Even before Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine adimantium claws and the 17 years of mutants from Fox’s line-up of films, the live-action X-Men movies really have their precursor adaptation to thank for their possible success with audiences. A staple in the world of animated shows, the Marvel property and even the images of many beloved comic characters to the mainstream, 1992’s X-Men: The Animated Series holds up phenomenally then and even more relevant to today’s society. It is widely regarded as one of the most progressive, risk-taking and successful works of a comic property adaptation.
Celebrating over 25 years since it debuted on the Fox Kids program block in 1992, the show took off with 5 years of believable storytelling, developed characters and a personal connection to audiences with its very believable social commentary. Many younger folk found the show a strength in their lives, following the outcasts of society in Professor X’s school and their many unique abilities and lovable characters. A special part of us was there to grow alongside their adventures of understanding themselves and their unconventional family. And none was more engaging to follow than the tough loner Wolverine, a mutant whose attitude was as hard as his claws.
Wolverine voice actor Cal Dodd brought a true symbol that paved the way to Logan’s personal connection to the show’s characters, a favorite for many fans growing up with his layered character and a great voice to project off it. With many versions of the character being since voiced in that similar caliber, it is still unbelievable to think that a Toronto singer who had no idea of these properties would create one of the most reformed and iconic interpretations of the mutant to date. Truly an underappreciated role that should be up with the likes of Kevin Conroy’s Batman or Mark Hamill’s Joker, it is a shame to not have Cal voicing Wolverine since then.
Having connected with Mr. Dodd in his first convention at Ontario Collectors Con, we agreed to have a one-on-one talk about the heart of the character, fond moments inside the head of his character, and his outside series recording experience as Wolverine. In addition, we delved into his singing career, an intriguing secret project and bringing back an old friend to talk to us.
So go ahead and introduce yourself!
My name is Cal Dodd, the voice of Wolverine from the X-Men: The Animated Series in the 90s. 92 to 97…96, whatever 5 years adds up to. [laughs]
It’s an absolute pleasure to have you here, Todd!
Ah, thank you!
Dodd! [laughs] I was actually interviewing someone named Todd earlier, it must have slipped my mind.
Called what?
Todd, Todd McFarlane.
Todd, oh good. That’s okay, I get everything from “Cal Dodo” to “Dude” and Todd would be, that’s close actually.
And Cal, it isn’t short for Calvin, is it?
No, it’s not. It’s short because people couldn’t pronounce my real name, which is Cathal, which is Gallic for Charles. I was getting “cattle” as a child and I [laughs] spoke to my mom and said “they’re calling me a bovine at school! They’re calling me ‘cattle’!” so she said “okay dear, we’ll change it to Cal.” So we did and that’s what I’ve gone by.
And as you mentioned before, guys this is the voice of Wolverine from the 90’s X-Men Animated Series.
On the Fox Network!
So my first question to you is…you brought your character to such an iconic life of its own with your grit and rasp. Before that, Wolverine didn’t really have many good interpretations in regards to voice work. He had Pryde of X-Men, he had that very silly Australian accent.
Yeah yeah, that was very weird. There was nothing before I did it. I mean, except for what you just said and that disappeared very quickly.
[laughs] Yeah. And since then, it’s just your performance, you’ve been capable of being intimidating, doing some good humor with it and the performance even has been able to give some serious moments.
Mhm.
And through the generations, a lot of voice actors pretty much deem this the very, kind of “definitive Wolverine” take. A lot of people sounded closer taking inspiration from you: Scott McNeil with X-Men Evolution and Steve Blum with pretty much…has a mile long filmography in regards to voicing Wolverine. Many fans would like to know, where exactly did the voice come from?
Well, I got called for the audition in 90…probably end of 91. I had no agent and for some reason, the casting director called me and I knew her from…because I was doing singing in those days, like I said, I didn’t have an agent so I wasn’t doing voice overs. I was a singer. She called me because I had done a spot for a motor company, a car, and I had to do a sergeant that was yelling at his troops “who’s got all the four by fours, Chrystler’s got the-“ you know, that’s how it went.
