Invincible is finally back on Prime Video for Season 2! And with it comes one of the most intriguing characters on animated TV: Robot, aka Rudy.
Played by not one, but two actors (with a bit of flavor from a third), Robot has one of the more complicated backstories on the show outside of the title character. He’s also crucially important to the story of the series going forward… At least in the comic books by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, and Ryan Ottley.
With that in mind, let’s break down what you need to know about Robot and Rudy from Invincible Season 1, what to expect in Invincible Season 2 — and perhaps beyond, based on the comics — and a bit about Zachary Quinto, who voices Robot, and Ross Marquand, who voices Rudy on Invincible.
Who Is Robot, aka Rudy, On Invincible?
When we first meet Robot, he seems to be a… Well, Robot. He’s a hyperintelligent and logical construct who leads the Teen Team, a group of superheroes that. That team breaks up, but most of their members get recruited onto the planet’s premiere superteam, the Guardians of the Globe after the latter is brutally killed by Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons). Nobody knows that, by the way. It’s a secret! Until the end of the season, when it’s not.
Anyway, Robot also has a secret: he’s not a robot. He’s a scientist named Rudolph Conners. He was born deformed and riddled with illnesses. He’s also housed in a tank of fluid where he remotely controls the Robot body. So it’s not an artificial intelligence, it’s a drone. Due to some variety of his deformations, his brain is incredibly developed, while his lungs are underdeveloped. He’s good at thinking; but bad at breathing.
What Happened To Robot/Rudy At The End Of Invincible Season 1?
Working with villains The Mauler Twins (Kevin Michael Richardson), Robot took a sample of Rex-Splode’s (Jason Mantzoukas) blood and cloned himself a viable body. The Maulers transferred Robot’s consciousness to this new, young, healthy body, and the original died, happy.
You know who wasn’t happy about this? Rex-Splode, who now has a younger clone of himself walking around without his permission. Though Rex was pissed off, Monster Girl (Grey Griffin) was pleased. She realized Robot did this mostly so she could have someone like her, who understands looking young but being old. (Brief bit of explanation about that: Monster Girl ages backward every time she uses her powers, and now looks like a teen).
All of that gets put on hold when Omni-Man and Invincible (Steven Yeun) end up in a knock-down, drag-out fight in the Season 1 finale. Robot, now called Rudy, stands and watches from the headquarters of the Global Defense Agency (GDA)… He can’t fight as Robot anymore.
Except, he can: he now wears the Robot as a sort of Iron Man-style suit, instead of controlling it remotely. When we leave Robot/Rudy, he’s once again on the team, albeit with a new powerset he’ll have to get used to, and a cool teen body.
What’s Next For Robot/Rudy In Invincible Season 2?
As we’ve already seen in the Season 2 premiere, “A Lesson For Your Next Life,” Rudy is dealing with actual human emotions for the first time. Monster Girl coaches him through it, and explains the thing he’s feeling is “fear” since he’s in the field and fighting for the first time. He no longer has disposable drone bodies to play with; it’s the real deal.
Without getting into spoilers, this is a theme that gets played with in the first half of the season, as Rudy tries to figure out the whole “human emotions” thing. Fear isn’t the only emotion he’s grappling with, though. As noted above, Monster Girl realized Rudy became a real boy in part for her, but still had to deal with what that meant emotionally. That’s something that will get explored more, as well.
What Happens With Robot And Rudy In The Comic Books?
There’s one other bit here that gets into big spoilers from the comic books, which you may or may not want to know. This season we meet Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown), a man who has the ability to traverse the multiverse. That’s something that gets revisited time and again over the course of the comic book. Whereas this season will most likely delve into the question of whether Invincible turns evil, future issues of the comic find Mark exploring the multiverse to find out just what Robot’s deal is.
What is Robot’s deal? Again, spoilers, seriously. As we already detailed when breaking down the character of Cecil Stedman (Walton Goggins), Robot isn’t quite what he seems. And this emotional path he’s started down might seem wholesome and sweet, but it doesn’t really turn out that way much later in the series. Instead, he decides to take over the world for its own good. A lot of characters die in the process, and Robot becomes arguably a bigger villain than even Omni-Man or the Viltrumites.
Whether the TV show will go the same way is TBD. And regardless, that’s pretty far down the road, if it does happen. So enjoy this earnest, kind Rudy while you can.
Who Plays Robot On Invincible? What To Know About Zachary Quinto:
Zachary Quinto plays the voice of both Robot and Rudolph Conners on Invincible since the latter is also talking through an electronic device.
You definitely know Quinto. He rose to fame as villain Sylar on Heroes, played Spock in the theatrical Star Trek reboot films, and got an Emmy nomination for his work on American Horror Story. He also appeared on just shy of twenty-four episodes of 24, and played the vicious monster Charlie Manx on AMC’s NOS4A2, based on the novel by Joe Hill.
Quinto is also an accomplished stage actor. He appeared Off-Broadway in Angels in America, and on Broadway in The Glass Menagerie.
Coming up, he’s supposed to appear in the next Star Trek movie, which has been in limbo for a good long time. And his pilot for Wolf, where he plays Dr. Wolf, has been picked up by NBC.
The actor also came out as gay in 2011, and since then has been an active advocate of LGBTQ+ rights, appearing in multiple campaigns and regularly supporting organizations through benefits and otherwise.
He has 903.3k followers on X (formerly Twitter), though hasn’t posted since 2020. He’s far more active with his 926k followers on Instagram, where he recently has been outspoken and supportive of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
Who Plays Rudy On Invincible? What To Know About Ross Marquand:
You probably know Ross Marquand best for his role as Aaron on The Walking Dead. But beyond fighting the undead, Marquand has proven himself to be a talented mimic and voice actor who can jump into nearly any voice role unrecognized. That came in handy when he played the voice of The Red Skull in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame after Hugo Weaving didn’t return to the role.
It also comes in handy when playing Rudy. Marquand was tasked with coming up with a voice that somehow incorporated Zachary Quinto’s cadence from Robot, with Jason Mantzoukas’s voice for Rex-Splode. And he did it! Good job, Ross Marquand.
Other than the two aforementioned roles, the 42-year-old Colorado native played Paul Newman on Mad Men, and also replaced James Spader as the voice of Ultron on Marvel’s animated What If…? and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Coming up he’ll star in Tuesday’s Flu, a crime thriller, opposite Jackie Earle Haley and Jon Gries, who are somehow not the same guy.
You can join his 618k+ followers on Instagram, but he last posted about a year ago so good luck out there.
Invincible Season 2 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
Invincible Season 2 officially premiered on Prime Video on Thursday, November 2 at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT. Though Season 2 will be eight episodes long, only one episode will premiere on Thursday, followed by the next three Thursdays. Then there will be a break, and the second half of Invincible Season 2 will premiere sometime in 2024.
Here’s the full list of episodes in Invincible Season 2:
- Thursday, November 2, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 1 – “A Lesson For Your Next Life”
- Thursday, November 9, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 2 – “In About Six Hours, I Lose My Virginity to A Fish”
- Thursday, November 16, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 3 – “This Missive, This Machination!”
- Thursday, November 23, 2023: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 4 – “It’s Been A While”
- 2024, TBA: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 5 – “TBA”
- 2024, TBA: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 6 – “TBA”
- 2024, TBA: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 7 – “TBA”
- 2024, TBA: Invincible, Season 2, Episode 8 – “TBA” *Season Finale*
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