One of the most anticipated Disney animated projects of the past several years finally arrives this week. The one-hour series premiere of Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur airs this Friday Feb. 10 at 8pm on Disney Channel. (Episodes will be available on Disney+ beginning Wednesday Feb. 15.) Executive Producer Steve Loter and Supervising Producer Rodney Clouden bring this comic book to life with a series that feels just like… a comic book that’s come to life! (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Steve Loter: We absolutely love this show. We’ve been working on it for a long time, fine-tuning it to make sure it was perfect. I’m so thrilled for our audience to finally be able to see it.

Jackson Murphy: It’s terrific. I think Lunella is one of the most energetic and curious lead characters in a current TV animated series. Rodney, what do you love so much about her?

Rodney Clouden: What drew me to this was that I’ve been working in animation for a while and I haven’t worked on a character like Lunella Lafayette. She’s a 13 year old, Black, super genius, who uses anything she can to build these creations. The story is about the community and that one girl can make a difference — it all resonated with me. I thought it was a great opportunity to jump on something and really introduce Lunella to the world.

JM: Yeah. Families are going to love her and her dynamic with Devil Dinosaur. Steve, what makes Devil Dinosaur the perfect partner for Lunella?

SL: Devil Dinosaur is awesome, and I’m glad that you said partner because that’s really important to us. He’s not a pet. He’s her equal and partner in all the superheroing — defending the Lower East Side of New York City. I also love that he has such a strong personality. He loves hot dogs and painting. He loves people and being around people. It’s a joy to create a character that looks so ominous and dangerous but to have a heart of gold.

RC: It’s funny to have that contrast. You see a red dinosaur who’s named Devil Dinosaur. You think of this… but he’s very cultured. (laughs) The contrast is fun.

JM: It’s a Marvel series and I love the comic book style split screens and bubbles. Rodney, what was so important to you about the visual dynamics of this?

RC: When we came into this… Spider-Verse came out a couple years ago and we were like, “Wow!” I think it just blew everybody’s heads open. How do we get something of that caliber, but it really just opened up the creative doors. This is allowing us to be creative and visually creative. But how do we do that on a TV budget? And also not trying to copy but plant our own flag in the sand. We wanted to do something where we could represent New York. First of all, New York is gritty, with an edge and this vibe to it. And also it’s a comic book cartoon show. How do we do that? Think of New York art: [Jean-Michel] Basquiat, [Andy] Warhol, [John Frederick] Herring and the graffiti. Also the grit — combining that with the aspect of it being a comic book.

You want to play with the textures. We have a lot of stuff going on in the background where it’s the screen printing offset. You see the stippling and the dot nature of the backgrounds. It feels like it’s an old school comic book, and you have the modern aesthetic of the graffiti and a little bit of Walt Peregoy influence and Marc Hempel, who’s a comic book artist. He was an inspiration in terms of getting the line quality for the characters.

JM: Your angle of it is so cool and distinct. New York is absolutely a character in this. I also like the title cards you use going into and coming back from every break. And Steve, we have best friend Casey for Lunella. As you watch the premiere episode and you see their arc for their friendship, it’s really well done.

SL: It was really important for us to have the show feel cinematic so that you feel Lunella’s arc through the episode. She not only becomes a superhero, she [also] gains a friend. Lunella, at the beginning of the show, is very much in her own world and doesn’t quite know how to relate to people. Casey is actually quite an unlikely friend considering how different they are. They make a perfect friendship because of how different they are and what they bring to the table.

JM: Yeah. And Rodney, Aftershock is quite a villain, with a cool stylized look to her — her human form and electrical form.

RC: Yeah. Shout-out to Jose Lopez, our lead character designer. He has a very distinct style. I also want to give a shout-out to everyone involved with the background designs, Sean Jiminez and Chris Whittier. They really helped to set the style. She’s really cool looking and stylized. That part of it is really exciting to showcase. You’re bringing a comic book villain to life in our own, distinct style. You’ll see through the course of the show that we’re bringing a lot of these comic book characters from Marvel’s deep vault and make them our own.

JM: Okay! Steve, The Avengers are mentioned in the first episode. Where are we going into the vault? What can diehard Marvel fans expect, character-wise?

SL: Well we’re all huge fans of the Marvel comic books and films. Marvel has been a part of our lives for so long and we absolutely love it. The series, I feel, is complementary to the MCU. We have a few references and easter eggs coming up. So stay tuned. I think you may be surprised.

JM: Very good. One of the cast members is Alfre Woodard. She voices Lunella’s grandma, Mimi. I saw her in Clemency a few years ago. She was phenomenal in that. Rodney, how was it having her be a part of this?

RC: She brings a certain gravitas to it. She’s amazing. I sit in the records with her and she really brings a thoughtfulness to Mimi’s character. [Woodard] asks lots of questions during the records. She wants to know the intent of the scene and the emotion of it. We get that performance from her. It’s great to have someone of that caliber on our show. We’re very lucky.

JM: She’s got a great dialogue scene with Lunella about two-thirds of the way through the episode. It’s very nice. Laurence Fishburne is also part of the show — a voice AND an executive producer.

SL: It all started with [him]. He was in a comic book store and fell in love with Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comic. He brought it to his producing partner, Helen Sugland at Cinema Gypsy, the amazing company behind black-ish, grown-ish and mixed-ish. And they said this would make an absolutely fantastic show. Calls were made to Disney and Marvel, and here we are today. And what’s also great about Laurence’s involvement in the show is how deep he goes into character and story. We workshoped the Beyonder with him — the design, the voice, the acting. It’s the joy to experience a master class in performing and crafting a performance. Laurence is absolutely incredible.

JM: An icon for sure. There’s a moment in the first episode where Casey tells Lunella she is going to inspire people. How do you feel and hope Lunella — and this show — inspire people of all ages?

RC: It’s more than a cartoon. There’s a message behind it. Lunella is told one girl can make a difference. Hopefully people will take that to heart because she chose to be a hero — to take this mantle and the aspect of being a hero to heart. And I hope people take away the aspects of community and family — and also STEM. STEM is cool. STEM is the phone device that you’re probably watching this show on. Hopefully you’ll watch it on TV too. There are a lot of cool things about being smart.

JM: I completely agree with that.

SL: I think it was really important for us to make a very clear distinction early on that Lunella is a 13 year old who happens to be a superhero. We wanted to make sure Lunella’s life was real and relatable. Every episode kind of revolves around a central theme (like impatience and jealousy). It’s something relatable to not only the 13 year olds in our audience but beyond the 13 year olds in our audience. That’s kind of the key. Everything you see on screen is very relatable and very human, but you also get all the fun Marvel superhero action as well.

RC: All the things you love about Marvel: the humor, the action… and a really good soundtrack!