The Chrysler commercial!
[slaps table] Duh! Anyways, so it was kind of like a sergeant’s voice. She must have remembered that and hence called me and said “would you like to audition?” and I said “sure, whoever that is”. So I got there, no idea who Wolverine was or who the X-Men were.
You weren’t big in comics, I guess.
Not those comics, no. No, like I said I’ve been singing for years and stuff, but you know, I was never into the X-Men or Wolverine. I don’t know how recent he was at that point. But anyways, so went in and they showed me a picture of him. They were all from the States, these people in the studio, and I’m in the studio myself with my headset and all. They said some references would be Clint Eastwood, Ward Bond, which to me was very strange, Steve McQueen….I liked that reference because Steve McQueen’s very introverted and a very cool guy, but said very little and just that part of him I liked for Wolverine. I didn’t know what to do with those three names and went [scoff] “that’s a huge help”. So I just put a little bit of Wolfman Jack into mine after I looked at the picture of Logan, Wolverine, and the scene was the one “you like picking on people smaller than you, well pick on me, I’m smaller!”
The Sabertooth moment!
Yeah, the Sabertooth moment! [Wolverine voice] “You like picking on people smaller than you! Well I’m smaller than you! Pick on me, pal!“ And the people in the studio just went, you know they’ve been looking for a while, “Helloo!” So I kept reading stuff, they kept handing me more stuff to read and it just came to me. It just came out [Wolverine voice] “That voice” and that was it. They called me when I got home within a day and a half or two days I think to say I got the part of Wolverine and I said “okay, terrific”. That became a huge part of my life for the next 5 years. [laughs] Thankfully.
And with such a gritty and badass character, and obviously you had some of the best lines as Wolverine, let’s face it.
Oh yeah, oh big time!
Some of his best moments I feel was in his vulnerability, he actually felt like a 3-dimentional character. The same strength of his rage and anger and adamantium also a bit of a weakness. He’s a really interesting character that has a struggling dynamic with the other X-Men, which make for some really good character development. I’m sure a lot of kids back then had a relationship with undergoing these past pains and isolation and the negative emotions that Wolverine might have had. Was there any personal inspiration for how you effectively portray Logan’s very human pain?
Just feeding off my own experience, my own stuff. Crap that happened to me in my life. I had to read up on him and I just love the character to begin with. Being a loner that he was, and as you said, he was very challenged, troubled individual with a huge, huge heart. I just loved him. A lot of my growing up and stuff, I totally identified with him with people I grew up with and stuff. I would relate him to them and I loved portraying him and again, it was drawing on those experiences and it was easy for me to do him. I just fell into him and it was very emotional for me. He was a very emotional character and I dug that. What a great character to have, to do, to stretch and do some serious acting and voice work for this wonderful guy.
And he’s so different in the fact he’s able to reflect off the other characters. Lot of good bouncing around.
Oh yeah. For sure. He got along with no one but he loved everyone. But there seemed to be a just part of him to piss people off. Especially like Cyclops, he just had no time for that dude whatsoever! And Gambit was like, what, he had nicknames for every one of them. And you’re right, he had the best lines.
He always knew what to say, even at the worst of times.
[laughs] Oh I know. It was just fantastic. I just started watching them again. I got all 5 years now and it’s just so great looking and listening to it now. Because at the time you’re doing it, it’s like “yeah, I’ve got a cartoon, this is great”, but watching it now, it stands out so well still today. And he’s an iconic character and a fantastic guy.
Well speaking of just “standing out” specifically…76 episodes of the show within those 5 years. That’s a very long time. Through that, it really holds up today because it has a variety of very strong themes demonstrated for the young demographic for its time, even today. It covered topics like trauma, PTSD, death, discrimination, racism and even religion, to name a few. Was there a certain moment or episode in the series that really resonated with your voice work in connecting to some of these experiences? I remember specifically talked about the Nightcrawler episode.
