HBO Max’s Doom Patrol will return for season four on Thursday, December 8, 2022 with the release of the first episodes. So, what’s in store? HBO Max’s official synopsis for the upcoming season revealed the team will be “unexpectedly” traveling to the future where they’ll be met by an unwelcome surprise.
What else can fans of the comic book-inspired series expect? Series stars Brendan Fraser (“Robotman”), April Bowlby (“Elasti-Woman”), Joivan Wade (“Cyborg”), and Michelle Gomez (“Madame Rouge”) participated in a panel during the 2022 New York Comic Con to briefly discuss what we can expect from season four.
April Bowlby on Rita as a leader:
“I’m really proud of Rita for taking the leadership role. She’s always looking for something that she belongs to, something to define herself with. It was acting…that didn’t go so well. She tried to be the Beekeeper…that didn’t go so well. And now she’s the leader. You’ll see that she gets a little pushy and she wants to be a perfectionist about it, and then the Doom Patrol turns against her and she’s back to square one.
But she’s incredible. I think she’s great in the role. She has her own superhero costume; there’s a costume reveal, you guys, with a beret, a cape. I think she loves it. I think she progresses into a true leader by the end of season four, I’m just going to say.”
Brendan Fraser on Cliff’s goal:
“The beauty of Doom Patrol to me is that they’re misfits and they found each other, and they’re an unconventional family – whether they like it or not. They need one another, as much as they don’t want to admit it. Cliff didn’t have such a good start in his life. He was kind of a jerk in season one. I seriously question if or not he really won all of those racecar races fair and square. You know what I mean? But hubris and all, he crashed his car and his brain got stuck in a robot. That’s life, right?
So his quest, as I’ve always seen it, is for Cliff to become a better human than he ever was as a robot, which is poetic in a way to me. I think we’ll see in season four that he does get a chance to reconcile with his daughter, with his grandson. It’s his quest, really, to become a better man although he’s a robot. So, stay tuned and let’s see what happens.”
Jovian Wade on Vic losing his powers:
“It was very different. I think the first time it kind of really hit me was actually seeing the poster that was displayed on that screen and seeing all of the Doom Patrol – including Vic – and seeing Vic without his cybernetics was a bit weird. It was like, ‘Oh, this looks a bit odd.’ That has been a part of the journey, really, with Vic trying to find himself and essentially now getting the opportunity to be – or have the choice to be himself and what it means to be a human and also a Black man in Detroit and understanding what it means.
We got that conversation with Vic and Frenzy when he was challenging what it meant to him to be a Black man. And Vic’s kind of questioning for himself and wanting to understand exactly who he is and what it means. And now, you know, we had a really beautiful scene – and shout out to Phil Morris (‘Silas’) – at the end of season three we have this really challenging conversation where Vic really stands up to him and he says, ‘I am a S.T.A.R. Labs security guard. I am exactly what you’ve tried not to turn me into. That’s exactly what’s taken place.’ And now he’s on a journey where he gets to discover what it means to be himself and really connect with the human side.
My vision for this character has always been…there’s been so many different iterations, but I fell in love with Teen Titans as a kid. That was my first connection to the character. What I loved about it was that he was human first. I’ve always tried to really portray my version of Vic as human first, so now I really get the opportunity to dive into him and feel what it means for him to be a human without all of his cybernetics.”
Michelle Gomez on Madame Rouge’s season four journey:
“In season four, it is about for Madame Rouge kind of living in a gray area – the nuance between good and bad. And her kind of swimming about in that for a bit, trying to do the next right thing. I think she gets infected by Rita’s goodness. And like anybody that we love, we want to be the best versions of ourselves for that person. Right? So, I love Rita. And then I saw my naughtiness – Rouge’s naughtiness – kind of liberating Rita a little bit. So, we kind of were each other’s flip of the coin.
Also, I love what Brendan’s saying as well that we’re all just trying to do our best. All of us. We’re all just trying to be as good as we can be. And some days you don’t want to be that. Some days you’re like, ‘F*ck it. I hate you.’ But mostly we’re trying to come together, especially today. It’s no bad thing to live in the nuance of the conversation and not to be so polarized. I feel like Doom Patrol, in a strange way, kind of reflects that back to us, where we are at today as a community.”
