Like Chloe and Hutch, Jupiter’s Legacy character Brandon is having a tough time at being a hero. Not only is he destined to be the leader of a group of young superheroes. He’s the legacy of the Utopian, the stronger and most popular superhero the world has ever seen. And unlike his sister Chloe, who doesn’t care about a superhero destiny, Andrew Horton’s Brandon cares and aspires to be something he’ll never be able to reach.
In many ways, Brandon doesn’t know what he’d do without trying to be like his father. It’s the only destiny he’s ever known and to contemplate anything else would break anyone. That’s especially true when you consider how seriously he takes the code while considering that the world is an ever changing thing that requires changes to be made lest you be left behind by those that want progress.
We got a chance to talk to Andrew Horton about his character Brandon, the changes to his character from the comic, and taking on his first big job. And instead of bogging this down with the usual lineup of interviews, we thought we’d go for 5 things we learned about him and his character Brandon on Jupiter’s Legacy!
1. Brandon aspires to be like his father, even as the world is changing.
“He aspires to be his father. And in the present day, the younger generation are finding that the code feels outdated and maybe some of the ideals that have been upheld for so long and have been just…idolized…is that a word? Well, they were put on a platform, they aren’t necessary with keeping how they want to see The Union going forward.”
2. His Brandon is more complex.
“For Brandon, what particularly changes his opinion, without giving too much away, is the fact that there’s a big event within the show, it’s a matter of life or death for his parents, and he chooses to save them at the expense of someone else’s life. And that fundamentally changes him. It changes his parents opinions of him. It changes his peers perspective of him as well. And it really makes him question, “Well, what’s worth more? My parents and my friends or someone who is out to take us all down?”
3. He did a lot of preparing for the role.
“In terms of preparation, that was physical…I spent a lot of time in the gym to get bigger for the part because you want to look like a superhero as well as pretending to be one. I broke down all of my scenes and did something called “intentioning.” You write down sort of what motivates you in that scene and why. And I found myself putting together certain playlists to make certain scenes as well to get me into a particular emotional state should I need it. But also reading the comics before and having to prepare to see the journey that Brandon goes on.”
4. His Brandon is younger in many ways.
“He kind of sees the world with rose tinted glasses, I suppose. So, to be playing that required me to play maybe slightly younger than my actual playing age as well, which was fun. To them develop and to mature more as we go forward.”
5. His character’s relationship with his sister bleeds into real life.
“Elena’s a much more experienced actor than I am. And to get to work with someone else’s expertise and to have that coming into these scenes is amazing. This is my first big job. So, to be working with actors of such a high caliber and then have them raise your own game…as Chloe is trying to help Brandon, Elena helped me to raise my performance. So there’s nice little bleeds from real life to the screen.”
Jupiter’s Legacy is set to release May 7th on Netflix.