Freedom Fighters: The Ray
A housing advocate gains light powers to fight Nazis on Earth-X.
Freedom Fighters: The Ray is an American animated web series developed by Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, premiering on December 8, 2017, on The CW's streaming platform CW Seed. Based on the DC Comics character Ray Terrill, the series follows a housing rights advocate who gains light-based powers and becomes part of the Freedom Fighters on the dystopian Earth-X. It is part of the Arrowverse franchise, also touching on Earth-1, a parallel universe from Arrow, The Flash, Vixen, and Legends of Tomorrow.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Action
- Adventure
- Science fiction
- Superhero
- Based on
- Ray Terrill
- Jack C. Harris
- Joe Quesada
- Voices
- Russell Tovey
- Jason Mitchell
- Dilshad Vadsaria
- Composer
- Daniel James Chan
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Seasons
- 2
- Episodes
- 12
Facts from the source article.
Cast and characters
Russell Tovey voices Ray Terrill / The Ray, a public interest advocate who gains light-based powers from his Earth-X counterpart and joins the Freedom Fighters on Earth-X; Tovey also voices that Earth-X counterpart, who died fighting Overgirl. Jason Mitchell voices John Trujillo, a co-worker who helps Ray learn about his powers, and also voices his Earth-X counterpart Black Condor, a Freedom Fighter. Dilshad Vadsaria voices Jenny Knight, another co-worker, and her Earth-X counterpart Phantom Lady, also a Freedom Fighter.
Production
The series was announced in August 2016 by The CW for a 2017 debut on CW Seed, with executive producers Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim and development by Blue Ribbon Content. The lead character was planned as gay, and the network sought an actor to voice him with potential live-action appearances. The series drew inspiration from Grant Morrison's Multiversity comic book series. Guggenheim stated there was a specific reason for the title, to introduce the Freedom Fighters and Earth-X, noting Morrison's idea that the Freedom Fighters consist of minorities targeted by Nazis—women, gay men, Jews—and that the series is an origin story for the Earth-1 Ray. Earth-X is a world where Nazis won World War II and the New Reichsmen rule. In September 2017, Russell Tovey was announced as the voice of Ray Terrill. The series is set before the 2017 live-action Arrowverse crossover 'Crisis on Earth-X'. Guggenheim noted continuity mix-ups and inconsistencies because the crossover was conceived after Freedom Fighters was written, and he did not fully agree with fellow executive producer Andrew Kreisberg on how tightly the series should tie in; Guggenheim hoped to address these with a comic book. The series was not originally intended as a prequel but was meant to release before the crossover; however, after deciding to feature The Ray in live-action, casting Tovey required design changes and extra time, making a pre-crossover release impossible.
Reception
Oliver Sava of The A.V. Club gave the first three episodes a 'B' rating, noting the story's interesting structure but that it makes The Ray feel like a supporting character in his own show. Sava praised the conflicts in Ray's personal life, largely unexplored in the superhero genre, and commended Tovey's performance in capturing Ray's anxiety about coming out. Luke Y. Thompson of Forbes gave a favorable review of the Blu-Ray release, calling it the most emotionally stirring of the DC animated movies he had seen and praising the animation for its cel-shading on CG that gives vistas depth.
Arrowverse
Russell Tovey appeared as The Ray in the 2017 Arrowverse crossover 'Crisis on Earth-X', which also featured additional concepts and characters from Freedom Fighters. In November 2019, DC announced two tie-in comic books for the 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' crossover, focusing on The Ray, Felicity Smoak, Nyssa Al Ghul, and Wally West, with the first released in December 2019 and the second in January 2020.
More in Television Series by Warner Bros. Animation
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced