Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: 13 Facts Behind the Disney+ Series
Executive producer Laurence Fishburne is a lifelong Marvel Comics fan. “I am what Stan Lee would refer to as a True Believer.”
The new Disney animated series Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur features the heroic adventures of 13-year-old genius Lunella Lafayette and her sidekick—which is a Tyrannosaurus rex that she yanked out of the past. Lunella, who lives with her parents and grandparents in the Lower East Side of New York, serves as the neighborhood’s superhero. The series is bright and bold and surprisingly musical—and has way more history to it than you might expect.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur was developed by long-time Marvel Comics fan (and legendary actor) Laurence Fishburne and Kim Possible producer Steve Loter. Fishburne says, “We are people who really, really love animation, from the very beginning of our lives. So, it’s just a joy for us to be creating this kind of show, which is a show like we’ve never seen before.”
The series stars Diamond White as Lunella and Fred Tatasciore as Devil Dinosaur, along with the voices of Libe Barer; Alfre Woodard; Sasheer Zamata; Jermaine Fowler; and Gary Anthony Williams. The all-star season one guest voice cast includes Alison Brie; Andy Cohen; Daveed Diggs; Maya Hawke; Jennifer Hudson; Method Man; Cobie Smulders; and Wesley Snipes.
Below are 13 facts around the series to help you appreciate it. We’ve also got video playlists below that include all the songs, complete episodes, preview and more. Enjoy!
Related: Watch the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur show on Disney+
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Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: 13 Facts Behind the Disney+ Series
#1 Devil Dinosaur was created by comics legend Jack “King” Kirby
Devil Dinosaur is a Marvel Comics character created by the amazing Jack Kirby (1917-1994)—one of the most important creators in the history of comic books. Making its debut in Devil Dinosaur #1 (1978), the original series found the red Tyrannosaurus living in “Dinosaur World” and hanging out with his ape-like friend Moon-Boy.
The original comic only ran for nine issues, but Devil Dinosaur has over the years appeared in other comics. (And eventually relaunched in a comic series with a new kid partner. More on that in a bit.)
In case you don’t know how big a deal Jack Kirby was: For decades, he worked at several comic book companies (most notably Marvel Comics and DC Comics), and created or co-created many of the greatest comic book characters in the world. Kirby was behind the likes of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk, Ant-Man, Challengers of the Unknown, the New Gods (including Darkseid, Mister Miracle, Big Barda and more), Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth, O.M.A.C., giant monster Fin Fang Foom, Doctor Doom, Kang the Conqueror and so many more…
In 1987, Kirby was one of the three inaugural inductees of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was posthumously named a Disney Legend because so many of his comics creations have impacted Disney’s blockbuster Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Jack Kirby Awards and Jack Kirby Hall of Fame were named in his honor.
Related link: Get the original Jack Kirby version of Devil Dinosaur from Amazon (affiliate link)
#2 Moon Girl was created by Brandon Montclare, Amy Reeder and Natacha Bustos
Lunella Lafayette—who also goes by the name “Moon Girl”—was created by writers Brandon Montclare and Amy Reeder and artist Natacha Bustos. Lunella is a 9-year-old African-American young lady who daydreams and loves to invent. She is also astoundingly smart—apparently a bigger genius than Marvel Comics’ other geniuses, described as the smartest character in the Marvel Universe. She is the new partner with Devil Dinosaur, with whom she shares a mental link due to being an Inhuman.
Lunella first appeared in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #1 (2015). The idea started with editor Mark Paniccia who, along with editor Emily Shaw, had hired Montclare and Reeder to pen a new series with Devil Dinosaur set in the present day.
They came up with the idea of Devil Dinosaur interacting with a girl and fell in love with the idea of working with a hero who wasn’t a “regular cape-and-tights superhero.”
Amy Reeder told Gizmodo her inspiration for the character:
“She was just, originally this character who was kind of like Inspector Gadget, but a little less campy—a little more knowing what she’s doing? You know, having gadgets come out of her backpack or whatever, and roller-skating around the city and solving crimes kind of things. And she was black. And then [Marvel] said a girl—the only difference was I made her younger, and that made her even cooler. She’s somebody who’s kind of awkward, a bit off the beaten path and people are not aware of her.
