Trivia / Ben 10 (2016)

• Adored by the Network:
  • In a strong contrast compared to the previous two series the reboot is getting lots of time on Cartoon Network. This is especially true in Europe. Lukewarm reviews and low ratings led to the opposite happening in a couple months, at least in the United States.
  • The character of Kevin 11 is loved by the network due to having marketable "evil" versions of Ben's alien forms plus a new alien Bashmouth, which led to an additional 12 episodes all mandated to feature Kevin being ordered for Season 3 at the last minute, and him showing up as a co-op option in the "Power Trip" video game despite having no bearing on that game's story whatsoever.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • Ben having a form based on Vilgax was something many a fan had hypothesized/created before it became canon to the reboot.
  • It was also a common theory since the original series that the Omnitrix was some kind of heinous imprisonment that wholly absorbed aliens. Vilgax being split from his power and it being stored in the Omnitrix seems reminiscent of this line of thinking, and later we see it proven even more with Glitch and Shock Rock.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Tara Strong almost didn't reprise the role of 10-year-old Ben. Yuri Lowenthal, who voiced teenage Ben in the classic series' three sequel series, auditioned for the role. While Tara got the role, he would later be cast as Vilgax and (starting in his 2nd appearance) Michael Morningstar.
• Creator's Favorite: Greg Cipes’ favorite alien is Stinkfly, to the point of being disappointed when the form was Put on a Bus in season 4.
• Executive Meddling: 12 extra episodes were ordered for Season 3, and all of them had to include Kevin and his alien forms for the purpose of toy sales. They're easy to spot due to the Badass Decay he undergoes in them compared to the other episodes he appears in, which was a carry-over from his Season 4 episodes that were already written and that had a more understandable reason for said decay.
• Fake Brit:
  • Roger Craig Smith, an American voice actor, voices Steam Smythe, who has a British accent.
  • Tara Strong follows suit, being an American/Canadian voice actress voicing IJ Crowling.
• Follow the Leader: Is made to resemble a closer look to other recent Cartoon Network shows like Clarence, Steven Universe, and The Powerpuff Girls (2016); and a Denser and Wackier type of humor similar to Teen Titans Go!.
• The Original Darrin:
  • After being replaced with Sean Donnellan in Ultimate Alien and Judd Nelson in Omniverse, Fred Tatasciore returns as Ben 10,000
  • After being replaced by Eric Bauza as Buzzshock in Omniverse, Tara Strong returns to voice Buzzshock like in the original series.
  • Similarly, Dee Bradley Baker also returns to voice Chromastone and Ampfibian for the first time since Alien Force/Ultimate Alien after being replaced by Eric Bauza and Yuri Lowenthal as them for Omniverse.
• The Other Darrin: Most of the entire cast from previous series have been replaced:
  • Gwen is played by Montse Hernandez instead of Meagan Smith or Ashley Johnson.
  • Tara Strong voices Charmcaster, rather than Kari Wahlgren, and replaces Grey Griffin as Rex's mother Violeta.
  • David Kaye:
    • Plays Max rather than Paul Eiding in the previous four series.
    • Voices La Grange from his second appearance onwards, after he debuted being voiced by David Sobolov.
    • Given that the narrator of the Alien World shorts is heavily implied to be Azmuth, this makes him the fourth person to play him after Robert David Hall, Jeff Bennett, and René Auberjonois.
    • Replaces Dee Bradley Baker and John DiMaggio as Humungousaur.
    • Replaces Bumper Robinson as Bloxx.
  • Roger Craig Smith:
    • Voices Diamondhead, replacing Jim Ward, Dee Bradley Baker, and Eric Bauza.
    • Replaces Fred Tatasciore, Dee Bradley Baker, and Eric Bauza as Way Big.
    • Also voices Milleous instead of Kevin Michael Richardson.
  • Hex is now played by Robin Atkin Downes, the voice formerly provided by Khary Payton.
  • Travis Willingham takes over for Cannonbolt, replacing Fred Tatasciore, Dee Bradley Baker, and David Kaye.
  • Drake Bell now voices Michael Morningstar instead of Wil Wheaton. In Season 2, Drake Bell gets Darinn'd by Yuri Lowenthal.
  • Frightwig, now a child, is voiced by Jessica DiCicco rather than Cree Summer. In "Speechless on the Sienne," Monste Hernandez does the role.
  • Greg Cipes replaces Dee Bradley Baker as Stinkfly, as well as replaces Michael Reisz and Charlie Schlatter as Kevin Levin, though he also voiced the character in Alien Force through Omniverse.
  • Todd Haberkorn voices Grey Matter, replacing Richard Steven Horvitz and Eric Bauza, as well as Tetrax, instead of Dave Fennoy.
  • Josh Keaton voices XLR8 and Acid Breath, replacing Jim Ward and Yuri Lowenthal for the former, and Dee Bradley Baker for the latter.
  • John DiMaggio replaces Jeff Doucette and David Kaye as Thumbskull, despite the latter being on the show playing Grandpa Max. His reprisal of Four Arms and Zombozo also results in this to their original series counterparts, voiced by Richard McGonagle and John Kassir respectively.
  • Rather than being voiced by Steve Blum or James Remar, this incarnation of Vilgax is voiced by Yuri Lowenthal.
  • Regarding Upgrade, he's been voiced by Tara Strong as young Ben and Yuri Lowenthal as a teen in the previous series. In this show, David Sobolov voices him.
