With the world in danger once again from Lex Luthor and the Legion of Doom, the DC Super Hero Girls must turn to Teen Titans Go! for help. Entitled Mayhem in the Multiverse, the latest crossover finds Luthor having trapped most of the world's superheroes in the Phantom Zone with the help of dangerous Kryptonian spirit Cythonnia trapped in an ancient amulet.
Khary Payton, who has made a name for himself in the world of voice acting through roles in everything from Young Justice to Invincible and who has further more gained recognition as Ezekiel in The Walking Dead, takes on the role of Cyborg. Enhanced and enthusiastic, he's an asset to the team on his best days.
Ahead of the film's release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with Payton to discuss Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse, his show's growing legacy, the impending end of The Walking Dead and more.
Screen Rant: I had an absolute blast with the film, I've been a fan of your work with Cyborg over the years. With that said, Teen Titans Go! now has almost a decade under its belt, what's that been like for you exploring this character through two radically different tones over the years?
Khary Payton: Honestly, I feel like Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!, the tone difference is [key]. In the first show, sometimes it would be really serious and sometimes it would be really silly, and we just kind of leaned into the silly side of the old show and then just took it to another level. But it's really just different sides of myself. [Chuckles]
At this point, I've come to the conclusion that Teen Titans Go! is the five of us from from Teen Titans got together, started drinking, had a little too much, went a little nuts, woke up the next morning and thought, "What in the world just happened?" And we just keep doing that 11 minutes at a time.
That might be the funniest descriptor I've heard for Teen Titans Go! yet.
Khary Payton: [Laughs] I think it's pretty accurate. When you think of them, at the beginning of every episode, they're already inebriated, they're already high and you're like, "This is gonna be good."
I'm gonna have to go back and look at it through that lens. So what was your initial reaction when getting this script?
Khary Payton: It's funny, man, I was laughing immediately because I was like, "This is the most honest script I've read." The script literally, from the very beginning, is like, "Hello, this is a show that we'd like to take the popularity of one show and the popularity of another show and hopefully both shows will become more popular because of it." [Laughs] We're not screwing around at all, we are going to be as honest as possible and that's the joke and I love it.
That self-referential humor gets me every time. Were you at all, I don't want to say disappointed, but was there any part of you that kind of wished the Teen Titans had a more prominent role in the film than they ended up having?
Khary Payton: When we were singing the song about the crossover and it was like, "Yeah, we want to be a part of the movie," but the thing is you couldn't have that song if we didn't stick to the formula that we decided. But the cool thing is that all of us who are on Teen Titans Go! have actually done multiple episodes of the DC Super Hero Girls show. So we've actually had that experience, so this was cool to take it in another direction. I was like, "Oh man, we didn't get in at all," but I love it. That was the joke, that literally, by the end of it, we're like, "Hey! We're just being used!" I loved it, I loved it.
What do you think it is about both Teen Titans Go! and DC Super Hero Girls that just continues to resonate more and more with audiences the longer these shows keep going?
Khary Payton: I think, first of all, it's that the age of the superheroes is something that we that we can all relate to, because we were all that age. Spider-Man has always been my favorite superhero, one of the reasons why is that in high school, he wasn't this huge, musclebound superhero, he was a skinny kid who was still just a nerd and then he puts that mask on and he comes alive. I really felt a kinship with him because I was a skinny little kid who was into comic books and science and I was kind of shy. But when I got on stage, man, I came alive. Spider-Man reminded me of myself in that way.
I think that we can see ourselves in these characters, because we all feel a little different and a little special in middle school and in high school and a bit like a misfit. The Titans and the DC Super Hero Girls, they're living the dream, they're teenagers, but they're off on their own, they're living with their friends and going to school at a kind of private school and they're living on an island and a big superhero building and they're having to take care of each other and take care of themselves. So I think a lot of it is just a dream of what preteens and teenagers would love to be doing in their own lives
I couldn't agree more, as a kid I was always jealous of the Teen Titans getting to live in their own big mansion.
Khary Payton: Exactly. It's like Lord of the Flies without the — well, I guess there's a little death and destruction. [Laughs]
To look away from the film for just a couple of questions, we are coming up on the end of The Walking Dead and that's been such an amazing road thus far. What's that been like for you filming these final episodes and nearing the end of this run?
Khary Payton: It's funny, I still don't actually feel like it's real yet. We shot the last episodes of the show, but they won't be airing for several months. Maybe when we finally see those last episodes all done and everything, I'll start to feel like it's over. But the truth is I just moved back to LA and and I still got boxes that I haven't unpacked, I feel like it's all still too new and I haven't really said goodbye yet. I'm sure it's gonna hit me at some point, but honestly, it still hasn't hit me yet. It's been so busy, I've barely had a chance to take it all in. But I'm sure that day is coming and it'll be interesting. I shed a few tears with a few friends, definitely, that I knew I wasn't going to be seing for a while, but yeah, I don't think it's fully hit me yet that it's over.
Well, it hasn't fully hit me yet either. For my final question, I love that you were a part of Critical Role and got to be a part of Legend of Vox Machina when that came to be. With that show getting a second season, are there any talks about you coming back as The Sovereign or even another character for the new season?
Khary Payton: There's definitely talks and I'm excited to see how it all comes out. I think that the first season came out amazing, some of the animation was just sick. I love all of those guys and the story they told was amazing and I just knew that another season was coming out. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I've got some characters to play.
Check out our other Mayhem in the Multiverse interviews with stars Kimberly Brooks, Tara Strong, and Grey DeLisle as well as director Matt Peters.
Teen Titans Go! & DC Super Hero Girls: Mayhem in the Multiverse is available on Blu-ray and digital platforms now.