Every year on April 28, National Superhero Day is celebrated to honour superheroes, both real and fictional, and Disney is taking part in the festivities this year, premiering two brand new series about superheroes and supervillains: “Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion” and “The Villains of Valley View,” respectively.
Focusing on the superhero side of Disney’s celebrations, “Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion” centers around Violet Rodriguez (Disney starlet Scarlett Estevez), an everyday Mexican American teen, who is chosen by a magical luchador mask which transforms her into Ultra Violet, a superhero fighting crime alongside her luchador uncle, Cruz (J.R. Villarreal – “Akeelah and the Bee”), also known as Black Scorpion.
Although Cruz takes Violet under his wing to teach her the responsibilities of her special powers, she doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with him when it comes to his methods for capturing crooks. In the meantime, she must keep her superhero identity secret from her parents and her older brother Santiago (“Tiago”), as well as her friends and schoolmates. However, she does lean on one close confidante: her best friend Maya Miller-Martinez, who provides advice and assists with documenting Ultra Violet’s adventures on social media.
Estevez and Villarreal lead the all Latinx cast including Marianna Burelli (“Paramedicos” ), Juan Alfonso (“American Princess”), Brandon Rossel (“Fast Layne”), newcomers Zelia Ankrum and Bryan Blanco.
In anticipation of “Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion” all set to premiere on Disney Channel this Friday, June 3, and on Disney+ on Wednesday, June 8, CinemaChords’ Howard Gorman caught up with Estevez and Villareal to find out if Black Scorpion finds it tougher to save the world from a myriad of villains or to save Violet from herself…