“Like, the fact that she’s so outlandish—she’s relatively off people’s radar. I mean, Lunella off-hand, she’s this kid genius, but she’s trying to get into good schools, nobody seems to really know that she’s around and there’s this frustration she has about this sort of thing. She doesn’t have many friends at school—really any friends at school—and so she’s just kind of an oddball. I think it really plays up for a good mixture with Devil Dinosaur, because she needs a friend who is the type of person who she can identify with, while maybe, it could be somebody who’s the complete opposite?”
Meanwhile, artist Natacha Bustos told Comics Beat that she found the character a relief from the norm of other typical superheroes. Bustos was primarily inspired by the clear diversity that Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur promoted, further comparing the character Lunella to herself.
Related link: Get the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2015-2019) comics collections from Amazon (affiliate link)
#3 Executive producer (and legendary actor) Laurence Fishburne is a longtime Marvel Comics fan—including the original Devil Dinosaur comic book
Famed actor Laurence Fishburne has been in lots of stuff—you’ve probably seen him on screen. Maybe you saw him in The Matrix or the John Wick movies. Or you saw him in the DC Comics movies as Perry White or in the Marvel Comics movies as Bill Foster (who becomes Giant-Man in the comics). Or you may have seen Fishburne in TV shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation or Hannibal or Black-ish.
Well, now he’s one of the executive producers of Marvel’s Moon Girl and Dinosaur. He also plays The Beyonder (a cosmically powered being introduced back in Marvel Comics Secret Wars.)
“I have been a lifelong Marvel fan,” Fishburne told ABC Audio. “I am what Stan Lee would refer to as a True Believer.”
He told them that The Beyonder is unlike any character he has played before. “You know, when Steve [executive producer Steve Loter] first showed me the design of the character, I loved it. I was like, ‘Oh, that’s super cool.’” He adds, “Never did I imagine that I would wind up singing.”
Fishburne says the whole process with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur has been just a joy. “You know, as a fan of animation, you know, as a student of, like, people like [voice-over legends] Mel Blanc and Daws Butler, it’s really kind of a dream come true to be not just executive producing the show, but to be acting in it, as well.”
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur - The Beyonder EXCLUSIVE CLIP
#4 The show’s creators were also inspired by the Miles Morales Spider-Verse movie
The Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Disney series pays homage to exec producer Loter’s time growing up in New York in the ‘80s and ‘90s, in the early days of graffiti art. As far as he’s concerned, this was before the area was redeveloped—when poetry, creativity, music, art, books, and imagination were still active.
“Laurence and I connected early and talked about the vision of the show and what it should look like,” Loter told Animation World Network. “And Laurence is a huge comic book fan, so we used that as a springboard for the visual styling, particularly the linework on the characters and the overall look of the show. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was a huge inspiration for us. It really blew the doors wide open to do superhero animation that looked really specialized and unique.”
But Fishburne and Loter, who serve as executive producers on the series with Helen Sugland, also relied on a lot of New York artistic benchmarks to find the “flavor” of New York they wanted to capture.
“We had a lot of conversations about backgrounds and about the environment,” shares Fishburne, “ the color palette, and all of these textures, like graffiti, for example, as one of the elements in our backgrounds and textures for New York and the Lower East Side. As a lover of animation and all the great Warner Bros. characters—Super Friends, Hong Kong Phooey, The Flintstones–my career as an artist has led me to this place.”
Fishburne adds that the show is for parents, kids, and grownup kids that may not have kids of their own. Loter notes that since the show is complementary to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel fans will see a couple of MCU characters in the show, some that are “really deep cuts in Marvel Comics from the ‘70s.”
#5 Moon Girl shares the star’s own experiences growing up as a black young lady
The Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Disney series has an all-female writers’ room. Not only do they provide a stronger background for the show’s lead character, but they want the show to focus more on young Black girl empowerment, teaching viewers that it’s cool to be smart. They also hope to share valuable lessons on social and economic challenges that have disrupted many U.S. neighborhoods like Bushwick in Brooklyn, New York.
