When Invincible season 4 dropped its fifth episode, some viewers had only one question: When did Zack become Zoe? While comics featured a male high-scooler as Tech Jacket, the Amazon Prime Video show took a different route by introducing the superhero as a girl. Speaking about the gender-swap, the show’s creator and writer, Robert Kirkman, revealed his vision for the character and her journey. Read on!
Tech Jacket’s big change explained by Robert Kirkman
Earlier this month, Zoe Thompson made its formal debut in the show’s episode 4, Give Us A Moment. In conversation with The Wrap, Robert Kirkman shared his vision behind reimagining the character as a girl. Describing Tech Jacket as a “fully well-rounded character,” Kirkman knew the character deserved his own arcs in the Invincible universe.
But while looking at the role of comic’s Zack Thompson in the Viltrumite War, he thought there’s nothing unique that “you’re not getting from Oliver or Mark.” Kirkman added, “There’s just a lot of similarities there.” Moreover, the source material featured an all-male team that leaves Earth to fight enemies such as Conquest and Grand Regent Thragg. The heroes include Zack, Mark, Nolan, Oliver, Allen the Alien, Battle Beast, and Space Racer.
Since Prime Video’s adaptation stems from a comic book, there is always room for making changes to keep the show more relevant and engaging. And swapping Zack with Zoe while maintaining the Tech Jacket’s identity was part of this approach. It’s basically making the show more diverse and overall better. Kirkman, who created the character in 2002, reminisced about how such early creative choices reflected their limited perspective at the time.
“One of the downsides of Invincible is Cory Walker, and I were like 23 and 21 when we started that book, and your default when you’re not really paying attention is yourself,” Kirkman said. “Every time we introduce another character, ‘Oh look! It’s another white male! Who knew?’ It’s just a shortcoming that we hadn’t quite noticed and done our due diligence to correct.”
With the premiere of Don’t Leave Me Hanging Here last week on April 22, the eight-part season finally came to an end. While Kirkman expressed the desire to finish the saga in four more seasons, it all comes down to Prime Video and its plan for the show. While we await updates on the fifth season, check out other exciting news on the show below!
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