Derrick J. Wyatt

The contents depicted in this article belong to the real world and not any continuity.

Derrick J. Wyatt
General Information
Date of Birth	August 10, 1972
Date of Death	December 16, 2021
Status	Deceased
Affiliations	Cartoon Network Ben 10: Alien Force Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Ben 10: Omniverse
Occupation(s)	Art Director Character Designer Showrunner

Derrick James Wyatt (August 10, 1972, Traverse City, Michigan – December 16, 2021) was the art director and one of the lead creatives/showrunners for Ben 10: Omniverse.

A Galvan character based on him appeared in the show.

Role in Ben 10: Omniverse

As the art director for Omniverse, Derrick oversaw all the character, prop and background design and color. He was included in casting decisions, and he liased with Bandai. He was involved in the story meetings which included coming up with plots, creating new characters, and deciding how old characters were reintroduced, and where the arcs would go.

According to Matt Wayne "Hope you're aware how much Derrick is the person to ask about Omniverse! He comes up with a great deal of every episode and is present at every story meeting. And of the four of us who sit with the writer to "break" every Omniverse episode, Derrick is the one who knows all the OS continuity best. Many entire episodes have been his idea, and he's better at names than me. [...] Plus, Derrick's in charge of the character design".

Production was set up such that he was involved in the story meetings. This was modeled after Transformers Animated. In the previous Ben 10 shows, artists were not actively involved in the story planning. Derrick would also sit in during recording sessions, sketching the voice talent's roles for future ideas.

Matt Youngberg, Matt Wayne, Charlotte McDuffie and Derrick J. Wyatt were the showrunners of Ben 10: Omniverse, with Youngberg being the head-showrunner.

Death

Tragically, Derrick passed away on December 16, 2021 due to a heart attack. His death was announced on December 26, 2021 by his friend Josh Perez. He is survived by his parents and his sister.

Designs Created

Ben 10: Alien Force

• Attea
• Serena
• Bellicus
• SevenSeven
• Milleous
• Raff
• Prior Gahlil

Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

• Kwarrel
• Patelliday
• Ma Vreedle
• Pretty Boy Vreedles

Ben 10: Omniverse

• Alton Alabaster
• Bloxx (with Steven Choi)
• Shocksquatch
• Upchuck
• Grey Matter
• Echo Echo
• Ball Weevil
• Way Big
• Frankenstrike
• Humungousaur
• Kickin' Hawk
• Ditto
• Dr. Psychobos
• Azmuth
• Professor Paradox (with Chap Yaep and Chris Hooten)
• Eon (with Chap Yaep and Chris Hooten)
• Ben 10,000 (with Chap Yaep and Chris Hooten)
• Pa Vreedle (with Brianne Drouhard)
• Pretty Boy Vreedles
• V.V. Argost (with Steven Choi)
• Wildvine (Gweniverse) (with Chap Yaep)
• XLR8 (Gweniverse) (with Chap Yaep)
• Diamondhead (Gweniverse) (with Chap Yaep)
• Cannonbolt (Gweniverse) (with Chap Yaep)
• Kevin's Omniverse Flashback Mutation (with Chap Yaep and Thomas N. Perkins IV)
• Kevin's Omniverse Mutation (with Chap Yaep and Thomas Perkins)

Trivia

• Derrick attributed much of his own art style to the work of Glen Murakami and Bruce Timm.
• Derrick had been a fan of the show since the Original Series, having watched it and Alien Force and collected the Bandai toys. He and Matt Youngberg both often discussed what they would do with the franchise prior to joining the crew for Omniverse.
  • Derrick also worked on Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, albeit mostly just doing freelance work. For example, he did concept art for Eatle and designed SevenSeven.

