By It saddens me to report that FX, Donald Glover, and would-be co-creator Stephen Glover, have parted ways with Marvel TV in a joint venture to create and produce a Deadpool animated series.
The project was announced in May of last year with a 10-episode order for the FXX channel. Donald Glover and his brother, Stephen Glover, are already co-writers for the FX series Atlanta, a show created by the former that has garnered no shortage of critical and audience acclaim. Though FX remains in business with Marvel TV on Noah Hawley’s drama Legion, the network cites “creative differences” as its reason for departing from the Deadpool project, stating:
“Due to creative differences, FX, Donald Glover, Stephen Glover and Marvel Television have agreed to part ways on Marvel’s ‘Deadpool’ project. FX and Marvel have an ongoing relationship through our partnership on ‘Legion’, which will continue.”
Floyd County, the animation house behind FXX’s Archer, was on-board to handle the animation’s production. Despite a target debut for this year, the series has had no active production and no scripts are known to have been delivered. Whether Marvel has any intention of further developing a Deadpool animated property with new writers remains unclear. It could be a waiting game; the comic franchise having created an R-rated live-action phenomenon for 20th Century Fox in 2016 suggests a desire for additional pause in anticipation for the success (or failure) of Deadpool 2 which releases on May 18th of this year.
Donald Glover is quite the busy body himself, with Atlanta’s sophomore season on the horizon (that he also stars in) and a co-starring role in the upcoming Solo: A Star Wars Story film which opens on May 25th. Last year Glover co-starred in Marvel’s Spiderman: Homecoming and is set to also provide the voice of Simba in Disney’s upcoming live-action version of The Lion King. Though having planned a retirement from his music career as Childish Gambino, Glover won a Grammy for his song “Redbone” from the album Awaken My Love. The multifaceted successes and perhaps hectic schedule of Glover’s career could ultimately also contribute to the decision to part ways on the Deadpool project.
Though nowhere in the same ballpark as the absurd and mature comedy stylings Floyd County, FX, and Marvel TV most likely had in mind for an animated Deadpool series (especially given the source material), one would have to look no farther than Disney’s Ultimate Spiderman series, episode “Ultimate Deadpool”, to get a glimpse of how well the character Deadpool lends to modern cartoon sensibilities, you know, if you’ve never read a Deadpool comic book.
Here’s hoping with a new turnout of creative leads and some reconsideration, a Deadpool animated series might finally make it off the ground floor.