Netflix may have canceled most of its Marvel shows, but that doesn’t mean they are leaving superheroes behind entirely. Having purchased Mark Millar’s Millarworld in 2017, they have their own comic book universe to play in and one of the first projects the streaming service announced was ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’, based on the generational superhero epic that Millar wrote, with art by Frank Quitely. In 2015, Millar announced that he was turning ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ into a feature film, but those plans have been reworked into an ongoing series.
Very little has been mentioned regarding the Millarworld properties since Netflix bought the company, but it looks as though ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ is moving closer to production as rumor has it Josh Duhamel is in talks to play the lead character Sheldon Sampson, a.k.a The Utopian, while Elena Kampouris may play his daughter Chloe.
In ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’, a group of enterprising individuals travel to a mysterious island in the 1930s and return with amazing superpowers. Sheldon Sampson becomes The Utopian and leads the team The Union for several decades. He has an unwavering respect for the US government and believes that even beings with great abilities are obligated to follow orders and conform to laws. Later in life, he becomes obsessed with making America great again restoring the US to its former glory.
As in most revisionist stories of this nature, Sheldon is essentially the Superman stand-in.
Though he is originally in love with a regular woman named Jane, after they are unable to conceive children, he winds up marrying the Wonder Woman of the story, Grace Kennedy a.k.a. Lady Liberty and they have two children, Brandon and Chloe.
Duhamel is probably best recognized for playing Colonel William Lennox in the ‘Transformers’ movies. He was also recently seen as Detective Greg Kading in ‘Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G.’. Reportedly, the role of Sheldon Sampson was offered to Pablo Schreiber (‘American Gods’) then Eric Bana (‘Dirty John’), who both passed.
Elena Kampouris is up for the role of Chloe Sampson, who inherited her parents’ superhuman abilities but is initially more concerned with being a celebrity and earning money through endorsement deals.
Kampouris can be seen in the Facebook Watch original series ‘Sacred Lies’. Before that, she appeared in the films ‘Before I Fall’ and ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2’ and NBC’s ‘American Odyssey’.
Reportedly, Carrie Coon, Morena Baccarin, and Lizzy Caplan have all passed on playing Grace/Lady Liberty, while James Badge Dale turned down the role of Sheldon’s brother, Walter Sampson/Brainwave.
Millar is developing the series with Steven DeKnight (‘Daredevil’).
With casting still at such an early stage, ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ most likely won’t arrive this year, but stay tuned for details as they emerge.
This follows the news that Sandra Bullock and Chris McKay are moving forward with another Millarworld project for Netflix, ‘Reborn’.
Were you a fan of the comics? What do you think of the casting so far?
Source: The GWW
