Freedom Fighters: The Ray is an American animated web series that it airs on CW Seed. It is part of the Arrowverse!
So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about this web series!
- Freedom Fighters: The Ray is an American animated web series
- It is developed by Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim
- It premiered on December 8, 2017 on The CW’s online streaming platform, CW Seed
- It is based on DC Comics character Ray Terrill / The Ray
- A reporter who gains light-based powers after being exposed to a genetic light bomb
- The series is part of the Arrowverse franchise
- It is primarily set on the apocalyptic Earth-X
- While also partly taking place on Earth-1
- The parallel fictional universe of Arrow, The Flash, Vixen and Legends of Tomorrow
- Raymond “Ray” Terrill is a lawyer who discovers a doppelganger of himself from another Earth
- The man disappears, and gives him light-based powers
- And he is recruited to join the Freedom Fighters
- The series was first announced on August 2016 by The CW
- With a 2017 debut and to air on CW Seed
- From executive producers Greg Berlanti
- And Marc Guggenheim and developed by Blue Ribbon Content
- It was also announced that the lead character would be gay
- And the network was looking for an actor to voice the character with the possibility of appearing in live-action later on
- The series was inspired by Grant Morrison’s Multiversity comic book series
- Guggenheim noted there was “a very specific reason” the series was titled as it was
- In order to introduce the Freedom Fighters and Earth-X
- Earth-X is a world in the multiverse where the Nazis won World War II and the New Reichsmen rule over present day America
- In September 2017, it was revealed that Russell Tovey would be voicing Ray Terrill in the series
- Freedom Fighters: The Ray is also set prior to the events of the 2017 live-action Arrowverse crossover, “Crisis on Earth-X”
- Guggenheim added that the animated series featured some “continuity mix-ups… [and] inconsistencies”
- As “Crisis on Earth-X” was conceived after Freedom Fighters was already written
- And Guggenheim “didn’t see eye-to-eye” with fellow crossover executive producer Andrew Kreisberg on how tightly the animated series should tie-in with “Crisis on Earth-X”
- Guggenheim hoped to address these with a comic book
- On the series being a prequel to the crossover, Guggenheim revealed that it was not intended to be such
- And was originally intended to be released before the crossover
- However, once the decision was made to feature The Ray in live-action, it necessitated the casting of the correct actor
- Which lead to Tovey
- Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club gave the first three episodes a “B” rating
- Regarding Tovey’s performance, Sava said, “Tovey does strong work capturing Ray’s anxiety and fear about coming out, and you can hear his disappointment in himself as he tries and fails to embrace his sexuality”
- Luke Y. Thompson of Forbes gave a favorable review of the Blu-Ray release
- Tovey appeared as The Ray in “Crisis on Earth-X” in November 2017
- The Arrowverse crossover event between Supergirl, Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow
- Additional concepts and characters from Freedom Fighters were featured in the crossover
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