A new report alleges that Marvel TV is scrapping a number of projects it had in development as it shifts priorities and adopts a more traditional TV development cycle.
This report comes from Matt Grobar at Deadline. He reports, “Marvel Television has paused development on three projects: Nova, Strange Academy and Terror, Inc.”
Marvel has seemingly been looking at adapting Nova for nearly a decade. Back in 2018, Kevin Feige told ComicBook.com, “Nova is… if we have a big board with a bunch of characters that have more immediate potential, Nova is on that board.”
Furthermore, he revealed that Nova was in the original drafts for Guardians of the Galaxy, “Because of the connection to the Guardians universe, because there are more than one examples to pull from in the comics that are interesting. And you’re absolutely right, he was in the earliest drafts of the [Guardians of the Galaxy].”
It appeared the project finally had movement behind it in 2022 when Deadline reported that Moon Knight scribe Sabir Pirzada had been tapped to write a Nova series for Disney+.
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Following this report from Deadline, scooper Daniel Richtman provided details on what these projects were going to look like. As reported by ComicBookMovie.com, he noted that the Nova series “thrust Rider into the role of rebuilding the Nova Corps, just as Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave were invading, threatening to take over the universe. Rider would lead a squad of fellow Novas, including Sam Alexander and a handful of original characters in their 20s. The team behind the show had their sights set on a major name like Austin Butler for Rider. Glenn Close and John C. Reilly were slated to return as their Guardians of the Galaxy characters.”
As for Strange Academy, Richtman detailed, “The show would have centered on his efforts to train a new generation of sorcerers, including America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) and Zelma Stanton (Regan Aliyah). It was described as Marvel’s answer to Harry Potter and Wednesday.”
Finally, he detailed that Terror, Inc. “would have Terror, an immortal antihero who gains abilities by grafting the limbs of others onto himself. It was pitched as a full-on horror show for mature audiences. Word is, Terror was also slated to join the Midnight Sons film when that was in development.”
As far as Marvel’s shift in how it makes TV, Marvel TV boss Brad Winderbaum confirmed it when the studio announced it was creatively rebooting Daredevil: Born Again. He told The Hollywood Reporter back in October 2023, “We’re trying to marry the Marvel culture with the traditional television culture. It comes down to, ‘How can we tell stories in television that honor what’s so great about the source material?’”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit elaborated on what the shift at Marvel TV looked like, “Marvel is making concrete changes in how it makes TV. It now has plans to hire showrunners. … The studio also plans on having full-time TV execs, rather than having executives straddle both television and film. … It also is revamping its development process. Showrunners will write pilots and show bibles. The days of Marvel shooting an entire series, from She-Hulk to Secret Invasion, then looking at what’s working and what’s not, are done.”
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In an interview with ScreenRant in August 2024, Winderbaum elaborated on how Marvel TV was changing, “We're developing more than we make now, so we're actually have a few different things brewing that we might see through to at least a pilot script to see if we want to make it. But, yeah, there's a lot of opportunity out there, it's hard to choose favorites. I'm a fan, so I want to make struggles about freaking everything, but we're really being careful about what we choose to do next.”
He added, “I think it's about audience obligation and there's a sense that you need to watch everything in order to watch anything. We're trying to break that spell. We want it to be more like the comics. Are you an X-Men guy? Are you a Ghost Rider guy? Are you a Gwen Stacy guy? There's something for everybody, and you can go into the genres and tones that you want without feeling like you need to know every single thing about everything in order to enjoy.”
Winderbaum recently reiterated this strategy to Entertainment Weekly while promoting the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again series noting the aim is to get back to “comfort viewing reliability” and making “shows that last for multiple seasons.”
What do you make of Marvel scrapping these projects?
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I would just like marvel to stop wiping their T-wats all over everything. Let the boys be boys.