Sean Schemmel Takes Pride in Goku’s Backseat Role in Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero

August 22, 2022

During an interview with ComingSoon ahead of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero‘s release, the voice of Goku, Sean Schemmel, revealed how he feels about Goku taking a backseat in the latest Dragon Ball film.

When asked about Goku’s smaller role in Super Hero, Schemmel revealed he was quite happy with the decision:

“It’s a very, very comfortable sense of relief and pride. When I’m playing Goku, I don’t think from the perspective of, ‘I’m the lead, I’m carrying this show.’ To me, it’s an ensemble cast,” Schemmel clarified. “However, when you’re suddenly not the lead and not having to carry a lot of the scenes, you realize that you were, and then you start looking at the other people who are taking those parts and those roles, in terms of being the focus — Gohan, Piccolo, etc. — and then you’re hoping … you’re wanting them to ‘please don’t fuck this up because I’ve done it before.’ And then they went ahead and just killed it. I’ve told several other news outlets; I think this might be the best dub we’ve ever done.”

Schemmel then talked about how impressed he was with Chris Sabat and Kyle Hebert’s work on the film:

“And so the new cast members are killing it, Chris and Kyle are just killing it,” Schemmel said. “I can be very judgmental of art and nobody let me down. Actually, Kyle blew my mind. So did Chris, and that’s hard to do because I’ve known these guys 20 years. So I’m very familiar with a lot of their work. So for them to make my eyebrows raised in this performance was very gratifying for me and surprising. Not that I didn’t think they’d do great, but to take it to that level and make me go, ‘oh shit, yeah! You’re filling that void fantastically of Goku and Vegeta not being the focus,’ which is really thrilling for me. So I’m excited that I have enough of a part in the film that I get to be a part of it, but really, I’m just eating popcorn watching everything, you know what I mean? In reality and in the fantasy. So it was extremely exciting to see that. It makes me very happy and proud.”

“The Red Ribbon Army was once destroyed by Son Goku. Individuals, who carry on its spirit, have created the ultimate Androids, Gamma 1 and Gamma 2,” reads the official synopsis. “These two Androids call themselves ‘Super Heroes’. They start attacking Piccolo and Gohan… What is the New Red Ribbon Army’s objective? In the face of approaching danger, it is time to awaken, Super Hero!”