Authentic writing and casting of disabled characters remains discouragingly rare in live-action TV and film, but at least we’re seeing some progress (viz. Daruma, Best Foot Forward, CODA). In animated entertainment? Never been done.
At least, it’s never been done until this week. Mech Cadets, a new Netflix series debuting tomorrow, is the first animated series to feature a disabled character that was scripted by a disabled writer and voiced by a disabled actor. That’s according to RespectAbility, which had a hand in creating the series, assembling the talent, and shaping the portrayals of disability.
The character in question, Frank Olivetti, is an above-knee amputee with a complicated backstory, a turbulent love life, and the weight of the world (literally) on his adolescent shoulders. He’s one of a handful of teenage saviors in Mech Cadets who pilot giant robots into combat against Earth-invading aliens. And Olivetti is brought to life by two of the most successful limb-different storytellers in the industry: Josh Sundquist, who plays Olivetti in his voice-acting debut; and filmmaker Ashley Eakin, who helped develop the character and scripted two episodes of Season 1.
Based on an award-winning limited-edition comic book series called Mech Cadets Yu, the animated show makes some significant revisions to the paper-and-ink narrative, in which Olivetti appears as a boring old able-body. You can stream Mech Cadets on Netflix beginning tomorrow. And if you can’t wait even that long, Boom! Studios is releasing a new series of paper-and-ink Mech Cadets comic books today.
We spoke with Sundquist and Eakin last week to get a sneak preview of the Netflix series and find out how they wove disability and limb difference into the Mech Cadets universe. The conversation is edited for length and clarity.
You both are in a position to pick and choose what projects you want to get involved in. What was it about this particular project that made it attractive?
ASHLEY: This actually came up during the pandemic in 2020. I was part of RespectAbility’s entertainment lab, and they emailed all of us saying there’s an opportunity to write for a Netflix animated show, and they really want to create a disabled character. That was really interesting to me. I had read the source material and knew there was no disabled character in the comic-book series, and I thought it was really cool that Netflix and Aaron [Lam, the show creator] and our partners at Polygon Pictures wanted to include disability. So I got really excited. I pitched them a bunch of different examples of disabilities we could potentially use and how they could shape Frank’s character. And Frank already had dimensions to his personality that weren’t about disability, so it was this open slate that we could really work with.
Just to be sure I’m following this correctly: You started with a character that had been non-disabled in the comic book series, and then created a new disability narrative for him?
JOSH: Correct, in the book series Frank doesn’t present as limb-different. But part of the inspiration for him was that there’s a frame in the comic books where you see a person who is missing a limb. So amputees were already part of this universe. And it was a major priority for Aaron and Netflix to represent different voices that we hadn’t seen before.
What makes Frank compelling, aside from his limb difference?
ASHLEY: He’s an all-around good guy. He’s funny, he makes jokes, but he’ll also really stand up for people. He’ll lay down the law and say things that have a lot of wisdom as well. And he also has a romantic interest, which is fun, because even though these characters are saving the world, they’re also being teenagers.
JOSH: Frank is the one who’s looking out for the others, defending people when they’re in need of support. He even defends the mean character when people are ganging up on her. He’s always looking out for the team. When the new recruit [Stanford] comes in, Frank welcomes him and shows him around. We also learn he’s into soccer. We never see him playing, but we understand from flashbacks that he plays on crutches. And that’s so rare. I can’t think of any mainstream representation of an amputee using crutches and not a prosthesis—and certainly not in a heroic action role. So even though being an amputee is certainly a big part of who Frank is, it’s not the only thing that makes him interesting.
You played soccer, right? And you use crutches as a primary mode of mobility. Did you have a part in adding those elements to the character?
JOSH: Actually, Frank was already like when they offered the role to me. The character just happens to be kind of exactly like who I am in some ways.
ASHLEY: When we developed the character, we definitely pulled from some real-life people within the disability community. Frank’s soccer playing is partly based on someone from the national team [Nico Calabria]. Another element we wanted to reflect was that there can be a discussion around whether or not to use a prosthesis. You don’t often see it presented as a choice. There are some people who will always wear a prosthesis around other people; it’s like showing up naked if you’re not wearing it. But it’s really a very personal, nuanced choice that’s very specific to each person. You can wear a prosthesis, but you don’t have to have one.
Based on what little I know of the comic-book world, if a comic-book character does wear a prosthesis, it’s usually a bad-ass prosthesis—it’s a super-powered weapon that you can mow down bad guys with. In this case, it sounds like Frank is trying to decide, “Am I more powerful with my prosthesis or without it?”