I loved that…That’s probably my favorite. It’s hard to say that, there are many favorites. But it’s one of my favorites. He goes through every emotion in that episode. The religious thing with him, which he had…I mean I was brought up Catholic and I went to a separate school in a small town and got beat up and whipped on the way home from school, went the public school, we were out in the country (well, we didn’t live in a country, we lived in a town). All that stuff, I never forgot that stuff and got picked on. So the Nightcrawler thing, that’s in there. Nightcrawler himself he’s so adamant, he’s a beautiful character, very very religious. [German accent] “Hey Logan, look with different eyes” and Logan’s like [Wolverine voice] “What’s your God going to do now, pal?”
Yeah, that was a pretty hard line to probably swallow.
[laughs] Yeah, but he was pissed off. He’s like [Wolverine voice] “Now what are you going to do? See what they did? They destroyed your thing! Where’s your God now?” [German accent] “Oh, no, it’s okay. The power that God has in my heart, the foundation he had built in my heart is bigger than those stones and rocks that built the monastery that can be rebuilt.” Then he gives him the Bible and tells him he marked a few excerpts for him to read and hands him the Bible. [German accent] “Hey Logan, and remember, think through your new eyes, different eyes”. The scene ends in that episode when Rogue is walking along the street and the paper hits her in the face and she opens it up. Because Rogue wonders to herself “I wonder if this is all there is’” and the newspaper, because it’s a very windy day and she’s walking, hits her in the face, she takes it off and of course she reads “Renovation of the Church is over and its open today”. Of course, she pulls the paper down, and there’s the cathedral and she opens the door. There’s Wolverine at the altar, by himself. It’s still…it was very weird because I was the character, but I tear up watching it like just how um…hurt, not how it hurt, but how he’s into this thing, he’s reading the book and he’s trying to figure out God, you know “help me, I need help from anyone”. He’s reading the Bible, he’s actually quoting something from the Bible that he’s reading. You see from Rogue’s point of view, she’s looking at him. As he reads the part, he thinks to himself, he looks up and for very seldom, he gets a smile, a little smile on his face, Logan, Wolverine. And then a close-up of Rogue, she’s got a tear coming out of her eye. The church doors close and that’s the end of the episode. It was just so well shot, and this is an animated series? It was just so powerful. His emotions with religion were addressed big time in that episode and how pissed off he can be at anything.
He’s just trying to find peace.
Yeah, and he’s with himself, and when he’s with himself, he’s just so tense and you just pray for him… (Wolverine voice) “Sit down, pal. Take a load off. Sit down and rest, bud”. You just want to pat him on the back and it was fantastic. Say with another episode, where goes up, he takes off and says “I’m leaving the X-Men, professor.” This is after Jean Grey gets married. He rips the picture with his claws and takes off and goes up north, skiing. He runs into the family of Eskimos or whatever up there. I think he ends up fighting with Sabertooth.
Sabertooth, yeah.
Yeah, [laughs] he throws him off the cliff. I remember he was floating on this iceberg or something and he looks up and Sabertooth is yelling down at him “Better luck next time, little man!” or whatever and he’s floating on this thing, “I’ll be looking for you!”, he says [Wolverine voice] “At least I won’t have to be listening to your flapping lips anymore…” [laughs] Great line!
Another great one!
Yeah, I know. He’s freezing in an area of water. Anyways, that’s one of my favorites is Nightcrawler, it has everything in there. Yeah.
The X-Men Animated series was not the only time you actually played Logan. The animated Spider-man series that was also going on, they had a crossover with the X-Men…it had Hobgoblin and it (the episode) was called The Mutant Agenda. As well, you also voiced Wolverine in some fighting games, like the first (well, second) version of Marvel vs. Capcom, which a lot of people are still hyped because how much of a classic it is, some even say it’s even better than the new ones. It just stands out and they’re always going to hear you saying [Wolverine impression] “Berserker Barrage!”
[laughs] What is it?
Marvel vs. Capcom.
Yeah I know, but what was it that you said?
Berserker Barrage. I think that was one of the lines you said.
