'Thragg is strategic and desperate': How Lee Pace got into character as Invincible season 4's big bad

The Invincible and Foundation actor dove deep into the comics to prepare for his new role “Why’s everyone so nervous about fighting this Thragg guy?” the young superhero Oliver Grayson (Christian Convery) asks in episode 7 of Invincible season 4. “No way he lives up to the hype.” Showrunners Robert Kirkman and Simon Racioppa built up the leader of the Viltrum Empire as one of the greatest threats in the galaxy, but he didn’t get much screen time before the final two episodes of the season. So it was up to Pushing Daisies and Foundation star Lee Pace to make the most of his scenes to ensure Grand Regent Thragg actually did live up to the hype. “He carries some weight in this world, so I wanted to hit notes with the character that set him up for a big arc, set him up for a big journey,” Pace told Polygon in a video interview. “The best way I could think to do that was to be prepared to come into that recording booth, but give them a lot of options to work with so that they could tone the character the way they wanted to. As I was recording things, I would see Kirkman be like, Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's fun." [Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for Invincible season 4, episod