Cobie Smulders on 'Super Team Canada': 'Cool to be part of something that is made by Canadians, for Canadians'

Yahoo

20-05-2025

Cobie Smulders has expanded her superhero experience, going from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to voicing the superhero Niagara Falls in the animated Crave series Super Team Canada. In the show Niagara Falls, described as the "mighty maiden of moisture," stops bad guys by controlling water.
The 10-episode show, created by Emmy-winning brothers Robert Cohen (The Big Bang Theory) and Joel H. Cohen (The Simpsons), is about a team of six Canadian superheroes. Unlike what we see in the MCU, these superheroes are definitely not famous, but they still come together to save the world from evil threats.
Other stars voicing superheroes include Will Arnett as Breakaway, Charles Demers as Poutine, Brian Drummond as Sasquatchewan, Veena Sood as RCM-PC (Robotic Crime Management Polite Computer), Ceara Morgana as Chinook, and Kevin McDonald as the voice Canada's Prime Minister, who oversees the work of the superheroes.
Smulders highlighted that she agreed to participate in this show "pretty much immediately."
"I just loved it from the get go. I think it's such a great group of characters. It's such a funny concept, and I was excited to jump on board," Smulders told Yahoo Canada.
Instead of this being a show with Canadianisms, as Smulders described, the entire "landscape" of the series is Canadian.
"It's cool to be part of something that is made by Canadians, for Canadians," Smulders said. "The references in the show, ... they hit me pretty hard, because there are jokes and references from my youth that I thought only I knew."
One thing that had to be sorted out is exactly how Canadian each character should sound, with some superheroes having a more aggressive Canadian accent than others.
"We had discussions about, how hard do you want to push it as Niagara Falls. Because I feel like Breakaway, ... that accent is strong," Smulders said.
"And I think we decided somewhere in between, which is maybe my voice, the way I talk after I've had like two beers, and really just kind of letting the accent be a little loose. And maybe there will be a word or two that sounds different, but not trying to make it sound too comically Canadian. But just having a little colour to it."
What's interesting about working in animation is that Smulders gets to see the final product almost like an audience member herself. While the script isn't completely new to her, she gets to see how similar, or different, the show looks, compared to what she imagined in her head.
"It is truly so fun to see the finished project product on a project like this, because it's just all existing in your mind," Smulders said. "You're going through the scenes and you're kind of imagining what it looks like, but when you really get to see the amount of art and talent and creativity that goes into the drawing of this, it's really quite magical."
Notably, Super Team Canada is being released during a particularly tense time between Canada and the U.S., from the existing tariffs to U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to tariff movies produced outside the U.S..
That has caused some Canadians to think local a little bit more, and that can extend to entertainment.
While Smulders found great success in American productions, including How I Met Your Mother and recently appearing in the Apple TV+ hit Shrinking, the Vancouver-born actor still loves working in Canada, and hopes there are more Canadian projects made in the future.
"I have always been a very proud Canadian," Smulders said. "I've always wanted to work up here and love working with the crews up here, and love the content that comes out of Canada."
"So I hope that when the show comes out, which is the first original animated series that's been on Crave, I hope that just means that there's more coming."