Inhumans (TV series)

''Marvel's Inhumans'', or simply ''Inhumans'', is an American television series created by Scott Buck for ABC, based on the Marvel Comics race of the same name. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledges the franchise's other television series. It was produced by ABC Studios and Marvel Television in association with Devilina Productions, and was co-financed by IMAX Entertainment in a deal that gave the series a theatrical premiere. Buck served as showrunner on the series.

The series is centered on Black Bolt, portrayed by Anson Mount, and other members of the Inhuman Royal Family. Serinda Swan, Ken Leung, Eme Ikwuakor, Isabelle Cornish, Ellen Woglom, and Iwan Rheon also star. Marvel Studios announced an Inhumans film in 2014 as part of their Phase Three slate of films, with the species first introduced to the MCU in the series ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' The film was removed from Marvel Studios' slate in April 2016, and the ''Inhumans'' series was announced that November, to be partly filmed using IMAX cameras. Buck joined the series in October, and Mount was cast in February 2017. Filming took place from March to June 2017, at the former Naval Air Station Barbers Point airfield in Kalaeloa, Hawaii and various locations on the island of Oahu.

''Inhumans'' debuted on IMAX screens on September 1, 2017, the first live-action television series to do so. The theatrical run lasted two weeks, before the series premiered on ABC on September 29 and ran for eight episodes, concluding on November 10. The series was met with unfavorable reviews and low television ratings, and was canceled by ABC in May 2018. Mount reprised his role as an alternate version of Black Bolt in Marvel Studios' MCU film ''Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'' (2022).

Premise

After a military coup, the Inhuman Royal Family escape to Hawaii, where they must save themselves and the world.

Cast and characters

Main

* Anson Mount as Black Bolt:
The Head of the Inhuman Royal Family and King of Attilan, whose voice can cause destruction with the slightest whisper. Showrunner Scott Buck called Black Bolt enigmatic and fascinating because "a lot of times, we don't know what he's thinking", and noted the difficulty of writing a character who "does not speak, but yet he is our hero and the center of the show". Buck specifically ruled out the series using voice over, with Black Bolt instead communicating via sign language. Premiere director Roel Reiné told Mount to just use 15 or 16 signs, but Mount decided to create his own sign system. He explained that since the character is not from Earth, he would not know Earth-based systems such as American Sign Language (ASL). Mount borrowed the underlying rules of ASL but then "double-check dmy signs against ASL to make sure there is no overlap", and also studied orchestra conductors. Mount created a document for his language with over 50 pages, and felt that if he could develop the language over several seasons, it could become a full conlang equivalent to Klingon or Dothraki. Sometimes the script would not include any specific lines for the character, and Mount would develop what he was signing himself. Lofton Shaw portrays a young Black Bolt.
* Serinda Swan as Medusa:
The wife of Black Bolt and Queen of Attilan, who has the ability to control and move her hair. Swan described "an immense codependence between" Medusa and Black Bolt, with Medusa helping Black Bolt create his sign language and forming a connection together that creates "this symbiosis that keeps them intertwined". Swan took extra care to act alongside the character's hair as an additional appendage, before CGI was added to augment the wig she wore on set. Swan said that Medusa's hair would "have moods" as in the comics, and that it would move and react differently in various situations, such as being more restrained in public so as to not be distracting to others. V.I.P. (Victoria Isabella Piemonte) portrays a young Medusa.
* Ken Leung as Karnak:
Black Bolt's cousin and closest adviser, who can "see the fault in all things", avoiding errors, and acts as the Royal Family's strategist and philosopher. Executive producer Jeph Loeb explained that because of Karnak's ability, "everything he sees is flawed, so nothing is quite good enough for him. It's at the point where the glass isn't half empty, it's shattered."
* Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon: Black Bolt's cousin and leader of Attilan's Royal Guard, who can generate seismic waves with his cattle-like hooves. Ikwuakor described Gorgon as "the guy who kind of acts before he thinks".
* Isabelle Cornish as Crystal:
Medusa's sister and the youngest member of the Royal Family, who has the ability to control the elements. Cornish said Crystal is "really coming of age" and is going on "the journey of really coming into her adulthood and discovering more of her powers and things like that". Leila Bootsma portrays a young Crystal.
* Ellen Woglom as Louise:
A human from Earth who works at Callisto Aerospace Control Center with a personal passion for space and things related to the Moon. Woglom described Louise as "incredibly smart, incredibly focused" and a "fun", "quirky" character. She added that Louise "sort of has blinders on" about her love of space and the Moon, which "can sometimes cause her to maybe not pick up on social cues all the time, or maybe say things without thinking about them first". Buck noted Woglom's character was not from the comic books, but rather created for the series.
* Iwan Rheon as Maximus:
Black Bolt's brother, who has a strong devotion to the people of Attilan and a desire to be king himself. Maximus lost the Inhuman gene when going through the Terrigenesis process, which led to the character being looked down on by other Inhumans. Rheon said Maximus is the "runt of the family which is kind of hard for him. Without his brother he'd be working down in the mines ... because he's the King's brother, he got pity, basically." Buck called Rheon's version of the character "a different, more complicated, more real, and more compelling version" than the comic counterpart as the writers "didn't want to create just a simple villain who's evil for the sake of being evil", with Rheon adding that "there are no villains ... It's not black and white. It's a lot of shades to the characters." He also compared the relationship between Maximus and Black Bolt to that of Loki and Thor in the MCU films. Rheon, who is Welsh, gave Maximus "an America-ish twang", but felt "it would be an incredible coincidence if everyone on the Moon had American accents" and so also kept the accent "a bit Moon-ish". Aidan Fiske portrays a young Maximus.