Actress and singer Diamond White, who plays Moon Girl, told Forbes why representing young black girls in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur was so important to her: Growing up, she didn’t see cartoon characters who looked like her…
“There’s specifically an episode about Lunella (AKA Moon Girl) getting her first perm and that was something that I brought to the team and said, ‘Hey, I have a list of all these things I grew up having or going through as a black girl, can we incorporate some of these things?’ And they were like, ‘Yeah!’ And that episode about the hair really came to light in that.”
#6 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur is so…musical
One of the features of the new animated TV series is that it is full of catchy songs. (It helps that the lead character is voiced by a singing star Diamond White.)
Walt Disney Records has released Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Original Soundtrack), with songs from the first season of the show. The album includes the theme song “Moon Girl Magic” written and produced by executive music producer Raphael Saadiq (Lovecraft Country, Insecure, Underground, Black Nativity) and performed by series star Diamond White. The album also includes catchy songs like “My Hair Is a Mood” by Jane Handcock, “Borough Bully Rap” by Josh Keaton, Diamond White and Fred Tatasciore, “The Beyonder” by Laurence Fishburne, “Feelin’ Me” by Cleo Mac, “Can’t Be Tamed” by Blush and lots more.
The soundtrack is now available to stream or download on Amazon and any other major digital music services. A (green) cassette version is also available.
You can catch the theme song below, or scroll down a bit more to listen to the whole soundtrack in a video playlist…
“Moon Girl Magic” (Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Opening Theme)
Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (Original Soundtrack) playlist
#7 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur teamed up with Ms. Marvel
The first volume collecting the original Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comic book series, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: The Beginning, features an appearance from Ms. Marvel.
Ms. Marvel is Kamala Khan, a superheroine who is Marvel’s first Muslim character and South Asian American personality with her own comic book. In the Marvel Universe, Kamala is a teenage Pakistani-American from Jersey City, New Jersey with body-morphing abilities. (Did you catch her series on Disney+?)
In this arc that’s been collected, Lunella has been so busy worrying about the Terrigen Cloud turning her Inhuman, she might instead fall prey to…Cosmic Cooties?! Because when a new boy moves to town from far, far away, he’s oddly interested in her.
Meanwhile, the most wanted T. rex in NYC is running out of places to lie low—a problem that won’t get any easier when our darling duo undergo a body swap! It’s a big change-up that will see Luna spending a freaky Friday (or whatever day it happens to be) as Devil Dinosaur, and vice versa!
Will Luna evade capture? Will DD get a passing grade? And who exactly is Moon Girl’s new 9-year-old archnemesis, Kid Kree?
Luna’s got a huge future in the Marvel Universe, if only she can survive the present!
Giant lizards! Inhuman heroes! Alien armies! This book has it ALL!!!
Buy Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: The Beginning from Amazon (affiliate link)
Related: Ms. Marvel Actress Is An MCU Fan
#8 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur teamed up with Ironheart
In the second volume collecting the original Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comic book series, Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur: Full Moon, Moon Girl and Ironheart get together. Marvel Comics asks, “There’s room for two young, black, gifted girls in the Marvel U, isn’t there?”
In the comics, Ironheart—Riri Williams—is a young technology genius who is a very young female counterpart to Iron Man. Ironheart joined the MCU in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and will soon star in her own upcoming Disney+ series.
#9 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur crossed paths with the Korean-American Totally Awesome Hulk
Another young genius in the Marvel Universe, teen Amadeus Cho was originally known as the Totally Awesome Hulk. (Yes, the Marvel Universe has lots of Hulks. Live with it.) Amadeus now goes by the name Brawn.
The two collected volumes of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur mentioned above also include appearances from Cho...
In his first appearance (originally seen in Moon Girl issue #4) there’s a dinosaur loose in an elementary school—somebody call for backup! Enter Amadeus Cho—Totally Awesome Hulk/monster hunter… But can Moon Girl’s brains and Devil Dinosaur’s brawn take down a HULK?!
