The creative minds behind Hulu’s upcoming animated series Koala Man conducted their first San Diego Comic-Con panel at the July 2022 event, even though the show won’t arrive until 2023. Creator Michael Cusack (who also voices the titular character) and co-showrunners Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit took part in a panel and then sat down for roundtable interviews to dive into the superhero series about an every day man who goes about attempting to make a difference in his community, albeit in a very usual way.
Hulu offers this description of Koala Man: “An animated family comedy where the patriarch lives a not-so-secret identity of Koala Man, an Australian suburban superhero with no powers but a burning passion to snuff out petty crime and bring order to the community.”
Cusack, Hernandez, and Samit discussed the show’s premise, snagging Hugh Jackman in a key role, and the recently announced casting of Succession‘s Sarah Snook and Australian comedienne Demi Lardner in season one. The interview’s embedded above in audio form for those who’d rather hear it than read the transcript.
Michael Cusack, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit Interview:
Where did the idea of Koala Man come from?
Michael Cusack: “So, I’ve been animating for a while, since my early 20s…I just learned by myself. I love doing little shorts about where I grew up and they seem to do well on the internet. And I got into superheroes late – when I was like 25 or something. I was like, ‘What would an Australian superhero be like?’ I thought they’d definitely have no superpowers. They wouldn’t be cool or interesting; they’d be kind of schlubby and be in a town that’s not cool – not a cool Gotham.
A superhero in a small suburban town seemed funny to me. What I realized is – and it’s a thing in America, too – people are very… Boomers, people like my dad and his friends, were always so particular about people littering on the street and the trash bins going out at a certain time, and all that kind of stuff. So, this superhero cares about that kind of stuff. Like, making sure the lawns are mowed properly. The stuff that the council wants done is done properly. That was just funny to me, and then it seemed naturally to work into an animated sitcom.”
Benji Samit: “Those little things are the things that caused him to become a superhero. But then of course being a big, fun show, things spiral out of control. We’ve got monsters and aliens and anything else that we can think about.
The stories often just start with he’s really just focused on – the mundane little thing.”
Dan Hernandez: “It always seems to spiral out of that one little thing that he is hyper-focused on and all of a sudden, he’s fighting a monster or a demon or something insane. That seems to be the formula that works for the show and so we really leaned into that combination of the very elevated and the very low stakes, banal, suburban life.”
Is he someone we’ll connect with? He’s not like a Karen, is he?
Michael Cusack: “He’s not a Karen, no. On the surface level, he is annoying but he’s so passionate in what he believes in that you can’t fault him for it. He just wants to live in a clean, nice town – a clean, nice suburb. You can’t really fault him but he’s a bit arrogant about it – a bit stubborn.”
Benji Samit: “And it all comes from a place of love. He loves his family, he loves his town, and he just wants the best for it. He doesn’t understand why everybody doesn’t love the town the way he does.”
Michael Cusack: “It’s almost like he’s like, ‘Look, if nobody else is going to do something about this, I am. I am going to be the savior of the town.’”
Benji Samit: “And he’s often not rewarded for that dedication.”
Dan Hernandez: “Heroes never are.”
Benji Samit: “And you learn more about him as the series goes along because it is serialized. It is a real superhero story that is getting told, although with all this funny, crazy stuff. I think that by the end of the season, I hope that people are almost surprised by how moved they are by his story and by the emotions that you’re feeling by the end.”
Will he always be a lone wolf?
Michael Cusack: “No, he does have allies who are just the people at the local bar. He’s got his best mates there who support him and even make gadgets for him too. He’s definitely got his supporters.”
Benji Samit: “He’s got a handful of friends who also believe in the cause.”
Dan Hernandez: “But at the same time, his family is often incredibly frustrated by his sort of commitment to this…until they need him. Every now and then it’s like, ‘Well, you know who would actually help me solve the problem we’re having is Koala Man. I hate to say it.’ So now he’s getting drawn in on some of these other stories that the family is having trouble dealing with.
There are also episodes where he’ll team up with his wife or he’ll team up with his daughter to go accomplish something. And it’s both the dynamic of the superhero persona but also their annoying dad. So, it’s always something that we come back to over and over because we try and find the truth in the family relationships as much as possible – the universal experiences of having annoying dads and moms who maybe feel stuck in their lives a little bit. Things like that. There’s always a true emotion underlying the events of the stories and where the stories start and where they end.”
