Kappa Force: exploring what's happening now through genre fiction
23Oct 2019.

Addison Heimann worked in theatre in Chicago. Then one day, “in the deep darkness of a depression that almost got me . . .  while binge watching old Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes until six in the morning, I dreamt up a crazy farce. An intersectional queer superhero force dedicated to saving the world and destroying evil frat bro scum.  I created a world I wanted to live in: a world in which a trans woman, an asian woman, a black woman, and a lesbian kick butt and take names.” 

The result is the new Revry Original series Kappa Force, which takes place at a fictional American university. It’s about Jen (Madeline Weinstein of Alex Strangelove), who is new on campus and almost instantly drawn into the superhero sorority. When one of the sorority sisters is murdered at the hands of a villain calling himself The Douche, the stability of the sisterhood, and the college, comes into jeopardy. 

“We made it for about $50,000 in Chicago,” says Heimann. “We  asked a lot of favours to make this thing happen. We couldn’t pay anywhere near a full rate, but our director knew the Chicago scene so she knew who to call.”

Other than Buffy, Heimann’s influence was Scream Queens. He’s very good at finding that comedic tone without sacrificing the action or the jeopardy. And of course, the Kappa Force are all over the spectrum. “I grew up on comic books. I knew I would make it subversive, because I wouldn’t want to watch something that didn’t have different queer voices. I can’t make things that aren’t inclusive.”

Heimann is working on lots of other ideas, including a show about humans interacting with artificial intelligence that would feature a girl in conversation with a computer waiting for her consciousness to be uploaded to an animatronic body, and something he refers to as ‘a gay Knightrider'. “Everything I write is genre fiction, which is a great way to explore what’s happening right now.”