What Space Racer From Invincible Season 4 Looks Like In Real Life

Spoilers for "Invincible" season 4, episodes 1-3 to follow.

The second chapter of "Invincible" season 4's three episode premiere — titled "I'll Give You The Grand Tour" — focuses on Nolan (J.K. Simmons) and Allen (Seth Rogen) traveling around the galaxy to recruit weapons and/or allies for the forthcoming Viltrumite War. One of those allies is Space Racer.

The Racer is a green-skinned, three-eyed alien who rides what looks like a hover motorcycle through space. He wears a yellow-and-purple space suit (indicating he can't breathe in a vacuum), but he possesses one of the most powerful weapons in existence: the Infinity Ray, a long-barreled gun that fires energy that can pierce anything, even a Viltrumite's skin.

Due to this, Nolan (who was still a loyal soldier of the Viltrum Empire at the time) defeated Space Racer a century ago and left him trapped under rubble in an asteroid. He's since gotten himself free, though, and after some convincing from Allen, Space Racer joins the anti-Viltrumite cause.

Space Racer is a being of few words, so you may not have been able to pin his voice. But rest assured that he fits right in with the esteemed voice actor cast of "Invincible." Indeed, Space Racer's voice belongs to Winston Duke, the actor most famous for playing M'Baku in the "Black Panther" films.

"Invincible" isn't even Duke's first voiceover superhero role. He voiced Batman in the first season of the audio drama "Batman Unburied," scripted by "Dark Knight" trilogy co-writer David S. Goyer. (Though Colman Domingo replaced Duke in "Unburied" season 2, Winston Duke has since put himself forth as the Batman for James Gunn's DC Universe.) To play Batman, you need an imposing voice. As Space Racer, Duke shows once more that he's got one.

Born in the Caribbean country Trinidad and Tobago, Winston Duke moved to the U.S. with his family during his childhood. (Though he's since become a naturalized Rwandan citizen.) After graduating from the Yale School of Drama in 2013, he had a recurring role on CBS' science-fiction crime drama series "Person of Interest."

Duke's first ever film role, and the one where most people know him from, was as M'Baku in 2018's "Black Panther," leader of Wakanda's Jabari Tribe. (In fact, Duke isn't even the only "Black Panther" actor in "Invincible" season 4.) The comics' M'Baku is a villain called the "Man-Ape," a depiction loaded with racist overtones. Duke's M'Baku was rewritten as a more honorable character who becomes a brother-in-arms with the Black Panther. He's been so popular that he returned in "Avengers: Infinity War," "Avengers: Endgame," "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," and will be back yet again in "Avengers: Doomsday."

It makes sense to get a Marvel star to play Space Racer, who is one of the most Jack Kirby-esque "Invincible" characters. His name and design evoke Kirby-created characters like Marvel's Silver Surfer or DC's Black Racer, a herald of death. The Infinity Ray, too, suggests the Ultimate Nullifier, the all-powerful weapon that the Fantastic Four used to cow Silver Surfer's master, Galactus, in "Fantastic Four" #50.

The role that cemented Duke's range, though, was in Jordan Peele's 2019 horror film "Us." Duke starred as Gabe Wilson, husband of Adelaide (Lupita Nyong'o) and a dorky dad to their kids. Duke is hilarious as Gabe, but in that same movie, he was also truly scary as Gabe's doppelganger, the imposing and largely silent Abraham. That range makes a role like Space Racer easy excellence for Duke.

"Invincible" is streaming on Prime Video.