Sign in to your Polygon.com account “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.

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“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, episode 7] While Pace wasn’t familiar with Invincible before he was cast, he proceeded to read all of Kirkman’s comic book series so he could understand where Thragg is coming from (and where he’s going) as a character.

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The episode “Don’t Do Anything Rash” shows how Thragg took over Viltrum in a bloody purge after the rebel Viltrumite Thaedus (Peter Cullen) killed the old emperor.

Later, in the show's present, when the Coalition of Planets forces think that they are ambushing a weakened foe, they find even their best warriors are no match for Thragg’s might.

Image: Prime Video “I wanted to start playing him like a cool customer.

He's very calm.

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He's very measured in what he's trying to do,” Pace said.

“Thragg is strategic and desperate in this story ## Editor's Note Stay tuned for more updates as this story develops. Source: [Polygon](https://www.polygon.com/lee-pace-invincible-thragg-interview/)