Crystal's teleporting canine companion Lockjaw also appears in the series, created through CGI. Reiné stated that "nobody has done a full CG character on a TV series before. So Lockjaw is the first. It's a big responsibility for all of us." Mount called Lockjaw the "goofy sidekick", but felt that he had been integrated into the plot rather than just used as comic relief. Buck felt Lockjaw's storylines would "always efairly simple" as a way to ensure the writers "don't try to pretend that he's anything other than" a dog and pull focus from the other characters. Initial designs for Lockjaw had him bigger than his final look, closer to "the size of a Mini Cooper".

Recurring

* Mike Moh as Triton: Black Bolt's cousin and Karnak's brother, who has the ability to live underwater and is a skilled assassin. It took Moh three to five hours every day to have his makeup applied.
* Sonya Balmores as Auran:
A compatriot of Maximus, who becomes the new Head of the Royal Guards on Attilan during his coup. Balmores described Auran as "tough", "no nonsense" and someone who "get the job done, whatever the job might be".
* Michael Buie as Agon: Black Bolt and Maximus's father and former king of Attilan.
* Tanya Clarke as Rynda: Black Bolt and Maximus's mother and former queen of Attilan.
* Ari Dalbert as Bronaja: A young Inhuman who has visions of the future and the brother of Iridia.
* Aaron Hendry as Loyolis: The father of Bronaja and Iridia who works in the mines of Attilan.
* Ty Quiamboa as Holo: A surfer who befriends Gorgon.
* Henry Ian Cusick as Evan Declan: A geneticist who has been testing Inhumans on Earth.
* Olo Alailima as Sammy: An Inhuman that can melt metal that befriends Black Bolt when he is in prison.
* Bridger Zadina as Mordis: An Inhuman with powerful heat vision that was freed from prison by Maximus to assist Auran in capturing the Royal Family.
* Sumire Matsubara as Locus: An Inhuman with echolocation who assists Auran in capturing the Royal Family.
* Jamie Gray Hyder as Jen: A cannabis farmer who develops feelings for Karnak.
* Michael Trotter as Reno: A cannabis farmer, who is suspicious of Karnak.
* Ptolemy Slocum as Tibor: A member of the Genetic Council who is Maximus' old friend.
* Krista Alvarez as Flora: An Inhuman with the ability to control plants.
* Chad Buchanan as Dave: A farmer who befriends Crystal.
* Liv Hewson as Audrey: Dave's former girlfriend who is a veterinary technician.

