After some alleged heated interest from other cable networks, Marvel Entertainment is continuing to keep their Marvel Cinematic Universe-set television shows in the ABC family, with half-hour comedy series, New Warriors being picked up for a 2018 debut on ABC subsidiary, Freeform. The show’s first season will span ten episodes.
New Warriors will mark Marvel’s first foray into half-hour comedy shows, despite a previous project, Damage Control, being set up at ABC that was originally planned to be the first half-hour sitcom set in the MCU. Plans for that show appear to have changed however, since it’s stalled with an undetermined fate, with the Damage Control department now apparently set to make their MCU debut in this July’s Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures collaborative movie release, Spider-Man: Homecoming.
New Warriors will star six young adult protagonists, likely around their early 20’s, who are trying to learn to be superheroes in a world that isn’t quite ready for them or their abilities. Five of these protagonists are still a mystery, though one has been formally confirmed by Marvel; Squirrel Girl, who predictably has yet to be cast. Squirrel Girl, a.k.a. Doreen Green, has begun to garner a considerable cult following among the Marvel Comics faithful, being an Enhanced that has the power to command legions of squirrels, along with possessing squirrel-like features herself, abilities that have made her one of the most deceptively powerful heroines in the Marvel Universe.
Originally, Squirrel Girl was a mutant, though her origin story was later changed to remove any natural mutation in her genes. This proved to be a blessing, since this alteration means that the character’s screen rights are able to stay at Marvel, and not have to go over to the Fox Entertainment Group, who has the live-action license to any and all noteworthy mutants in the Marvel Universe, due to their current ownership of the X-Men film rights.
New Warriors will likely follow another MCU-set series coming to Freeform in 2018, that being hour-long drama, Cloak & Dagger. Originally, Cloak & Dagger was meant to debut towards the end of this year, but was pushed back to 2018. ABC has since filled the void with confirmation that an Inhumans television series will premiere on the main ABC network in late 2017 instead, after originally debuting its first two episodes in IMAX theatres.
Keep summoning Eggplante for all major news and updates on New Warriors, and other Marvel Cinematic Universe projects.