Jupiter’s Legacy star explains how new superhero drama is like The Lion King

Tomorrow, Netflix drops Jupiter’s Legacy, a new show about an older generation of superheroes who attempt to pass the torch down to their kids…only to find that the newcomers aren’t interested in doing things like their parents. At the center is Josh Duhamel as Sheldon Sampson/The Utopian, one of six ordinary people granted incredible powers when they visit a mysterious island in the 1920s. Nearly a century later, the most powerful man in the world is having family problems.

“This story is very human, and these are humans,” Duhamel told SyFy Wire. “My character was a regular human up until the time they developed these powers. He’s seen things and felt things that even his son hasn’t. There’s another dynamic. This is a guy who went through the ‘30s and the Depression and saw his father jump off the roof. He literally lost his mind and has this blind faith to believe there is something greater out there for us. ”

"He felt all of these things, but then he has kids, who are born with this stuff. It’s kind of like royalty. If your kids don’t ever know anything other than having these [abilities] and being these famous super-people, you can’t blame them for not being in touch with what a normal person might go through on a daily basis. It’s trying to instill the same values in somebody who doesn’t fully understand what you believe. You are just asking him to blindly believe it. And then his daughter is just gone. She doesn’t believe any of it. Sheldon feels like he’s losing his family. He has no idea what his brother is doing. This is a guy who has been in control and in power and been the guy in the center of it for so long, and suddenly feels like the ground around him is shaking. It’s interesting to see a guy that powerful be that vulnerable."

The family dynamic reminds Duhamel of some pretty classic stories. “It reminds me a lot of Hamlet. It’s very Shakespearean. The family dynamic is unbelievable. It also reminds me a lot of The Lion King, believe it or not. Scar and Mufasa — the two brothers and how they influence Simba. It’s much darker than that, but it’s the same sort of scary dynamic within this family and the struggle for power.”

The Lion King was famously based off Hamlet, so all of this checks out. Also, we have to include Duhamel’s comment on capes: “I’m not really sure what the point of capes are in the whole superhero land in general, other than to look cool. Try sprinting in a big thick cape. It’s nearly impossible. Every time your feet go back, they get caught up and it trips you up every time you try to run. But they look really cool, especially at super-slow motion.”

Should superheroes kill people in the name of justice?

Jupiter’s Legacy is based on the 2013 comic of the same name by Mark Millar, who talked to SyFy Wire about one of the main sticking points between the two generations of superheroes: should superheroes kill in the name of fighting crime, or is that off-limits? The older set have a strict no-kill policy, but the newbies think differently.

“I 100 percent think they shouldn’t kill,” Millar said. “One of the things I loved about superheroes as a kid was that they could always find the smart, peaceful solution. They’ll beat the hell out of a bad guy but they’ll never actually kill them. It makes them less frightening, especially for children.”

"I think that’s ultimately what makes [superheroes] different from heroes. Indiana Jones and James Bond and Captain Kirk are heroes, but they kill people to win. And they’ll happily kill people to win. Whereas Superman will find a way to stop a massive world-destroying problem [without killing], which as a kid I think you always kind of like."

Is this a clue to how the conflict will be resolved in Jupiter’s Legacy? We’ll find out when all eight episodes of the show drop on May 7.

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