EW reports that Marvel Television has hired John Ridley (American Crime, Red Tails, 12 Years A Slave) to help create a new Marvel series that will air on ABC. Ridley won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay from his screenwriting work on 12 Years A Slave. There was a fan demand to see him write and direct Black Panther, so I’m curious if this will be just as high-profile.
No word on what the show will be about but is said to focus on “reinventing an existing character or property”. I’m not sure what that exactly means but we’ve already listed a couple of shows we’d like to see developed for ABC including Drew Pearce’s The Runways which seemingly is one of the show ideas I think John Ridley could do well with.
This news is on the heels that Marvel is also developing a TV series spin-off to Agents of SHIELD which will also air on ABC, for fans disappointed with the existing series felted a bit letdown by ABC moving forward with that instead of something fresh. I highly doubt that Ridley would get involved with a spin-off series, where there is talk of reinvention.
I think there’s a strong possibility we could be getting something in the realm of The Thunderbolts or another property on the same rating level as Agent Carter and SHIELD. I think it’s safe to say they’ll be keeping more mature characters like Punisher, Blade, and Moon Knight out of the conversation, since they are prime for introductions and solo series in the Netflix MCU.
SOURCE: EW