John Ridley (’12 Years A Slave’,’American Crime’) is known for serious drama and has started to open up about his mystery Marvel project for ABC. The Writer/Producer was tapped nearly a year ago to develop a series for the network and we haven’t heard much about it since that time. With the success of ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ and ‘Agent Carter’ ABC has been taking a light-hearted approach as opposed to Netflix’s ‘Daredevil‘ and ‘Jessica Jones‘ but with Ridley on board, we might be seeing a change of direction.
While as normal with anyone involved with Marvel he hasn’t been giving any real details, he has opened up a little about working with the studio:
“I grew up reading graphic novels, which back then were comic books. I’ve written some. I have kids who, with as much social impact that American Crime or 12 Years A Slave has, they could not care less. They’re just at that age. Back in the day, when I was growing up with things like Star Wars and Superman, they were quality work. We’ve seen really good things that are based on these fantastic universes. And I can’t talk much, at all, about it, but when Marvel and ABC approached me about the project, it felt like a good fit.”
Another person coming into a comic filled universe who enjoys the genre has me excited much as I was when actor Stefan Kapicic joined ‘Deadpool‘.
So what kind of show can we expect from Ridley? Previous rumors had both ‘Cloak & Dagger’ and ‘Ms. Marvel‘ pop up. While The first of those two would be right up his alley, I would expect that with The CW’s success for DC crossovers that we would see something that would fall more in line with ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’. Ms. Marvel could be a great fit with how The Inhumans have risen to prominence on the show but it feels almost too much of a carefree character for the kind of work he would be known for. That being said, if he did tackle everyone’s favorite new superhero I would have no complaints at all!
Shortly after this time, a Mockingjay spinoff had been rumored though I think the network would want to create something that would be more superhero orientated that could fit with crossovers.
My guesses outside of Ms. Marvel? I could see an Inhuman inspired show with the direction that they’ve been going but with Marvel Studios still wanting to make a ‘The Inhumans’ movie and the future of TV and cinematic crossovers up in the air, I don’t know if I would count that one in quite yet. Sadly a Hawkeye show isn’t in the cards for the same reason as he is a long standing S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with a completely stand alone series in his own right. If the show wanted to eventually have a cosmic twist an idea could be to introduce Wendell Vaughn as Marvel Boy who was once a member of the S.H.I.E.L.D. program and would eventually become Quasar. He had many Earth adventures before heading into cosmic territories. Another thought is that The Avengers Initiative began as a S.H.I.E.L.D. program so why couldn’t another one be somewhere in the files that hasn’t been launched? We know from ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ that there are a ton of gifted individuals that have already been identified. With Cairo having been mentioned here a Moon Knight series could also be on the table. He’s worked with the agency in the past though I would imagine that he would be a much better fit for the Netflix Marvel shows.
With ABC already tackling comedy with the upcoming ‘Damage Control‘ series that they have in development I’m pretty sure we can bet that this will be still be more inline with what Ridley is known for with crossover potential to both ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ and quite possibly ‘Damage Control’ as well. The earlier mentioned Ms. Marvel would actually be a good fit on crossing over with both series.
Are you excited to see John Ridley still working on a Marvel show for ABC? Which heroes do you think he might be tangling with? Share your thoughts below Tue Believers!
Source: Collider.