Berserker Barrage! [laughs] Yeah yeah, that’s so long ago, there were a few of those. They actually started getting on my nerves. I just pulled that up today after you sent me the email.
Yeah?
And I’ve never, ever seen it. It was a lot of bouncing around going [silly fight sounds] Berserker Barrage, and at a few points, going in and flying, no I never saw any of it. I remember getting upset once because the script they handed me, this must have been when they first started doing that kind of thing, and its proactive of course, or whatever that’s called, and you choose whichever direction you’re going to go with the game. If you chose to go this direction, there were a whole set of lines for Wolverine in that direction, and if you chose another route, there was a whole other set of lines for him in the game. So I get 80 pages of script and they promised me X amount of dollars and I just said “I’m not doing this. I’m not doing this for this money.” Because I know they’re going to take this game and make a killing and I’m getting peanuts, so I said “No. I’m not doing this.”
And it’s a shame because you’re so iconic and you got the X-MEN in there.
Yep, and no, and it’s so weird. They were from China and the one in the control room was saying “what is wrong with Wolverine? He seem unhappy” [laughs] literally, they’re calling me while I’m in there, “what’s wrong with Wolverine, he seem unhappy.” It’s like “yeah, he is unhappy.” So they raised the fee, so I stayed for that one. But what I actually walked out on, where I said “no”, it wasn’t under ACTRA’s (The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) jurisdiction, and I’ve always been under ACTRA like a true follower, I said “I’m not doing this. First of all, heavy heavy, again with 80-100 pages [Wolverine voice] ‘I’m doing that voice’. And the money’s not right. I didn’t know until I came in here we were going to have 85-100 pages, so phone whoever you have to phone”, so she did that all that and she said “well, I’m sorry” and I said “well, so am I” and I left. They got someone else to replace me and I forget what game that was. Trying to wipe that out of my mind.
Ironic you mention about the money situation because…
The what?
In regards to they’re paying you peanuts for this sort of thing, because lately the past bit, there’s been a voice actor’s strike in regards to video games because a lot of the times when you’re voicing in a video game, not only you do you have all these multiple paths you have to do consistent voice work for, but a lot of them are going to be fighting sounds, you have to scream with your lungs, you can permanently damage them, and I’m sure you know how that is with singing and voice over.
Oh, yeah. Fighting with Sabertooth, whenever those episodes came up, I couldn’t talk for the rest of the day after that, because it was all “RAAAWR” and like forever, off the two of us. The fight scenes, so I know what you’re saying. Yeah.
It’s a real shame they don’t have this sort of respect towards voice actors.
I know, it’s weird.
You know, on the plus side you definitely got to cross over with Spider-man and all those other characters before Hugh Jackman ever will.
And I’ll never forget the Captain America one, because just like I said, was just looking at them again. And some of his lines with Captain America, when they’re climbing up the side of the cliff, the two of them, and Captain America has that shield that he carries…[laughs]
Yeah.
And, you know, dressed in red, white and blue. And Wolverine is going up the cliff, they’re going up the cliff together, Wolverine just looks at him and says [Wolverine voice] “what’s that made of? That’s got to itch.” That’s got to be itchy, whatever his outfit was. [laughs] It was so funny, he had great funny lines, and he never laughed about them. He just said them very coolly like [Wolverine voice] “that’s got to be itchy.”
It’s just subtle, that’s what makes the delivery.
Exactly, exactly. [Wolverine voice] “That’s got to hurt. That’ll be blue in the morning.” [laughs]
[laughs] Well, taking a break from Wolverine here, one of your recent projects actually. You’re joining up with other voice acting legends Rob Paulsen, Kevin Conroy, even Andrea Romano the voice director is even coming out of retirement.
Yep.
And it’s for an upcoming show The Gang’s All Here! And your characters are Sargent Snout, I believe….
Yep.
…described as a pig commando/action star reminiscent of the 80’s Stallone era with like Rambo and such, and another character you’re playing is literally a wolverine, which is kind of perfect for you!
Mhm! I can hardly wait to do that.
Which really begs the question, how did you get involved in the first place? Did they just personally contact you?
