Spoilers for Invincible season 3Invincibleseason 3 forced Mark, and audiences, to confront the moral issues of heroism before going out with a bang. Based on Robert Kirkman’s beloved comic book series,Invinciblehas proven to be a hit adaptation for Prime Video, copying the comics’ art style so accurately that the characters appear straight out of its pages. With a season finale that ended with Mark in a coma and big setups forInvincibleseason 4, the third outing of the show has left many viewers anxiously waiting for more.
The faithful adaptation ofInvinciblefrom page to screen has been shepherded from day one by showrunner Simon Racioppa. In addition to running the writers’ room and helping maintain the overall tone of the series, Racioppa personally wrote some of the show’s most impactful episodes. ForInvincibleseason 3, Racioppa wrote episodes 1 and 7, the latter of which saw the tragic death ofRex Splode.
ScreenRant’s Joe Deckelmeier interviewed Simon Racioppa at WonderCon 2025 aboutInvincibleseason 3. The showrunner discussed how the third season was structured, what made the writers lean into certain characters’ minds and storylines, and more. Plus, the showrunner spoke to how the introduction of a certaindemon in the season 3 finalecould lead to a big unused comic storyline inInvincibleseason 4.
“We Don’t Want To Answer That Question, But We Want To Pose That Question”
Image via Prime Video
Invincibleseason 3 sees Mark grappling with his power and the obligations he feels to that power and those he can help with it.“It’s all there in the books,”Simon Racioppa said about bringing that side of Mark’s journey to life,“but the biggest challenge is making it seem reasonable. I think superhero comics, for a long time, have had a no-killing policy, but what if killing somebody saves a thousand other lives, or saves ten thousand other lives? Is there a line there?”
“I think a lot of people might say, ‘If killing someone would save a million lives, maybe that’s the right thing to do’,”Racioppa continued,“and other people will say, ‘No, it’s absolutely not.’ We don’t want to answer that question, but we want to pose that question and bring it up.”
Invincibleseason 3 asks and explores such questions in part through the relationship between Mark Grayson and Cecil Stedman.“They have different points of view. They’re different people,”Racioppa said,“Cecil’s point of view is that line, ‘You can be the good guys, or you can be the guys who save the world. But you can’t be both.’ He’s looking at the bigger picture. He would one hundred percent kill one person to save twenty, thirty, forty, or a million, or whatever.”
“Mark’s position is different,”Racioppa added,and Mark’s position changes over the course of the season. It’ll probably change again in the future. And I hope our audience have different ideas also about what they would do in those scenarios. We want to ask the question, and we want to show you that it’s not an easy answer, no matter what you believe.”
Invincible Season 3 Took More Advantage Of Robert Kirkman’s Stable Of Characters
“Let’s Show These Other Villains And Get Into Them”
A wider variety of villains appeared inInvincibleseason 3 than in previous seasons.“I don’t think it was a deliberate thing,”Racioppa said about that idea.“Obviously, we use Robert Kirkman’s incredible graphic novels as the groundwork of the series,”he continued,“and his comics are wide expanses of different heroes, different characters, and different questions. We wanted to fit a lot of that into the show, so for season 3, we were just like, ‘Let’s show these characters. Let’s show these other villains and get into them.’”
After Season 2, “We Wanted To Make Sure That They Carry That Trauma”
Rex Splode turned out to be one of the most important characters toInvincibleseason 3, and his journey was built out of careful consideration for his state of mind after his season 2 arc.“In season 2, [Rex Splode] and Shrinking Ray go through a fairly traumatic experience together,”Racioppa said,“They both almost die in this terrible attack with the Lizard League on a missile base. We started talking in the writers’ room about what that would do to a person both on an individual level, and also with the other person who survived.”
He continued:“We wanted to ensure that they carry the trauma of that experience forward, and that deepened the relationship. Then, it just felt natural and organic to go from there and let them take that a little bit further.”
Creative Liberties Help Kirkman Tweak Past Writing Decisions
AlthoughInvincibleis a very faithful adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s source material, it also expands on or changes some elements from the comics. Those decisions are a result of a collaborative effort, revealed Racioppa:“Robert’s co-showrunning with me, and we talk all the time. He’s there for every part of the show. We were going through and looking at some of the early books, which he wrote over 15 years ago now. He was like, ‘Debbie is a major part of the books, but in the books, maybe she doesn’t have enough pages.’”
