Kevin Smith has spoken to Lea Thompson about lending her voice to the upcoming ‘Howard the Duck’ animated series on Hulu. Thompson appeared in the flesh in the notorious 1986 box office bomb, as the film’s lead female, aspiring rock star Beverly Switzler. Smith is writing ‘Howard the Duck’ with animation vet Dave Willis (‘Aquateen Hunger Force’). This is one of four new adult-targeted animated series starring characters from Marvel Comics coming to Hulu, including ‘M.O.D.O.K.’, ‘Hit-Monkey’, and ‘Tigra and Dazzler’. After they all debut, the stars will appear in a team-up special ‘The Offenders’.
While not much information is available about these new toons yet, Smith took to Instagram to express his enthusiasm and to tease that he has already spoken with Thompson about a role on ‘Howard the Duck’ and that she “did NOT say no!”
Howard popped up in a post-credits scene in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, although no word has surfaced of any further plans for the character. But last June, it was learned that Thompson was actually meeting with Marvel to pitch a new ‘Howard the Duck’ film which she hoped to direct. In the fall, while attending Fan Expo in Canada, she added:
“It was the first Marvel movie, and now there’s a whole Marvel universe. And to put Howard the Duck in this Marvel universe when they have the special effects that can back it up would be amazing. I worked on the pitch for a really long time and I had the help of [modern Howard the Duck comic book creative team] Chip Zdarsky and Joe Quinones and they had done a run of Howard the Duck, the last run of Howard the Duck, and they put me in it, Lea Thompson. You guys would love the movie. It would do Howard proud.”
While the 1986 ‘Howard the Duck’ movie was a disaster and became one of the biggest punchlines of the ’80s, it has remained a cult favorite to many over the years.
Back to the animated series, Smith mentioned that he has seen preliminary test footage for ‘M.O.D.O.K.’ and ‘Hit-Monkey’, but it sounds as though all of these are in the earliest stages of development, so it will be some time– possibly over a year– before they see the light of day.
Check back for updates!