We talk with My Hero Academia voice actor Zeno Robinson about his experience joining the show, playing Hawks, and his character’s motivations going forward.
It’s not every day that fans of My Hero Academia get to meet a compelling new character, but the second half of the anime’s fourth season introduced a Pro Hero who’s sure to have a major impact on the series going forward: Hawks, the Number Two Hero. Although he’s been mentioned as being Tokoyami’s mentor, he’s been an enigma until recently. But the movie Heroes Rising and the most recent episodes of the show finally brought his character to the forefront, showing us what he’s capable of — and suggesting he’ll play a much larger role come season 5.
We spoke with Zeno Robinson, the voice actor who plays Hawks in the English dub, about what it was like to take on that role, and what might be motivating his character moving forward.
WESTWOOD, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 19: Zeno Robinson attends “My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising” North American Premiere at Regency Village Theatre on February 19, 2020 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Funimation Films)
We started with what drew Robinson to the character in the first place. “He seemed like he’d have a really interesting dynamic in the world of heroes. With some being a little more over the top than others, he just seemed very cool,” Robinson said. “He has this very complex way of thinking that’s really interesting to explore.”
Indeed, it’s clear that Hawks doesn’t view his profession quite the same way the other Pros do, and his goal of creating a world where heroes have less to worry about is very interesting. But capturing his “cool” demeanor was challenging to pull off, since he’s not as over-the-top as say, All Might. “There’s this particular way Hawks needs to be performed, and sometimes it can get into too mellow or too chillax and too laidback,” Robinson explained. “So always telling me to bring his energy up. And I think that’s the toughest thing to get, in my head, is kind of recognizing the tone of how a character should be and keeping that.”
And it didn’t help that Robinson’s first time playing the character was in the Heroes Rising movie, and then for the My Hero: One’s Justice II video game; talk about being thrown into the deep end.
On the bright side, he already had a good idea of what portraying Hawks entailed before starting on the anime, but Robinson also had to absorb a lot of information about the character in a short period of time.
"The game, especially for me, was different because Hawks appeared in the movie, and then I had to do all the stuff in the game, but the stuff in the game wasn’t in the show yet or the movie, so I’m learning a lot of stuff at the same time. And I’m like, ‘Oh wow, oh okay.’ And for me it was a deeper dive into Hawks as a character because, you know, he had some key scenes in the film, but he hadn’t appeared in the show yet, so I was getting a lot of information about him in the game and having to quickly incorporate that with what I knew about the character and how I felt like he should be."
Actually, it’s probably for the best that Robinson already had an idea of what his character was like before diving into the final episodes of season 4, which are fast-paced and don’t offer a ton of time for introductions. In fact, the finale was a highlight on My Hero Academia so far, since he got to play a part in one of the show’s major action sequences — and what anime fan doesn’t love high-stakes action scenes?
“I love big action moments in anime, and I don’t often get to perform them, so I feel part of that performance was my utter excitement at being able to do that,” Robinson said. “And also, what really works about the formula of My Hero is really hitting emotional beats and hammering them home with great music and animation and dialogue.”
And watching Hawks and Endeavor go up against the High End Nomu in the finale definitely hit all the beats Robinson mentioned. The two make a great team, so we asked Robinson what he thinks Hawks sees in Endeavor:
"I think Hawks has a very complex way of thinking. He’s always thinking [about the] bigger picture. I think Hawks has always admired Endeavor because, in the dynamic of Pro Heroes, Endeavor would be considered the underdog. When you have a symbol like All Might, who kind of strikes hope in everyone, and all the heroes can kind of just relax and be like, ‘Oh All Might’s going to take care of everything,’ you have one hero who wants to surpass him. He’s the only one. Like he says in the episode, he’s the only one who tries to. And I think Hawks really admires that. And he sees that opening for Endeavor now to become everything he couldn’t become under All Might."
And Endeavor taking up that mantle likely means we’ll get to see more of him and Hawks working together to take down villains in the upcoming season. And Robinson himself would like to see Hawks doing more Pro Hero work, specifically investigating. “I think he’s very much established himself with the film and the show as this very investigative character who’s always looking into things. Like I said, he’s a very big-picture character. I’d would really like to see more Hawks figuring stuff out and putting pieces together and trying to move those pieces to where they should go, and steer heroes in directions he thinks they should be steered in.”
There’s no word on when the next season of My Hero Academia will arrive, but at least we’ve got plenty to look forward to. Fans will be eagerly waiting to see where Hawks’ character goes next, and whether he’ll actually succeed in helping Endeavor become the Number One Hero that people can count on.
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