SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “Invincible,” now streaming on Prime Video, and minor spoilers for the “Invincible” comics.
Invincible can’t catch a break.
In the aftermath of the Invincible War, where Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) had to fight evil versions of himself from different realities as they caused massive destruction on Earth, here comes Conquest: a grizzled, battle-hardened Viltrumite ready to fight.
Conquest arrives in the Season 3 finale because Mark hasn’t prepared Earth for a Viltrumite takeover, and now he must pay the price. What follows is the most devastating, gruesome fight since the Invincible vs. Omni-Man battle at the end of Season 1. Conquest is one of the most fearsome and unhinged villains in the “Invincible” universe — and it marks a fun “Walking Dead” reunion as Yeun, who starred as Glenn in the zombie series, faces off against Conquest voice actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who played Negan and famously smashed in Glenn’s head with a baseball bat. Let the rematch commence!
Mark and Conquest topple buildings, break limbs and eviscerate bystanders as they slug each other hundreds of miles across the planet. In an homage to the infamous Chicago train scene from Season 1, Conquest grabs Mark by the neck and flies him through a crowded beach of innocent people as bloody body parts go flying. Eve (Gillian Jacobs), who wakes up from her coma with a new robotic leg, and Oliver (Christian Convery) join the battle but are nearly powerless against Conquest. The Viltrumite knocks out Oliver’s teeth and nearly rips him in half, but Eve is able to slow down the onslaught with her light-construct powers. However, Conquest overwhelms her, cleaves her jaw off and punches a hole through her stomach in mere seconds.
Enraged, Mark delivers a super-strong punch that breaks both his and Conquest’s hands. Conquest starts choking Mark while delivering a chilling monologue, but suddenly Eve’s body regenerates in a burst of light and she sends a searing blast of energy into the villain. With Conquest stunned, Mark finally gains the upper hand and headbutts him to death, pulverizing his skull into pulp. But is Conquest really dead?
After Mark recovers, he tells Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins) to burn Conquest’s body and makes a promise to kill anyone that ever threatens his family again. But Cecil has his own plans, and he secretly preserves Conquest’s body in an underground facility in order to learn about the Viltrum Empire when he wakes up.
The final moments of the episode also reveal that the parasitic alien Sequids are still roaming the sewers, the bloodthirsty Battle Beast is alive in space and Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown) survived the Invincible War. After the credits, there’s also a scene where demon detective Damien Darkblood (Clancy Brown), who was banished to hell in Season 1, reappears and talks to a sinister devil (voiced by Bruce Campbell) about summoning a powerful “surface dweller” to the underworld. Could Mark be headed to hell in Season 4?
With Variety, creator Robert Kirkman discusses the Conquest fight, how that Darkblood scene could be teasing an unused storyline from the comics and when Season 4 of “Invincible,” which is produced by Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment, may arrive.
This is a brutal fight between Mark and Conquest. Were you trying to outdo the Chicago battle from Season 1?
That was definitely a goal. We call it the Monaco sequence, where Conquest rakes Mark across the beach and city. It was supposed to be an advancement of the subway sequence. When I was writing that episode, I was very keenly aware that Nolan fight had become a high-water mark of the series and I wanted to try to elevate things as much as I could. We were trying to bring a new flavor to the series as well. Conquest is a much more brutal Viltrumite than Nolan. The Monaco sequence was a way to pay homage to the Nolan fight. With the back-to-back episodes of the Invincible War and Conquest, we wanted to give the audience a sense of, “Here’s what you could get from this show moving forward. You didn’t expect this, did you?” Just trying to try to up the stakes as much as we can.
Moving forward, is this a new era for Mark? We see him say that he’s going to kill anyone who threatens his family members at the end.
This is a guy who deeply regretted what he thought was the murder of Angstrom Levy because he felt like it was him becoming more like his father. That was something he was wrestling with for the majority of Season 3 and then became keenly aware of the fact that if he had actually murdered Angstrom, it would have prevented a ton of misery. He definitely believes that he killed Conquest. It shows that this guy’s learning. I think one of the fun things about this series is that Mark is young. Early on, I was seeing people agree with Cecil and think Mark was wrong at the beginning of this season, and, yeah, he is. He can be, that’s fine. I like the idea of a protagonist that is making mistakes, and a lot of people try to avoid that. They don’t want the audience to be against the main character. But I think that showing the naivete that Mark can have is important as he learns and grows from season to season.
