‘Powerless’ Preview: 1 Part ‘Batman,’ 1 Part ‘Mary Tyler Moore’

We’re all familiar with the visually arresting sights of a superhero battle; sometimes it seems like every other show or movie is nothing but superhero battles. But what are the ordinary people doing during those battles? The answer, we find out from the new NBC comedy Powerless, is mostly being late for work. We talked with co-star Danny Pudi and executive producer Patrick Schumacker about the show’s eye for authenticity, how the show is different from every other superhero show, and just what’s so funny about Lois Lane dying.

Schumacker says that moving the show, originally set at an insurance company — because what could be more opposite from the action-packed world of superheroes than actuarial tables? — to the R&D department of Wayne Security gave them a tech angle “that, in itself, leads organically into the comic book world,” while still allowing them to tell stories from the perspective of the everyman. “There have been a handful of print comics, historically, that have done this sort of thing,” he continues, but nothing in the world of television.

Vanessa Hudgens plays Emily, a newcomer to the big city whose positivity immediately creates clashes with the people at her company. Schumacker calls Emily an “idealistic, hopeful, optimistic, Mary Tyler Moore analog” and calls her boss, Van Wayne (played by Alan Tudyk), the “king cynic” in an office full of cynics.

Pudi plays Teddy, the company’s chief design officer, who sees himself as a kind of Steve Jobs but is often too concerned with the details to notice that the actual products are terrible. “People don’t necessarily get him,” says Pudi, and though that sounds something like his previous character Abed from Community, they’re worlds apart. “Abed was very in touch with his emotions,” though it’s hard to tell that from the outside. “Teddy, on the outside, looks like he knows who he is and is confident, but I think, deep down, he’s still trying to figure out a lot.”

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At the show’s beginning, Teddy and Emily butt heads, though Pudi says, “We very quickly realize that we can help each other,” and by the third episode, they learn how to work together. By contrast, Teddy and Ron (Ron Funches) have a long-established relationship that Pudi loves. “Ron is the chief of childlike wonder,” as Pudi puts it, and though they seem like polar opposites, “deep down, they’re basically the same person.” Pudi’s character has been beaten down by the world and his job, and “Ron is the part of Teddy that he fears releasing.”

Every superhero in the show is pulled from DC’s trove of, literally, thousands of characters going back more than 80 years. All the big names exist in this universe (which Schumacker calls “Earth-P”); according to the pilot, “The number one cause of workplace accidents is Superman crashing through office windows midfight”; one of the team’s products ends up being used by Batman to capture the Joker. It is a different universe from the one in Gotham, the movies, or any of the CW’s shows, though, so don’t expect to see familiar actors playing those roles.

In fact, since the show is set in Charm City — which Schumacker says is this world’s equivalent of Cleveland — it’s unlikely that you’ll see those characters onscreen at all. The heroes protecting this town are primarily from teams like the Global Guardians; Crimson Fox (Atlin Mitchell), who is in the first episode, is also a former member of Justice Leagues International and Europe. Going this route not only allows the show to have creative license with the characters but also adds a sense of legitimacy. Schumacker says they want to avoid the pitfall of sports movies, which, for example, create a “fake league with fake uniforms” because they can’t use “NFL.” “It always takes me out of it as a viewer.”

That authenticity is key for the audience as well as the cast. Getting to play with a real batarang was, for Pudi, “the most exciting thing as Teddy, as Danny, and as Abed. All three parts of me were equally excited by that.” Oddly, he hasn’t done much research into DC lore, but he has done a lot of research into actual design theory and says the craftsmanship of the batarang thrilled him on that level as well.

Pretty much any story that has been told in the DC world is available to tell again from this new perspective. At the time of the interview, Schumacker was deep into production on an episode “where the people of Atlantis come to visit our office as prospective clients.” They have a future script where one of the team falls in love with an evil henchman. He’s hoping to do a “day of no consequences” episode where the characters have eight hours to do whatever they want because Lois Lane dies and they know Superman will turn back time as he did in the first Christopher Reeve Superman film.

Pudi hopes they’ll get to play with Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth, which he thinks “Teddy would love/fear.” He would also like to get into one of the Batmobiles, or — the ultimate dream — “it would be super exciting if we could do a Fast and Furious crossover with the Batmobile. I’ll ask Justin Lin to direct it!” It sounds far-fetched, but in the world of Powerless, it’s just another day at the office.

Powerless premieres Thursday, Feb. 2, at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.