The culling of existing Marvel TV projects that originated under the old regime of Jeph Loeb and Isaac “Ike” Perlmutter continues. The latest victims are two adult-aimed animated series that were in development for Hulu– ‘Howard the Duck’ and ‘The Tigra & Dazzler Show’. These were announced almost a year ago, along with ‘M.O.D.O.K.’ and ‘Hit-Monkey’, with plans for all four to cross over in a special called ‘The Offenders’, a play on Netflix’s ‘Defenders’ which brought together the stars of its four solo Marvel shows, ‘Daredevil’, ‘Jessica Jones’, Luke Cage’ and ‘Iron Fist’. The decision to scrap them is said to have come from Marvel, not Hulu. (Both companies are now owned by Disney.)
‘M.O.D.O.K.’ and ‘Hit-Monkey’ are still a go. Just days ago, we received an update on ‘M.O.D.O.K.’, with the announcement of the voice cast, fronted by Patton Oswalt, who has been attached to this project since it was first announced. There hasn’t been any news on ‘Hit-Monkey’, but it must be coming along well behind-the-scenes, which is why it was spared.
RELATED: Patton Oswalt Leads The Voice Cast Of Hulu’s ‘M.O.D.O.K.’
In early December, it was announced that Hulu had fired the entire writing team behind ‘Tigra & Dazzler’, but plans were still underway to retool the show. Talk show host/comedian Chelsea Handler had been attached from the beginning and was expected to remain as a producer and the voice one of the two main characters, even after the shakeup.
Like ‘M.O.D.O.K.’ and ‘Tigra & Dazzler’, ‘Howard the Duck’ had a big name attached– filmmaker Kevin Smith. Just one month ago, Smith reported that ‘Howard’ was coming along “so far, so good.” Guess not, huh?
To be honest — and this isn’t a dig — Kevin Smith always has so many projects in the works that a huge chunk of them tend to fall by the wayside, so this isn’t a massive shock. He is currently working on a new ‘Masters of the Universe’ anime series for Netflix, so he might be focusing all of his attention there.
Howard the Duck is a popular B-List (C-List?) character and has already appeared in two movies– ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’, so he is likely to pop up again elsewhere.
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‘The Offenders’ is likely off, too, since half the shows that would have fed into it are gone. And honestly, this doesn’t bode well for the two surviving shows. Again, they originated under the Loeb/Perlmutter regime. Presumably, they weren’t axed because they were further along in production (just a guess), but it’s probably safe to assume they also don’t fit the Marvel mold being set up by Kevin Feige (primarily at Disney+) and could very well only last for one season each.
The same may be true of ‘Helstrom’ a live-action Marvel show that is currently in development for Hulu. It’s very likely that it will also last for just one season.
Marvel Studios has its own animated series in the works for Disney+, ‘What If…?’ which should premiere sometime this year. That series is tied directly to the movie universe and is for all ages.
Are you disappointed that ‘Howard the Duck’ and ‘The Tigra & Dazzler Show’ have been canceled?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