“She was a great example of a character who evolved,”Racioppa continued,“She is married to Omni-Man, so she would know something is up. She would feel like something has changed in her relationship early on, and she might be the first one to know. That was an individual case where we wanted to go deeper and explore more, just to give her more time to tell her story a bit more fully onscreen than it was in the comics.”
Battle Beast Will Return, Hints Racioppa
The Character Made A Memorable Entrance In Season 3
Battle Beast was one of the most threatening foes and exciting side characters in all theInvinciblecomics, so it’s no surprise that Racioppa all but promised the character’s quick return after his entrance and eventual defeat inInvincibleseason 3:“At the end of the last episode, we see that he survived his Viltrumite jailbreak earlier in the season, and he just wants more. ‘More what?’ I think we know. I think he’s going to get some more.”
Invincible Season 4 Will “Try And Push Boundaries A Little Bit”
Just Don’t Expect A Musical Episode
Invincibleseason 3 had a slightly different storytelling structure than the show’s previous outings. Asked whether the next season will continue to change things, Racioppa replied,“We’re always going to try and push boundaries a little bit.”But, he added,“I don’t want the show to become gimmicky, and I know Robert doesn’t want that either, where we’re just like, ‘Oh, this is our musical episode. This is our backwards episode. This is our episode that’s black-and-white.’ We’re not going to do that. That’s not what Invincible is.”
“But we are going to hopefully surprise you in places,”Racioppa continued,“We’re going to move things around. We sometimes do our end-of-episode coda in the middle, or sometimes we put it at the start. We’re going to do stuff like that, like play around with the title card. We’re not going to, again, give you our musical episode or anything like that. Invincible: The Musical.”
For you musical lovers and eternal optimists, Racioppa did then say, “I mean, never say never, but I don’t know. Let’s see how many more seasons they give us.”
“A Lot Of That Stuff Comes From Robert”
ManyInvincibleseason 4 details are under wraps, but the season 3 finale made it clear that a major unused comic idea will play a part. When asked how a dropped storyline involving Hell might make its way to season 4, Racioppa said the following:“Robert is a huge part of the show, and in a lot of cases, there are beats in the show that come about after talking to him. He’ll say, ‘I never got a chance to do this in the books, but I always [thought] that character’s backstory was this and this and this.’”
“We’re like, ‘That’s great. Let’s put that in the show now,’”continued Racioppa,“so, a lot of that stuff comes from Robert.”When it comes to the specific storyline in question, Racioppa shared more:“The Hell story is an example of him being like, ‘There was this story I always wanted to do for Invincible, but I kind of lost track of it. I kind of lost track of it, things moved on, and then I couldn’t go back and do it.’”So, Racioppa said,“Why not do it on the show now?”
When asked if Bruce Campell’s Dark Beast will actually turn out to be Satan in the season, Racioppa said,“I think you’ll have to wait and see. Bruce is incredible, though. He’s great. You’re going to love it. You’re going to love it, but I can’t tell you that.”
A Hell storyline also opens up the door for the return of Clancy Brown’s demon character Damien Darkblood, who was banished there inInvincibleseason 1. Racioppa teased the character’s reappearance when asked how much he’ll feature into the season:“I think you’re just going to have to wait and see, but let’s just put it this way: everybody loves Damien Darkblood. Clancy Brown is incredible … so we were just like, ‘We need more Clancy.’ He does a couple of other roles for us, but we needed more Damien in the show. It’s a nice treat.”
Invincible Has Not Been Written Past Season 4
But The Writers Have “Talked About It All The Way To The End”
When asked how far Racioppa and his collaborators have plotted ahead, Racioppa responded,“Obviously, we have the books as the groundwork of the series. We’ve talked about it all the way to the end, and Robert and I have had conversations about it. But in terms of actually sitting down and starting to work on it, we’re just doing season 4 right now.”
“Hopefully, we’ll get to do more,”Racioppa continued,“but we’ve had dinner and talked about other parks, like, ‘Wait ‘til we get to this part', or ‘Wait ‘til we get to that part.’”