JOSH: When we see him at first, he’s wearing a prosthesis. What we learn later is there’s this whole backstory to why he’s wearing one—I don’t want to give away too many spoilers, but I will say there’s a situation later in the series where he’s in combat against an alien and he’s not wearing his prosthesis. So you get to see the guy with the crutches doing cool stuff. That’s not something you usually see anywhere..
How did that storyline evolve where Frank is toggling between a prosthesis and other modes of mobility? I’m curious how that aspect of his character worked with everything else you’re doing in the show?
ASHLEY: There are many things about developing his storyline that sent us in that direction. For a while I was fighting to have Frank use crutches the entire time. We eventually ended up meeting in the middle: Sometimes he uses a prosthesis, and sometimes he doesn’t. And that allowed us to raise the idea that you actually have a choice of what to use for your mobility aids. I loved sharing that nuance, and we could only do that by having a disabled writer on the team. We could actually talk about some of the things you really only know by personally living it—and stay away from some of the tropes that I really didn’t want to fall into.
What are some of those tropes that you were like, “No way, we are not going there”?
ASHLEY: Frank is a nice guy, but he’s not so nice that he gets walked over. He will speak up when he needs to and share the truth when he needs to. I like to write these brash, intense, edgy characters who go against that idea that disabled people have to be perfect. I think a lot of other minorities feel that way as well. He is not perfect. In fact, he is chosen [to be a Mech Cadet] because he is different, not in spite of it. This show covers so many different types of groups. It’s really a spectrum of humanity. All these people with various types of differences are selected to save the world.
JOSH: Stanford, the main character, is a janitor. His mom is a janitor and a single mom. He didn’t get proper training, he didn’t pass the proper tests, and his dad has passed away. Aaron likes to say that it’s an underdog story. Everyone in the show is an underdog in one way or another, and they’re all fighting to become Mech Cadets and then to save the world.
Does the disability theme resonate more deeply because it’s a show about teenagers? That’s a time of life when we’re all searching to find our identity and feeling anxious about how we might be different or how we’re imperfect, how we do or don’t fit in. All of that feels sort of parallel to living with a disability in a non-disabled culture.
ASHLEY: I think that’s right. And I think another part of the conversation is that kids don’t get enough credit for being part of the world around them. Kids, and especially teenagers, are overlooked. And in the case of our show, teenagers are the ones who are defending the Earth from an alien invasion. So we thought it was incredibly important to have characters who have very real personal journeys and struggles. They’re just figuring out who they really are, the classic coming-of-age story. But that story can look different for people with different backgrounds and different experiences.
JOSH: You’re also figuring out what expectations people have of you when you’re a teenager. Olivia’s story is really interesting to me, because there’s so much expectation from her family. Her dad is one of the generals, and she’s expected to be picked [as a Mech Cadet] while she’s figuring out who she is, and figuring out her relationship with her dad. For a fighting-aliens show, it goes very deep; that’s what I love about it. There really are a lot of family dynamics and other things happening that aren’t just at the surface. It’s actually very emotional.
Another thing that’s cool is that we get to see Frank being romantically desirable. When we see disabled characters on screen, they’re typically there because of their disability, and the point of the character is to be inspirational or to be sad or to be a war veteran or whatever. I would say it’s relatively rare to see a love story that isn’t impacted by the disability at all. When you see a person who uses a wheelchair find love, it’s supposed to be heart-warming. And there’s nothing wrong with that story, but we’ve seen that story a lot. Whereas in Frank’s relationship with his crush, his disability just isn’t a thing. It never even comes up. And that feels like real life to me.
So it’s just a normal teenage relationship with all the ups and downs and thrills and cringes?
JOSH: This girl is just attracted to him. He’s a sympathetic, attractive character, and whether he has one leg or two legs doesn’t matter. She falls in love with him because of who he is. I also like that when I shared some of the concept art, my wife’s friends were like, “Wow, Frank is so hot.”
And he plays soccer; you play soccer. Frank uses crutches; you use crutches. , , ,
JOSH: I also think he looks a lot like me, actually. So yes, he was based entirely off of me.
Do you think we’ll see more disabled characters in animated content going forward?
ASHLEY: I definitely think there’s more openness for new voices in animation. Sometimes our industry is so based on fear, and this team was super open to so many things. They took a risk on me, they took a risk on Josh, and they took a risk on the animation working out. So I do hope there are more opportunities for new voices, not just disabled voices, to break in.
JOSH: I have to shout out RespectAbility here, because their work is just so incredibly important. The fact that they have partnerships with giant streamers like Netflix means that change can really be seen on a global scale and reach a global audience. So we’re very grateful that they were involved.
Watch Mech Cadets on Netflix beginning August 10. The new Mech Cadets comic-book series is available as of today from Boom! Studios.