Is the family aware of his dual life?
Michael Cusack: “Yes. It took us a while to choose whether they should be. They do know and they’re embarrassed about it. It’s almost like he’s going through a midlife crisis and they’re just accepting it.”
Dan Hernandez: “Although, his son loves it.”
Benji Samit: “His son loves it; his daughter is like, ‘If any of my friends at school find out that you’re Koala Man I don’t know what I’m going to do.’”
Dan Hernandez: “So, there’s different levels to their relationship to Koala Man. Discovering the family should know his identity really unlocked a lot for us because it made the home life so much richer of his wife who still expects him to fix the broken table and do household chores but also trying to be accepting of, ‘Okay, Kevin’s going through something right now and it happens to be a koala phase.’”
How did you land Hugh Jackman as one of the voices?
Michael Cusack: “We don’t know. It was insanely easy. Like, way easier than we thought. We shot for the stars and wanted to get him. We wrote a character specifically for him, hoping we’d get him. And to our luck, he was interested in the show because I guess his kids thought it was funny. So, thank you Hugh Jackman’s kids!
I guess because it was an Australian show for American TV, I think it really piqued his interest, too. He knew about Dapto, the small town it’s set in. He’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, I know about Dapto! You’re making a show about Dapto?’”
Benji Samit: “It was honestly the easiest yes we got of our entire cast.”
Michael Cusack: “Super nice guy.”
Dan Hernandez: “He couldn’t have been nicer and more supportive of the show.”
Benji Samit: “His performance is so hilarious.”
Michael Cusack: “He killed it.”
Who is he playing?
Michael Cusack: “He’s like the stereotypical Australian man’s man. He’s everything Koala Man wishes he could be. He’s six inches taller than him. He’s buffer. He’s cooler. Everyone in the whole town loves him.”
Benji Samit: “His name is Big Greg. Big Greg used to host Australia’s third most popular fishing show – ‘Fishing Big with Big Greg.’ And now he’s the mayor of the town.
In Koala Man’s heart he’s jealous and envious of how other people see Big Greg but he can’t quite admit that to himself. They have this tension throughout the series of, really, if Big Greg said something nice to Koala Man it would be very meaningful for him, but he can never admit that. And so, they have this sort of rivalry or frenemy relationship.”
Michael Cusack: “Big Greg isn’t a bad guy. Koala Man just sees him as one because he’s so jealous of him.”
Benji Samit: “But he’s just the greatest guy in town who everybody loves.”
Michael Cusack: “And Hugh Jackman, obviously, plays that perfectly.”
Are you going to give him a musical number?
Dan Hernandez: “Oh yes, definitely.”
Benji Samit: “We weren’t going to cast Hugh Jackman and not give [him one]. We did find an occasion for Big Greg to sing, and hopefully, people will be seeing that soon. It was a very exciting day in the recording room.”
Dan Hernandez: “It was pretty awesome.”
Michael Cusack: “And he was going to do his musical after it. It was so insane. He’s doing that and then going to do Music Man.”
Benji Samit: “He was extremely, extremely generous with his time and his support of the show. And he gave it his all. We wrote him some crazy lines to say that were almost to the point where you’re like, ‘Okay, this is the line where Hugh’s going to be like I made a mistake.’ He was totally game, and he and Michael just had a connection right away. It was really a dream experience with him.”
Can you talk about your other recently announced cast?
Benji Samit: “There’s a really brilliant Australian comedienne named Demi Lardner who is Koala Man’s daughter, Alison. She’s absolutely astoundingly funny. One of the funniest performances I’ve ever heard of in an animated show. And Koala Man’s wife is played by Sarah Snook of Succession – Shiv Roy. She is absolutely unbelievably funny. Not everyone knows that she’s Australian, I think. And I think she similarly was excited to do an Australian show.
She’s Emmy nominated. She’s doing pretty good; she’s doing pretty well. But she really loved the show and [Michael] and Sarah connected. Again, someone that just wanted to be a part of it and was a pretty easy yes. In spite of the fact that she’s on top of the world right now, she just loved the show.”
Dan Hernandez: “The cast is a bit of a who’s who of Australian actors.”
