Earlier this year, it was announced that Marvel was developing a slew of adult-themed animated shows for Hulu. One of those was ‘Tigra & Dazzler,’ which was deep in development. That development is now halted, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The original showrunner, Erica Rivinoja (‘Girls Trip,’ ‘The Addams Family’), along with her entire writing staff have been dismissed over creative differences with studio. This happened very late in the process. Many scripts were complete, as were outlines for others. They were 15 weeks into a 20 week production cycle.
Hulu and Marvel are still committed to making the show, but will search for a new showrunner and a completely new writing staff. It is expected that executive producer Chelsea Handler will still be involved, and voice one of the titular roles (likely Dazzler).
‘Tigra & Dazzler’ is part of a mini Hulu corner of the Marvel Universe that will also contain ‘M.O.D.O.K.’ from Patton Oswalt, Josh Gordon & Will Speck’s ‘Hit-Monkey,’ and Kevin Smith’s ‘Howard The Duck.’ They will then come together to form ‘The Offenders’ in a forthcoming miniseries. These are still overseen by Jeph Loeb, who used to be in charge of the entire Marvel TV division.
It is not uncommon for there to be “creative differences” with adaptive properties like this. But it is strange for it to happen so late in the production cycle. Either things were going fine and suddenly went off the rails, or somebody wasn’t paying attention.
Adult-themed animation is a huge market. Things like ‘The Simpsons,’ ‘Rick and Morty,’ and ‘Family Guy’ are among some of Hulu’s most popular options. It makes sense that Marvel would be committed to make this work, instead of bailing on it all together like they did with the live action ‘Ghost Rider’ series that was planned.
Marvel needs new properties on TV, as ‘Agents of SHIELD’ and ‘Runaways’ are both coming to an end, and Netflix’s entire slate of Marvel shows were cancelled. While there are are several shows in development for Disney+, the slate is not as crowded as it used to be. ‘Tigra & Dazzler’ should be a fun show once they get everything figured out.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter