San Diego Comic-Con usually takes place around this time every year, but for obvious reasons, the 2020 edition has been canceled. Instead, virtual panels are being hosted as online livestream events. Yesterday, there was one for a new ThunderCats series, ThunderCats Roar, and the most appropriate musical guest joined the call: Thundercat.
It turns out the musician (who pops up at around 8:45 into the video below) is actually involved with the new show: He voices the villain Grune The Destroyer and also wrote the song “Grune the Destroyer Song.”
During the panel, Thundercat explained how he came to love and name himself after the franchise, discussing how he was obsessed with the show and ones like at as a young child. His fascination with the show got to the point where Thundercat’s mother wouldn’t buy him toys of the show’s characters “because she genuinely thought I would worship them.” He said his love of the show was rekindled as a teenager, and he explained how he came to be known himself as Thundercat:
“I would be working with people like Erykah Badu […] I would always have a ThunderCats shirt on. I would always have that shirt on, and it was because it made me feel comfortable in my skin. That was my identity. But it wasn’t something I would call myself. It became a name that was given to me because in the middle of working on stuff, anytime somebody needed to find me, my friends would go, ‘Find the guy with the ThunderCats shirt. […] And it stuck. And by the time I met Flying Lotus, he was like, ‘Oh, I’ve heard of you. You’re Thundercat.'”
He then described how it felt to be involved with ThunderCats Roar, saying, “When this moment happened, it was genuinely like… it was overwhelming for me. It felt like life was full-circle. It felt like, ‘Whoa… wow. This is all I’ve ever wanted to do.'”
Watch Thundercat discuss the show below, and listen to “Grune The Destroyer Song” above.
