Big Hero 6 The Series is getting ready to debut its third season on Disney XD, and while fans are sure to be looking forward to the show's unique blend of comedy and action, fans of K-Pop are probably equally excited as it has been revealed that the new season will include a pair of guest voices, Nichkhun Horvejkul of the band 2PM and Jae Park of the band DAY6, are both set to play characters in an upcoming episode of the show. Fans excited by this upcoming very special episode can thank the show's new format, as well as one of the series' writers.
I recently had a chance to talk with Bob Schooley, Mark McCorkle, and Nick Filippi, the producers of Big Hero 6 The Series, and I asked about the decision to shift from 22-minutes episodes in the previous two seasons, to Season 3's plan to put two 11-minute episodes in each half-hour block. They were all very happy with the change, in part because it allowed the series to cover topics that might not be quite deep enough for 22 minutes. One of those was fulfilling the desire of one of the show's writers, who has wanted to do an episode dedicated to K-Pop for some time. According to Bob Schooley...
One of our writers is obsessed with K-Pop boy bands and she wanted to do a boy band story for all of Season 2 which, we could never quite crack it as a 22-minute story but 11 it worked perfect and we had a lot of fun with it.
It seems this writer was such a big fan of K-Pop that she actually traveled to Japan at one point specifically to see a concert, which is a level of dedication I don't have for any place that doesn't include roller coasters. It seems that it didn't take much convincing to actually get everybody else on board the idea of bringing K-Pop into Big Hero 6 The Series, but coming up with a story that didn't wear thin over the course of 22-minutes was tougher. However, the Season 3 format of 11-minute episodes was perfect.
It turns out that a lot of Season 3 will showcase ideas the creators have had in previous seasons but couldn't make work in the old format. One episode will focus on karaoke and was largely conceived in order to give Jennifer Lewis (Professor Granville) an excuse to sing in the show, because not doing so simply felt like a waste of her talent.
While Big Hero 6: The series is ultimately a show about superheroes, the shorter format also benefitted the comedy side of the show, so get ready for more of that in the upcoming season. Big Hero 6 The Series Season 3 debuts on Disney XD on September 21. You can catch up ahead of the premier by watching the first two seasons, and the original movie, on Disney+ now.