Derrick's extensive Galvan toy collection

• Derrick was an avid toy collector and owned toys of Ben 10 characters throughout the Classic Continuity.
  • Derrick's favorite figure from the Omniverse toy line was Patelliday's.
  • Amongst his collection were a few unreleased figures.
• Derrick reviewed most of the Omniverse figures in various stages of production. Sometimes, he made notes to Bandai to make the toys be more on-model. He also contributed to some toy-exclusive designs, such as Toepick's tentacle covered face.
• When asked about the most fun thing to design when working on Omniverse, Derrick stated that he liked designing the civilians and other new characters based on Ben's aliens the best. He also liked visiting their home worlds, even if it was a lot of work.
  • Although others on the crew had their own goals, but whatever came out was really what it was about for Derrick. He also wanted to freak out fans of Gwen and Kevin's relationship.
• Derrick's favorite Omnitrix alien was Grey Matter. His favorites from Alien Force, Ultimate Alien, and Omniverse were Echo Echo, Armodrillo, and Ball Weevil.
• Derrick's favorite Pokémon was Koffing, whose design would serve as the basis for Gutrot.
• Derrick's favorite characters from Alien Force and Ultimate Alien were Argit, Magister Patelliday, and Centur Squaar.
  • Derrick's favorite character from Omniverse was Azmuth.
  • Derrick's favorite of Kevin's mutations was the one featured in the flashback portion of Weapon XI: Part 2.
• Derrick's favorite episodes from throughout the Classic Continuity were Ben 10,000 for the Original Series, X = Ben + 2 for Alien Force, Double or Nothing for Ultimate Alien and Universe vs. Tennyson for Omniverse.
  • Derrick's top 5 favorites episodes of Omniverse were Universe vs. Tennyson, The Frogs of War, Rad, And Then There Were None/And Then There Was Ben, and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Ben World.
• If Derrick were to have an Omnitrix of his own, his aliens would include Grey Matter, Upchuck, Humungousaur, Ditto, Bullfrag, Frankenstrike, Ultimate Goop, Ball Weevil, Squidstrictor, and Big Chuck.
  • Other aliens he had considered having include Echo Echo, Juryrigg, Walkatrout, Whampire, and Antigravitesla.
  • The only outliers are Ultimate Goop, as Ultimate Forms can only be accessed using an Ultimatrix, and Big Chuck, as alien fusions can only be accessed using the Biomnitrix.
• Despite the show being over, Derrick designed numerous Omniverse designs in 2020 and 2021.
  • Derrick collaborated with his friend Josh Perez on livestreams where they made recolored aliens as if they were used by different characters. Some original aliens also came out of the livestreams, such as Alien Z, Decimus Prime, Trunk Man, The Darkness and Archfiendzarro.
  • As a third-party commission, Derrick designed Omniverse versions of Spitter, Portaler, Antigravitesla, Chamalien, and Bob the Blob.
  • A GoFundMe was later made to get Derrick to design a series of Omniverse models, most of which were recolors. Some of these goals included 11-year-old versions of Ghostfreak and Frankenstrike, 16 and 15-year-old versions of Jetray, original aliens Squirtapiller and Snark Tanque, unproduced aliens Decagon Vreedle and Ventrilosquid, alternate versions of Frankenstrike belonging to Albedo, Mad Ben, and Nega Ben (the latter being named The Electric Corpse), and Fasttrack. The fundraiser succeeded in its goal of $5000. However, due to Derrick's unexpected passing, a planned model of Rex Salazar was never finished.
• While he enjoyed undoing the retcons that Dwayne McDuffie and Glen Murakami made for Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, as those aspects were not in line with the continuity of the Original Series, Derrick believed that those details should have just stayed true to the Original Series so that he would not have had to go through the trouble of changing them back.
• Derrick came up with new names for species and planets the same way Matt Wayne does, looking up related scientific terms that sound interesting to him and putting them together in a way that sounds right.
  • When asked if there were any part of the show he could have done differently, Derrick answered that there were characters, species, and planets he would like to have explored.
• Derrick created this page, after being asked to by Tenbennyson.
• An ideal crossover with Omniverse that Derrick had in mind would be with the 2011 Thundercats animated series.
• An ideal species that Derrick would have liked to add into the Omnitrix would be the Gelfling.
• An ideal creature from Scooby-Doo lore that Derrick would have liked to add as an alien into the Omnitrix would be the Space Kook.
• When asked on which horror icon he would use as a basis for an alien, Derrick replied Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise.
• When asked on which X-Men character he would use as a basis for an alien, Derrick replied Jubilee.
• Derrick tried to get Cartoon Network to make an encyclopedia for Ben's aliens similar to the Pokédex from the Pokémon franchise, but they weren't interested.

External Links

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Ask.fm

See Also

• Crew's Unofficial Artwork