Guest

* Nicola Peltz as a human recently transformed into an Inhuman on Earth.
* Marco Rodriguez as Kitang: The head of the Genetic Council.
* Tom Wright as George Ashland: The head of the Callisto Aerospace Control Center.
* Andra Nechita as Iridia: A young Inhuman who has butterfly wings and the sister of Bronaja.
* Jason Quinn as Pulsus: An Inhuman with electric based powers.
* Kala Alexander as Makani: A surfer part of Holo's crew who befriends Gorgon.
* Albert Ueligitone as Pablo: A surfer part of Holo's crew who befriends Gorgon.
* Moses Goods as Eldrac: An Inhuman "Doorway" that can teleport people anywhere.
* Miriam Lucien as a serene Inhuman.
* Matt Perfetuo as Sakas

Episodes

Production

Development

A film based on the Inhumans was first mentioned as being in development in a March 2011 trade report. In October 2014, Marvel Studios officially announced the film as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Three, with a release date of November 2, 2018. Producer Kevin Feige said, "We really do believe the Inhumans can be a franchise or a series of franchises unto themselves. They have dozens of powers and an amazing social structure. With our 20th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we wanted to continue to refine what that universe is about." The following December, the Inhuman species was introduced during the second season of ''Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' that began a storyline that recurred throughout the series moving forward. In April 2016, the film was officially taken off of Marvel's release schedule, though it was not outright canceled. After the film's cancellation, Jed Whedon, executive producer and showrunner on ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'', noted that series had "a little more freedom" and were "able to do a little bit more" with the species going into the fourth season, including the potential of introducing some of the "classic" Inhumans.

In May 2016, after ABC had canceled '' Marvel's Agent Carter'' and passed on '' Marvel's Most Wanted'', ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said that Marvel and ABC were looking "at series that would be beneficial to both brands" moving forward. In November, Feige said that "''Inhumans'' will happen for sure. I don't know when. I think it's happening on television. And I think as we get into Phase 4 as I've always said, it could happen as a movie." Shortly after, Marvel Television and IMAX Corporation announced the eight-episode television series ''Inhumans'', to be produced in conjunction with ABC Studios and air on ABC; Marvel Studios decided that the characters were better suited to television, and a series would be better than trying to fit the multiple planned franchise films around the studio's existing film franchises. ''Inhumans'' was not intended to be a reworking of the planned film, nor a spin-off from ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'', but it is set in the same shared universe. In December, Scott Buck, the showrunner for the first season of the Marvel Netflix series '' Iron Fist'', was revealed to also be executive producing and showrunning ''Inhumans''. Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory also executive produce the series.

IMAX serves as a financing partner on the series, the first time it had done so for a television series, paying completely for the first two episodes. IMAX had originally approached Marvel about the deal after a successful IMAX event with '' Game of Thrones'' in 2015. Because of this deal, Marvel was able to spend more on ''Inhumans'' than it has on its other shows, especially for visual effects, which have been criticized in series like ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' ABC also hoped that partnering with IMAX would attract a larger audience to the series than its previous Marvel shows, similar to the "buzz-creating, widely watched series" that Marvel provides to Netflix, and perhaps even draw more viewers to ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.''s fifth season in the 2017–18 television season. Ben Sherwood, president of Disney–ABC Television Group, described the deal as "a quadruple win—a win for IMAX, a win for Marvel, a win for ABC Studios and a win for ABC to launch a show in an innovative way and get attention" in an increasingly crowded market for original television series. Buck felt working with IMAX "gave us a lot more freedom and pushed and encouraged us to think a little bit bigger than we would if it was just a normal network show. We just wanted to think bigger in terms of scope, and what we were seeing, and how we bring these characters to the audience." Loeb cautioned that ''Inhumans'' was "a television show that is premiering in an IMAX theater" rather than a film, but that it would still be a spectacle, and "a unique way to be able to see TV".