When you were casting Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Conquest, did you intentionally want a “Walking Dead” reunion with him and Steven Yeun? Glenn finally gets his revenge against Negan!
I’m always trying to find roles for the actors that I know and love and want to work with again. I’m always trying to find something for Jeffrey. When he started showing up on “The Boys,” I couldn’t let Eric Kripke have all the fun. At some point, it became, “When we get to Conquest, Jeffrey Dean Morgan would be perfect for that.” I didn’t hesitate just because there is the meta of it all like, “Oh, it’s the rematch between Glenn and Negan, and now Glenn gets to win.” Something about it seemed fun and interesting. You worry about those kind of things taking people out of the show, but once you’re in it and you’re paying attention, it’s not necessarily something that occurs to you. I don’t think it ruins the episode or anything, but I think it enhances things and puts an extra level of stakes on it. For anybody who’s a longtime “Walking Dead” fan, it’s a nice bit of justice.
In last week’s episode, you also had a “Breaking Bad” reunion with Aaron Paul as Powerplex and Jonathan Banks as Brit. Was that one on purpose?
Well, it’s funny because we just thought Aaron Paul was perfect for Powerplex and that Jonathan Banks was perfect for Brit. It didn’t even occur to us that they’re going to be in scenes together and it’ll be a “Breaking Bad” reunion. It’s always just a goal of casting the best actor for the role and sometimes these things happen by accident. All that said, I would love for there to be a “Wire” reunion in a future season of “Invincible.”
Conquest is way creepier than he was in the comics, especially the part where he blows a heart-shaped bubble at Mark in space. Were you trying to expand on his character at all from the comics, and will we learn more about him in the show?
When I write an episode, I always go through the comic and think about how I can make things more interesting. Because I’m writing myself, I feel like an extra responsibility. If I’m going to write the same thing a second time, I need to make it interesting for me and hopefully make it better for the audience. I was just trying to make Conquest as bizarre and compelling as possible. He’s a character that I really adore. He’s a ton of fun to write, and he wasn’t in the comic very much. If a character becomes popular at Marvel or DC, they bring them back over and over and over again until they are less popular. By trying to make “Invincible” something that celebrates traditional superhero storytelling but also tries to play against type, no matter how popular Conquest got, we’ve told his story. That’s all you get. There’s a lot left on the table that I would love to get to at some point. Because of that, you’ll see a lot more stuff with Conquest in the show.
What is that Damien Darkblood post-credits scene teasing? We haven’t seen him since Season 1 and he wasn’t in the comics very much, so where did the idea to bring him back come from?
In the comics, he was never sent to hell. He was a great character that we loved from the first season. Clancy Brown’s portrayal of him was spot-on and so terrific. We always wanted to figure out a way to get Damian Darkblood back into the show, and then — gosh, do I want to spoil this? There’s a storyline from the comic that I never got around to doing. Every superhero story has some chapter where they go to hell and they fight the devil. It happens in DC and Marvel comics. It’s a big deal. I never got around to doing anything like that in “Invincible.” I kept getting sidetracked and there was never a good time. So it’s entirely possible that we may be doing something like that in the show, and that scene at the end of that episode is setting that up. Oh my God, and we got to work with Bruce Campbell. It’s the best.
Bruce Campbell is credited as “Demon,” and it seems like he’s some kind of hellish patron to Darkblood. Is he playing Satan in that scene?
Could be the devil. Could be. We’ll just have to see. Maybe I shouldn’t have spoiled that.
When we talked after the Season 2 finale, I asked you if you’d found a voice actor for Conquest or Thragg yet, and you said one of them had been cast. We have Conquest now, does that mean Thragg is showing up in Season 4?
I mean, it would certainly be weird if he didn’t show up in the show. Yeah. I mean, I don’t know. It’s so tough. Here’s what I’ll say: He’s been cast and he’s amazing.
Season 3 released less than a year after the Season 2 finale. Are you aiming for the same timeline for Season 4?
I’ll say vaguely the same timeline. I don’t know the quarter or month. That’s something that the team at Amazon strategically figures out what’s the best way to drop the show. The team at Skybound is getting a ton of support from Amazon. The fact that they’re approving seasons the way they are and have been letting us work ahead is the reason that we’re able to get the show out. I’m very thankful for everything that they’ve done, and they’re pretty good at picking release windows, so we’ll see. The goal is to continue the cadence that we’ve had with Seasons 2 and 3. The plan is that you will see Season 4 in 2026.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