These people?
Yeah.
Yeah. I was doing…Byron Burton works for the Hollywood Reporter and I did an interview with him about all this, about Wolverine and the X-Men, being the 25th anniversary and all that stuff. And he just remembered me, I hit it off with him, and he turned out to be a writer, songwriter… he’s the writer of this new series, so he asked me if I would at all be interested in working with these people, because he loved Wolverine, he’s a huge fan and I said “of course! Yeah! When?” So we started and I’ve done about 7 different reads for him in the episode, we’ve done one episode just to present the people he’s trying to sell it to, Netflix, Amazon.
This is a pilot, right?
Yeah, a pilot. He’s in meetings with them now for the last 2 or 3 months, and they’re telling him to perk things up here, do this here whatever, and hopefully it will happen soon. I think it’s fantastic. I did a show, not a show, a podcast, with him again, [Rob] Paulsen, Kevin Conroy, Andrea Romano and myself. The four of us run it on a conference call to LA. Well, I was in Toronto, Rob Paulsen and Kevin was in New York, Andrea was in LA. So that’s interesting when you get four people and no one knows when to talk, and ultimately you all talk at the same time, then you all wait, “oh, sorry. Just stepped on your toe”, then everyone stops for two seconds, then they all jump back in again. [laughs]
Oh, I know that feeling all too well. [laughs]
It was like a comedy of errors! It’s like, can you people just stop? Let’s just take turns. But anyway.
So it’s kind of awesome that you’re in collaboration with Kevin Conroy, because same time around X-Men Animated Series, Batman The Animated Series was the other big homer for the Fox Kids Network.
Yeah, it was the same era! Like, same time, wasn’t it?
Same era, yeah. And he’s still doing Batman to this day.
Yeah, an animated thing? Seriously? He’s still doing that?
Yeah, he’s still doing Batman in Justice League Action, he’s voicing Batman. He’s in a bunch of the original DC Animated films, he’s was in the Arkham games, it’s some really big stuff like…
Why didn’t they do that with Wolverine?
That’s what I’m thinking to! I mean…
No, I wonder that when they did the new series with…you mentioned his name, because I don’t know any of those names.
Scott McNeil? Steve Blum?
Blum. And you know, I listened to one episode and I thought this was supposed to be a much younger version of the show, when the characters were much younger or something, we were told. He didn’t sound any younger at all to me. And Wolverine’s not young anyway, he’s like…180. [laughs]
He’s eons old, yeah. [laughs]
How can he be a younger version of himself? I don’t know. I don’t know why they didn’t…I have no idea why. It’s a whole nother company and they wanted their own people. Unfortunate for me.
Yeah it’s really unfortunate, but I guess them’s the breaks.
Yeah.
Like we mentioned before, before you got into Wolverine and your voice work, you were previously known with your singing career and your commercial jingles.
Yeah.
Tell us a little about that and how did you get started with all these.
Well, I just came to Toronto with a guitar player, I did a show with the CBC radio at which I met Ian Thomas, who was a big Canadian writer hit rock singer guy, wonderful guy. He produced my stuff for CBC, just 3 songs that they can play on their radio for a year, that’s all it is. And in between that, I got someone to put strings on that, they were in the jingle business. So I met everyone in the jingle business and that was the beginning of my life of singing, forever, from then on. Singing beers, ketchup, you know cereals, everything.
Even cartoon theme songs, I think.
Oh yeah, I did the theme songs. Well that’s lately though. Byrdz? B-Y-R-D-Z.
Oh, I think I remember that show, really obscure.
Yeah, went like “ba-buh-bah-byrd-byrd-byrd, byrd is the word”. That was me. And I did another thing for Thomas the Tank…you heard of Thomas?
Thomas the Tank Engine?