Writing

Buck said ''Inhumans'' would be "a family drama with one big story leading us through the season", rather than a procedural series like ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'', and though the initial IMAX release was intended to be "something that absolutely stands on its own", he hoped it would "intrigue people enough to make them want to watch the rest of the show". On incorporating the more fantastical elements associated with the Inhumans, Buck said they would be leaned on "to a certain extent, yes, but again, we approach these all as real people who just happen to have these abilities, so they're all very grounded people. ... We want their powers to seem like a very natural part of their personality."

The season is set both on Earth and in the Inhuman city of Attilan, which is on the Moon, and tells an original story inspired by elements from the comics, including Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee's 1998-99 ''Inhumans'' series. Buck said that the season's story arc "will be complete by the end of the season, but also open us up to a whole other potential storyline". The story puts the characters in situations where using their powers would not help them, to allow the audience to "view the characters as people with super powers, rather than as superheroes only". Compared to other superhero series such as Marvel's Netflix series, ''Inhumans'' is more appropriate for children, though with some "parental guidance". It was reported that the "underpinning scripts" were a point of contention between ABC and Marvel for the series, with network executives expressing concern to Marvel early on.

Casting

In late February 2017, Iwan Rheon was cast as Maximus, followed shortly by Anson Mount as Black Bolt. There was no audition for the role of Black Bolt since the character does not speak, with Mount instead cast due to an existing relationship with Loeb, who felt Mount would fit the role. At the start of March, the series added Serinda Swan as Medusa, Ken Leung as Karnak, Eme Ikwuakor as Gorgon, Isabelle Cornish as Crystal, and Ellen Woglom as Louise. During the time from her audition to being cast, Swan had also been cast in the HBO series ''Ballers'', which necessitated a negotiation between the two series to ensure Swan would be allowed to appear on both.

Mike Moh and Sonya Balmores were also cast in March 2017 as Triton and Auran, respectively. Also in the month, comic writer Charles Soule indicated that the series would feature some NuHumans as well, including some he created in his '' Inhuman'' comic book. In June 2017, Henry Ian Cusick revealed he would be portraying Evan Declan in the series.

Design

Carlos Barbosa served as production designer for the series, with Adam Davis as art director. The pair are architects who had previously worked together on several feature films. Buck noted that there have been a lot of different looks and designs for the Inhumans since their creation, which allowed the crew to "pick what was the best and most interesting aspects" for the adaptation. Davis described the comics as storyboards that gave "very broad strokes" from which they developed their own "visual language". The series contrasts the "concrete and dark" look of Attilan with more colorful scenes set on Earth. The sets of the series were designed and built more vertically than usual to accommodate the IMAX release, and to take advantage of the available space. The sets for Attilan are primarily made from stone, due to the limited building materials that would be available on the moon. Davis said that this 'instinctually' lead them to a combination of expressionism and brutalist architecture when designing the city, which also reflected some of the architecture on Honolulu where the Earth scenes are set. The designers also took inspiration from early Russian architecture and styles from the 1960s such as "massive pure geometric shapes". This is shown in rooms such as the Royal Hall, which is based on rectangular shapes; the Quiet Room, which is a circle; and the Control Room, based on equilateral triangles. The sets also include a lot of reflective surfaces, which the crew hoped would "provide more depth to the images" from the IMAX cameras.

Attilan is surrounded by a protective energy field in the shape of a cone, that projects out images of the moon's surface to camouflage the city, and projects in Earth-like imagery like clouds and sunsets. The cone shape was chosen, rather than a more traditional dome shape, so the Quiet Room where Black Bolt spends much of his time could be directly below the apex of the field, and "if he accidentally produces any sonic waves, the waves are redirected up the side of the cone and out the apex into outer space" and away from the city. The set decorations were described as "slightly futuristic yet quaintly old-fashioned", with elements such as Ancient Greek-inspired statues of the Inhumans' ancestors present in the Royal Hall. The character's apartments and bedrooms are sparse, "with only essentials". Black Bolt and Medusa's bedroom has a view of the whole city. Crystal's bedroom was designed to be able to fit Lockjaw, her dog; because he can teleport, the set's door frames did not have to be sized to the character, but areas such as where he sleeps in her room did. Roland Sanchez served as costume designer for the series. Rheon called the costumes "very different" from how they appear in the comics. For instance, Mount does not wear Black Bolt's comic costume of a black outfit with white accents, tuning fork, and mask. Mount said that this was done to make the character "more accessible to the viewer ... I'm not sure TV is the space for masks." Rheon added that the costumes were intended to look strange to the audience to highlight that the Inhumans have been segregated from Earth and human culture for some time. Special effects make-up was provided by Glenn Hetrick and Neville Page's Alchemy Studios.