In Cho’s second appearance (originally seen in Moon Girl issue #14), Lunella Lafayette has always been the smartest person in the Marvel Universe, but now she’s gotta prove it! There used to be another guy at the top of the list, but he’s traveling apparently. Good thing his best pal BENJAMIN J. GRIMM (AKA The Thing) is here to defend his pole position!
Buy the collected editions of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur from Amazon
#10 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur became members of the Fantastic Four (well, in a way)
In the third volume collecting the original Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comic book series—Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur: Bad Buzz—Lunella meets up with members of the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer, and even the latest version of Galactus!
As a big fan of the Fantastic Four, I’m currently reading the complete 700-issue series from the beginning. But since I’m still not caught up with the present day, I have no idea what happened to the FF before they appeared in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #27…
With Devil Dinosaur returned to his own time, Lunella has had to carry on saving the day on her own. And with Reed and Sue Richards still MIA (?), the Human Torch and the Thing have also suddenly found themselves as half of a super hero team.
So, what has Lunella learned from Ben and Johnny? How have they influenced her as her? Marvel talked with writer Brandon Montclare about the arc.
“Human Torch and Thing look to Moon Girl to continue the Fantastic Four legacy is a big part of the story,” he said. “What all three have in common is a recently broken family. Moon Girl has returned Devil Dinosaur to his prehistoric home. Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman are lost, leaving only half of a Fantastic Four. So they all get what the others are feeling—there’s no shortage of empathy. But families take time.”
Montclare says another part of the story is Moon Girl becoming integral to the Marvel Universe. “She’s the smartest person in the world,” he says. “That has consequences, and expectations to live up to.”
Oh—and once Moon Girl and the Torch and the Thing form the Fantastic Three, there’s a another cosmic being who shows up and even Galactus is all, “This is big.”
And by the end of the arc there’s a surprise addition to the group…
#11 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur has teamed up with Miles Morales Spider-Man, as well as the Avengers and the X-Men
In 2022, as Marvel Comics launched Lunella and her T-rex in a three-part series of team-ups with other members of the Marvel Universe, including Spider-Man, the Avengers and the X-Men. The Moon Girl Team-Up one-shorts were written by Mohale Mashigo.
“Writing Moon Girl is a dream come true,” Mashigo said. “Lunella is fun, quirky, smart and full of energy. I’ve enjoyed seeing her get out of her comfort zone and shine even brighter.”
All three one-shots had cover art by Alitha E. Martinez. The art for Miles Morales & Moon Girl #1 was penciled by Ig Guara. Avengers & Moon Girl #1 was penciled by Diogenes Neves. X-Men & Moon Girl #1 was penciled by David J. Cutler.
Get the collection Moon-Girl Team-Up: Endangered Species from Amazon
#12 Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur are back in a new comic book series
In December, Marvel Comics kicked off a brand-new Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comic book series. Marvel welcomed Nigerian American novelist Jordan Ifueko as the writer of the series, and Mexican artist Alba Glez as the penciler. The cover artist has been Ken Lashley.
Ifueko is an author of fantasy and YA fiction. Her debut novel, Raybearer, was influenced by Ifueko’s knowledge of West African culture. The novel is set in a world that draws from her Nigerian heritage and incorporates a twenty-first-century twist for her young adult audience. She has also published a sequel, Redemptor. Netflix is adapting the series for television.
Related link: Get the new Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2022-2023) comics from Amazon (affiliate link)
#13 Believe it or not, Devil Dinosaur crossed paths with Godzilla
For a wonderful block of time in the 1970s, Marvel Comics had the rights for Toho’s Godzilla stomping through the Marvel landscape. Over the course of several issues, Godzilla interfaced with S.H.I.E.L.D., the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the Champions, among others. During one story arc, Godzilla was smaller than normal—and then sent back through time and space to appear in Devil Dinosaur’s world. Marvel no longer has the rights to Godzilla, but you can get an old collected edition of Marvel’s Godzilla comics here (affiliate link).
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur video playlist with episodes, clips, previews and more…
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