Yeah. And it’s a Halloween song. “This is Halloween”, I think it’s called and it’s absolutely unbelievable. You should hear it, I mean if you Google “Thomas the Tank Its Halloween Song”, you can get it on YouTube, just listen to it. I did all the voices, so there’s the lead voice, all the background voices you hear, they might sound like girls and stuff, but they’re all me. I did all the backgrounds myself. It’s really great, I’m really proud of it and it sounds fantastic. It was a CD for London, England, I guess where it’s produced or where they do that show. Anyway, I did all kinds of…anything. Beers, like I said, I was working every day twice a day for 20 years. 25 years?
Such an impeccable range too.
Yeah, I would say 3-3 ½ octaves. I can do very high and I did all the bottom stuff too (low voice) so down here now (high voice) as opposed to up here. [laughs]
Are you were trained at this back in school or…?
Pardon?
Post-secondary? Did you take training like for this sort of thing?
No, my mum. My mum was a vocal music teacher and she taught piano at home. But she worked in the education, in the schools, she taught 15 schools in the whole area we grew up in, different counties. Vocal music, which they don’t do anymore, which is sad. But anyway, and being for Ireland, mum and dad both sang, the whole family sang. My little brother has recorded with Meatloaf, was with the rock group Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart. You know, “Turn arooound, every now and then I get a little bit lonesome.”
Oh yeah!
Well, that’s my little brother singing the “turn around” part, yeah!
Wow!
So music coming out our ears, and that’s all we did. Growing up as kids, we would tour the whole family, singing at different liberal conventions, conservative conventions, whatever. But it was music and song singing, period….which is why I would get beaten up, because if you were a boy with this high a soprano voice that I had, you’d have to slap them. Because that’s just not right. Anyways, we got even with those boys.
I’m sure you did. [laughs]
Oh yeah. So yeah, the singing was huge, huge, huge. And I did that so happily, I’m still doing it, for years. It was wonderful. And it got me the TV show, the Circus thing, which was syndicated worldwide and I was singing with another group, it was Donnie & Marie Osmond Show. It was on CTV network and it was syndicated worldwide. Billy Van was on that and the guy from…the pilot of that show was…I go through this every time I try to remember his name, from airport. Who’s that classic comedian, he’s a Canadian as well. He was in the airport, you know…”And don’t call me Shirley.”
Oh, Leslie Nielsen, Airplane! God bless his soul!
Thank you, Airplane, not Airport! [laughs] And he was on the pilot for Circus, so he was like a big clown or something, a ringmaster, and Sherisse (Laurance) and I were like his help. To sell the show. And then he didn’t do the show after that, he just did the pilot with us. Anyways, so there’s that and that was all singing and stuff, no voice work ever until this dude came along. And I can’t thank him enough. It’s just what a wonderful, wonderful gig and a wonderful character.
Speaking back to Wolverine, we have a lot with the animated series to thank for eventually getting the live-action films out. 17 years running, the latest film, Logan, was the last time Hugh Jackman will play Wolverine. And it was nominated for Best Screenplay and this is like a very definitive voyage, he’s killed off and everything. I think that was a pretty damn high note to go off of. And I was wondering with the ending of the animated series, where we’re left off with Charles being one with the Shi’ar and all the students and Wolverine are just kind of….(this is the episode, Graduation Day), it kind of left a lot of things open ended for some characters, especially Wolverine.
Yeah.
I’m wondering if you were to continue off of that, how you would see Wolverine’s last scene or last moments in life really done. If it were to continue, how would you imagine the perfect kind of epilogue for Wolverine?
It’s too bad, I’m thinking the episode that was in future years, where he and Storm were together.
Days of Future Past?
That was very cool, yeah. Days of Futures Past. He was so happy, the two of them were so happy. Again, those was tears happening at that. He had some of the greatest lines in that episode as well.
I remember Storm says something along the lines of “You’d let this world be destroyed for me?” and he responds with “I’d die for you” or something like that.
Yeah. It was even better, a great line. Basically he was saying [Wolverine voice] “you’re damn right I would”. You’d give it all? “You’re damn I would”. So what was your question again? [laughs] Oh, how I would see his ending? I still could just see him wandering off on his own, going back up north with his skis and just staying there. I could see him just walking, a shot from behind, him just walking off and…well, cause you can’t take those off. [laughs] But I’m sure he would get rid of them, just shake them off like that and go.