Filming

Filming for ''Inhumans'' began by March 5, 2017, in Downtown Honolulu, under the working title ''Project Next'', with Jeff Jur serving as cinematographer. Studio work for the series took place in Kalaeloa, Hawaii at the former Naval Air Station Barbers Point airfield. Additional filming occurred at Diamond Head, and the Hawaii State Capitol building. The first two episodes of the series were shot on Arri Alexa 65 IMAX 2D digital cameras, to accommodate a debut on IMAX screens, with major action sequences from subsequent episodes also being shot using the technology to enhance the overall visual quality of the series. A new, wider lens was crafted for the cameras specifically for use on the series. The first two episodes were shot over 20 days, with the remaining episodes having eight-day shooting schedules. Filming ended on June 12. It was reported that the series underwent multiple reshoots.

ABC, Marvel and IMAX chose to produce ''Inhumans'' in Hawaii due to the state's tax incentives for filming, and the strong relationship that Disney and ABC have with the state from previous projects. However, with the sole production studio on the islands, Hawaii Film Studio, in use by ''Hawaii Five-O'', new studio space needed to be developed for the project. The Hawaii State Film Office had been interested in developing the former Naval Air Station Barbers Point airfield into a filming studio, and by early 2017 the space had been leased by Navy Region Hawaii to the Hawaiian Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, who subleased the complex to the series' production, allowing the production to begin retrofitting the former airfield into a production facility. Jean Higgins, who previously worked in Hawaii on ABC's '' Lost'' as a co-executive producer, serves as producer of ''Inhumans''. ''Inhumans'' hired around 150 local workers as production crew, and was expected to provide $80–100 million a year to the Hawaiian economy.

Visual effects

Mark Kolpack, visual effects supervisor on ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'', stated he would not be involved with ''Inhumans'' due to his commitments on ''S.H.I.E.L.D.'', despite introducing the species on that series. Eric Grenaudier serves as visual effects supervisor for the series instead, with seven visual effects studios working on the series. Many of the effects are created by Digital Media. Buck noted that Medusa's hair was a very difficult process and "takes quite a long time in post to make that effect work", while Grenaudier added that creating Lockjaw and the city of Attilan were also some of the biggest challenges on the series. He noted that the team was trying to create effects that would hold up on an IMAX screen and be equivalent to those seen in the MCU films but with a television budget and schedule. The results of early visual effects were reported to be a point of contention between ABC and Marvel, and after they were poorly received in the first trailer of the series, resulted in a reported additional $100,000 being spent on Medusa's hair.

Lockjaw was created by Double Negative, who director Roel Reiné called "the best house to do creatures". A life-sized, blue foam "stuffy" was used on set as a stand-in for Lockjaw to help the directors frame shots and the actors interact with the character, while a 360-degree camera was used to take lighting references in each scene to help with lighting the CG version. Double Negative began work on Lockjaw in early February 2017, starting to design the final look of the character and creating a rough, simplistic version that could be added to completed sequences as further reference. Marvel gave approval on the final design for Lockjaw in April 2017, during filming of the series' fifth episode, with Double Negative creating a digital model complete with "animatics, muscles and textures". Grenaudier said that Lockjaw "is going to have to be photo-real and interact in a lot of scenes with environments, with other people that are going to be able to play or touch and react with him—obviously it's been done in movies. I'm not talking about ''Life of Pi'', but to try to othat on an episodic schedule on a TV budget, it's putting the bar pretty high." For Lockjaw's teleportation effect, Reiné wanted "something really organic", and created sketches to pitch "the idea of how Lockjaw would organically dissolve into a sandburst", which Buck and Marvel both loved. It was reported that the high cost of producing Lockjaw resulted in the character being removed from the series as it progressed.

