Bryan Cranston feels a deep connection with his SuperMansion character, aging superhero Titanium Rex, albeit with one major difference.

“I don’t need boner pills,” he told Nerdist with a laugh. “Let’s just get that out right now.”

Crackle’s Emmy-nominated original stop motion-animated comedy series from Stoopid Buddy Stoodios returns for a second season full of dysfunctional superhero antics following the heroic misadventures of Rex’s well-intentioned group of imperfect superheroes. Along with the members of the League of Freedom, Rex will battle public backlash while a computer hack threatens to reveal some of their worst secrets. Starting off in a hole, the League does what they always do: get to digging. Throughout the new season, the heroes confront villains, invaders and even themselves as they attempt to become trusted champions of Storm City and humanity itself.

“I’ve never been a comic guy,” Cranston said when asked why he wanted to do a stop motion superhero comedy series. “The more you humanize superhero characters, the more they’re relatable. The more they have a vulnerable point, whether it’s emotionally or their superpower or whatever, we relate the loss of a superpower to our emotions. ‘I’m losing control. I’m losing my power, my own personal power.’ It’s fun to walk through that. If it didn’t have an interesting story, I wouldn’t be sitting here. But the idea of a household full of superheroes who are perhaps past their prime and trying to hold on to what’s left of their dignity or their abilities, that appeals to me. Superheroes shopping, doing household chores, this is a really good idea.”

In fact, Cranston was able to relate to Rex’s problem, but in an inverse way. His career has only gotten more relevant with age, which is the exact opposite of Rex.

“Our business is a little different [than superheroes],” he said. “And I’ll say for men too. It’s different for men. There’s more opportunities for men. There really is. I’m certainly the recipient of that good fortune and I’m appreciative of it. Had it never happened, I’d still be a working actor and be fine and not know what you’d miss. I don’t think life or this business owes me anything. You reap what you sow. If you work hard you have a better chance of producing something that you’re proud of. If you don’t, you won’t.”

Cranston’s most well-known role was ruthless meth kingpin Walter White, but he’s been able to have fun choosing projects like SuperMansion in life post-Breaking Bad.

“That’s a nice difficult position to be in,” he said. “The bar was raised with the quality of writing on that show and you want to see if you can match that anywhere you go, and I do. I want to make sure that what I do has a specific purpose and not just throwing a dart at something [to] keep busy. This is an example of just that. Good storytelling doesn’t have to be in the form of the classics. It doesn’t have to be revered by everybody. In fact, to me, the best storytelling is not universally loved by every single person. You water down the efficacy of the work itself. It doesn’t always rise.”

He paused, then continued: “This show works because of the hard work put in and because it’s relatable to people. That’s good storytelling. If it didn’t go well financially, if it wasn’t a hit for Crackle or Adult Swim, I wouldn’t be any less proud of it. Argo was a film that had a good story to it, and I had a great character. Very heroic. Could I have predicted its success or win the Oscar? No. You just look for well-written material and trust your instincts and hope for the best.”

An exciting new addition coming to SuperMansion season two is Community alum Yvette Nicole Brown as Portia Jones/Zenith.

“Portia is a talk show host,” Brown told Nerdist. “She’s got a bit of Oprah in her. She’s inspirational. And back in the day, she was a part of the League. She had a fight with Rex and left and she’s needed again. She has to decide if she wants to come out of retirement and join up with the League again. She’s tough and otherworldly and there’s this duality to her.”

Brown has racked up quite the nerd cred over the years, but how did she get involved with SuperMansion?

“I don’t have the ego or the confidence to ever reach out to a show that I love,” she said. “I just watch as a fan. Their casting director called to let me know that there was this great role coming up and I auditioned and to my surprise got it. I did like nine episodes in two days. I was like, ‘Let’s do it.’ And it was the two days before Comic-Con, where I was moderating five panels. It was a tight week for sure but it was fun. The timing was a big challenge.”

New episodes of SuperMansion season two will be released weekly on Crackle. What are you most excited to see from SuperMansion season two? Tweet me at @SydneyBucksbaum!

Images: Crackle