Back to his lonesome self.
Yep.
Very in-character. Logan and The Wolverine were highly inspired by a comic series called “Old Man Logan”, which was a work of a writer called Mark Millar. It’s a what-if story with Logan, much later on in the future, in his senior years. The superhero days are gone and it’s mostly outrun by villains pretty much taking over the country. After a tragic event of the other X-Men getting killed and Wolverine feeling responsible, he’s destroyed mentally and emotionally and vows to never use his claws or the Wolverine persona again up until a reluctant journey where he has to go with another Marvel character, Hawkeye, in order to get money so he can pay off something for his family. Considering not only your performance as Wolverine was able to grip a lot of the harder-hitting moments in the animated series…
Yeah, I’ll say.
…and this long hiatus of not doing Wolverine for a while, would you feel interested in being able to voice in an animated adaptation of this if it were ever to happen?
[Wolverine voice] “Are you kidding?” Of course. Oh god, yes. That would be phenomenal. Like I said, I’ve missed him in the last 20. Seriously missed him. And I’m getting to do him (the voice) again in this series The Gang’s All Here with Byron Burton and those folks. I can hardly wait to do him. Hopefully the writing will be, well I’m sure it will be, like it was in the X-Men series, because it was brilliant writing. And for sure I would jump at that chance to do that, because the voice is still in me. He’s still in me. He’s still inside here. [Wolverine voice] “So be careful. I’m talking to you, pal!” (to Alfredo the photographer, Alfredo laughs) [laughs]
Well, I actually got an excerpt from the comic. This takes place when he’s talking about the past. What basically happens is he explains why he doesn’t use the claws anymore and it’s because there was a point in his life where a bunch of supervillains all teamed up together, went after the X-Men, and Wolverine went up against all of them and just massacred them, only to find out that it was an illusion by Mysterio, this other Marvel character who is able to make things not appear as they seem and he accidentally ends up destroys all the X-Men that way. So really depressing moment and um…yeah. [laughs]
Yeah. [laughs]
I actually have a small moment here. It’s a fan favorite here, where he symbolically goes away from the Wolverine persona by letting himself get run over by a train, and he survives obviously, the healing factor.
Yeah.
But this persona and the claws he vows never to use is his way of saying he will never be Wolverine again, and I was wondering if you could read it in your Wolverine voice. [hands Cal the excerpt] It’s a bit of a downer moment, but I feel if anyone is able to do it, you’d be perfect.
Hold it in a way…because it’s small (the font). So he’s thinking to himself, is he? He’s talking to himself?
Yes, this is him reminiscing the past, he’s explaining what happened to Hawkeye, why he won’t…
Oh. [Reading in Wolverine voice] “After I was tricked into killing the X-Men, time sort of lost its meaning for me. All I wanted was to pay the price for killing my friends. Eventually, I found a quiet place just like this one…and I did my best to kill Wolverine once and for all.”
(applauds)
[Wolverine voice] “…pal” Yeah, it’s just I need glasses to read that. That’s why, the spacing is weird.
Right, it’s the comics, it’s always the panels that go all over the place. But you know, that was a phenomenal read. Well executed.
Thank you.
That’s it for our interview.
Terrific! Can we drink now? [laughs]
Yes we can. [laughs]
Naw, I’m kidding!
Anything you’d like to say to the fans out there?
Just thank you so much for your support and for all your love. Please come out to any cons I might be doing, because I’d love to meet you and talk to you. Thanks again for being fans of such a fantastic, fantastic cartoon. Cartoon? Animated series. There you go.
Signing off.
Love you all.
An audio of the interview is available below:
You can follow Cal on Twitter at @realcaldodd or visit his official website to learn more of his work. Previously On X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series by showrunner Eric Lewald is available on Amazon for those in the USA and Canada.
A very special thank you to Alfredo Lainez of 7S Photography for the provided pictures of the interview, the Hilton Mississauga for room location of the interview process and Habiteer Workshop for the claws.