Music

At the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, Loeb announced Sean Callery as the composer for ''Inhumans'', after he previously composed the score for '' Marvel's Jessica Jones''. Callery recorded his score for ''Inhumans'' with a 68-piece orchestra, the largest he had ever worked with for television. He called his score "the most thematic I've been with any show I've worked on. At its core, it's about a royal family, so there are some grand themes for the kingdom and the family." Callery wrote an "adventurous" main theme for the series that was featured in the IMAX release, with a "very, very abridged version" used in the television episodes. Callery tried to use the show's music to differentiate between scenes set on Earth and those on the Moon, and took four or five days to compose the music for each episode.

Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-ins

When announcing the series, Sherwood said that those behind the project had "worked very carefully" with Marvel Studios to ensure that "content-wise we are only enhancing" the MCU. Buck noted that "things that have happened on '' gents ofS.H.I.E.L.D.'' will potentially affect our show as well" but cautioned that he was focused on getting the new series "launched" before attempting any crossovers with other parts of the MCU. Buck further elaborated, "This exists all in the same universe. Even if we don't cross paths with, say, ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' or characters from other shows, they are still out there. We all live in the same world. The same things that applied in other shows and occurred also apply to ''Inhumans'' as well." Elements carried over from ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' include the alien writing associated with the Inhumans on that series, and the blue Terrigen crystals, which were designed to be consistent with their depiction on ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'' Loeb noted that Hawaii was chosen as the series' setting, in part because Marvel wanted ''Inhumans'' to occur in "a contained area" as "a way to minimize its impact on the rest of the MCU". He added that, as of the premiere of the series, there were no plans for the characters to interact with the Inhumans on ''Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D'' such as Daisy Johnson. The final episode of the series sees the destruction of Attilan and its people becoming refugees on Earth, similarly to '' Thor: Ragnarok'' which sees the destruction of Asgard. Both also expressed the same sentiment that a place is its people, not a location.

Marketing

ABC, IMAX, and Marvel Television looked to create a joint marketing and promotion plan for the series across their proprietary media platforms, which would be the first such cross-platform marketing launch of a television series. This approach was described by industry analysts as "a can't-miss cross-platform push".

A teaser for the series was released ahead of ''Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'' IMAX screenings, as well as online, in early May 2017. It followed the release of a cast photo, which Dana Schwartz at Observer.com called "pretty lame ... Overall, the look of the entire royal family is 'group that met on Craigslist to try to win a costume contest, with varying levels of commitment'". James Whitbrook of Gizmodo said "some of these costumes work way better than others": Black Bolt "probably comes out the best", Crystal "gets some points for effort", but Medusa looks "like she's trying to do a particularly low-budget cosplay of '' Game of Thrones'' Sansa Stark". Analyzing the response to the series on Twitter, marketing firm Amobee counted 27,000 tweets concerning the series between May 4 and 9, with 17 and 7 percent of that specifically mentioning "hair" or "wig", respectively, referencing Swan's hair in the photo which was particularly criticized. 35 percent of the tweets were deemed negative, and just 26 percent positive, with Amobee principle brand analyst Jonathan Cohen saying, "The high level of audience engagement in Marvel TV shows is a double-edged sword for the company. On one hand, there's great anticipation around any nugget of information for an upcoming TV series. On the other hand, when a segment of that audience is disappointed, that reaction is magnified".

The first trailer for the series was screened exclusively at ABC's advertiser upfront presentation on May 17, 2017. Reactions praised the visuals for Lockjaw and quelled some of the criticism regarding the costumes. The first public trailer was released on June 29, after footage had leaked online from the upfront reveal, and was met to mainly negative reactions. Cast members appeared at San Diego Comic-Con International 2017 to promote the series, where exclusive footage was shown. The panel concluded with an extended trailer for the series, which was also released online, and appeared before IMAX screenings of the film ''Dunkirk

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