  • Also within the series, Ryan and Simon were respectively voiced by Josh Keaton and Debi Derryberry in their first appearances. In their second appearances, Ogie Banks voiced both of them.
  • Dee Bradley Baker replaces John DiMaggio as Rath. Ironically, in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, Rath was one of the two aliens not to be played by Dee Bradley Baker. Then, in the video game, Ben 10: Power Trip, Pokémon: The Series TCPi dub actor Bill Rogers does Rath due to Dee Bradley Baker being busy, despite John DiMaggio being present as Four Arms.
  • Gust-o of the Weatherheads was voiced by Eric Bauza in his first appearance, Jeff Bennett in all of his further appearances in the series, and Josh Keaton for his cameo in the video game. Likewise, Jeff voices Hail-o in the series while Travis Willingham voices him in the video game.
  • Ben 10,000's versions of Heatblast and Four Arms in the original series previously retained Steve Blum and Richard McGonagle, who voiced their younger selves, but in the reboot, Fred Tatasciore (voice of Ben 10,000) takes over for both.
  • Vic Chao replaces Wally Kurth as Agent Six in the Generator Rex crossover special.
  • In Ben 10: Power Trip, aside from Rath as mentioned above, Troy Baker replaces David Kaye as Lord Decibel, even though David Kaye does Grandpa Max and Shock Rock.
  • In the Italian dub, Gabriele Patriarca replaces Daniele Raffaeli as Ben, albeit he already voiced him in the first live-action movie, Ben 10: Race Against Time. Going further, for a single episode he was further replaced by Riccardo Suarez.
    • Most of his aliens were recast too. Emiliano Reggente replaces Pierluigi Astore as Diamondhead, Edoardo Stoppacciaro replaces Daniele Barcaroli as Heatblast and Fabrizio Mazzotta replaces Federico Di Pofi as Grey Matter.
  • In the Japanese dub, the only voice actor who gets replaced is Max's one, as his original one, Kazuya Tatekabe, died years ago; he is replaced with Shinpachi Tsuji in his place.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Roger Craig Smith voices Steam Smythe, a wise, middle-aged villain. He's primarily known for voicing youthful heroes, including this series' Diamondhead.
  • Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Teen Ben in all three of the previous sequel series, plays an antagonist. Specifically, this series' incarnation of Vilgax. He also replaces Drake Bell as Michael Morningstar, another villain.
• Post-Script Season: Ben 10 Versus the Universe: The Movie, which concluded Season 4, introduced Azmuth and had Ben facing off against Vilgax, was produced as the Grand Finale, similar to how the original series ended. However, the network ordered an additional three 1-hour specials constituting a "Season 5" afterward.
• Production Posse: The show reunites many people who worked with Man of Action on the original Ben 10, Generator Rex, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Avengers Assemble
• Recycled Script: A few episodes recycle plots from the original series.
  • "Freaky Gwen Ben" has Ben and Gwen switching bodies, like in the episode "A Change of Face". The earlier part of that episode, where it was Gwen and Charmcaster switching bodies, was later replicated with "Charm School's Out".
  • In "Riding the Storm Out", Ben tampers with the Omnitrix and causes it to turn him into hybrids of his aliens, like the episode "Dr. Animo and the Mutant Ray".
  • "Screamcatcher" recycles the "trapped in a nightmare" aspect of its plot from "Perfect Day".
• Role Reprise:
  • Tara Strong as Ben and Buzzshock.
  • Dwight Schultz as Dr. Animo.
  • Dee Bradley Baker as Jetray, Goop, and Spidermonkey.
  • Fred Tatasciore as Ben 10,000 from the original continuity.
  • While not the original voices for the characters, John DiMaggio reprises his roles as Four Arms and Zombozo from Ultimate Alien and Omniverse.
  • Greg Cipes reprises his role as young Kevin, also from Omniverse.
  • For the Generator Rex crossover special, Daryl Sabara and John DiMaggio reprise their roles as Rex and Bobo, respectively.
  • All of the alternate Bens and their aliens are voiced by their original actors, with the exception of original series Ben's Heatblast and Omniverse Ben's Bloxx.
  • In the Japanese dub, Toshimi Kanno and Sayaka Maeda returns as both young Ben and Gwen respectively.
• Screwed by the Network:
  • In October 2017, it got very little screen time, averaging around 10 reruns per week. Ironically, the original Ben 10 got more reruns at the time.
  • The show also reruns on Boomerang, although as of 2018, it is still rerunning on CN.
  • A Sunday-Friday premiere bomb started airing on September 13, 2020... at 7:00 AM. No reruns of these episodes were aired either. At the very least, the batch of episodes were decently-advertised.
• Short Run in Peru: Was actually being aired on most Cartoon Network feeds worldwide long before the show made its debut on the American feed. Mainly due to the original show being much more successful overseas.
• What Could Have Been: Enough for its own page.
• Word of God: Duncan Rouleau has answered many fan questions on Twitter. See here for some examples.
• Writers Cannot Do Math: Shock Rock being claimed as the "11th" Omnitrix alien in the special two-parter seemed to be a pure marketing stunt. Gax was actually the 11th alien, before being re-absorbed by Vilgax and leaving him unavailable in the Omnitrix. In fact, if you want to get specific about the number of accessible transformations, Upgrade was killed off when Ben first rebooted the Omnitrix. Therefore, Shock Rock is more or less the new 10th.

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