the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line, Legion of Super-Heroes falls into PG-13 territory, whereas the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series was obviously geared towards younger viewers as a Kids’ WB offering. As such, I was curious about how Yuri Lowenthal felt about participating in a Legion project that handled these characters with a more mature hand. Here’s what he had to say:

Yeah, although I would say that in going back to even that earlier show that was ‘for kids,’ they were already dealing on a much higher level, I thought then. But yeah, definitely this new one is aimed at a different audience, although I think it can hit a couple. It’s always nice to tell powerful stories, stories that will appeal to both kids and adults. I’ll just say, Mon-El gets a line in here that I was very proud to say. I was very proud to be the one character, the one hero who got this type of line, but I don’t want to spoil anything because it is a delightful moment. Let’s just say I would not have gotten a line like that on a kid’s show.

Despite the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series’ Superman-X not being a direct adaptation of Mon-El, I was curious about if Yuri Lowenthal pulled from that performance at all when he was hired to play Mon-El in the Legion of Super-Heroes animated movie. The actor explained why he chose not to do so with the following:

I definitely steered clear because I brought sort of what I bring naturally and what I got from reading the script, I brought that into the room. And then it was a joint effort to create the Mon-El that this story needed. So yeah, while Kell-El was inspired by Mon-El, he definitely had more of an attitude and a much darker tone. And the Mon-El that this story needed was not at all that. He’s the big man on campus, he’s a huge Superman Family fanboy, probably a little over-effusive to meet Supergirl. And I think it was a very different energy he was bringing in, and that came from the script and working with the voice director, Wes Gleason, and everybody on the team, to find the Mon-El that they needed.

You’ll have to watch Legion of Super-Heroes for yourself to see how Mon-El specifically fits into the picture, though like with Superman-X, there are some darker elements to the character. Legion of Super-Heroes was directed by Jeff Wamester, who was particularly “excited” to tackle this team, and Josie Campbell, who wrote the script, already has a good idea on what she’d like to see from a live-action Legion of Super-Heroes movie. The cast also includes Darren Criss, Matt Bomer, Jensen Ackles, Cynthia Hamidi, Gideon Adlon, Ely Henry, Robbie Daymond, Yuri Lowenthal, Eric Lopez, Darin De Pau, Benjamin Diskin, Victoria Grace, Jennifer Hale, Daisy Lightfoot, and Zeno Robinson.

Legion of Super-Heroes is now available to own Digitally and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray Combo Pack and Blu-ray. After you’re done watching it, break out your HBO Max subscription to check out the past Tomorrowverse installments and plenty of other DC content.