Here’s some exciting news: Gerard Way, who’s become one of the most exciting voices in comics over the last few years, could be getting his first big budget live action adaptation. First, let’s do a quick recap of the story so far…
Way – who’s also the lead singer in My Chemical Romance – made his breakthrough into comics back in 2007, when his gothic superhero series Umbrella Academy first hit shop shelves. A TV version of this story, which focuses on a dysfunctional super-team, has been talked about for a while.
Jeremy Slater (who previously worked on The Lazarus Effect, 2015’s Fantastic Four, TV’s The Exorcist, and Netflix’s Death Note) has been working on an Umbrella Academy TV script. He told Collider in 2016 that the search was on to find a home for the series…
“I definitely wrote the pilot for The Umbrella Academy. I think it’s really exciting. I think it’s really surprising and funny. I took the job because I’m such an immense fan of what Gerard [Way] and Gabriel [Ba, the artist] did with that book. It’s one of those things where I would rather be the guy to screw it up than sit back and let someone else come in and do the bad adaptation. So, I was really adamant about taking the job, but the only way I was going to do it was if I could make it weird and make it true to the spirit of the book. There’s a lot of weird shit in The Umbrella Academy, and it would be very easy to sand down some of those weird edges and make it more familiar to American audiences. I’m fighting very hard to not let that happen. We’re shopping around the pilot, at the moment. We’re trying to find the right home for it and trying to find someone as excited as we are.”
Now, it seems that a home has been found. Splash Report is claiming that Netflix has picked up the series, citing insider sources as the origin of the story.
Splash Report’s report claims that an official announcement could be made at this summer’s San Diego Comic Con.
Of course, a scoop like this coming from an unnamed source could go either way. But the prospect of Way and Ba’s vision being faithfully adapted by Netflix is too tantalising to ignore. Fingers are crossed at our end.
(By the way, if you want to hear Way talking about his passion for comics, check out this recent interview by Kevin Smith and Marc Bernardin.)
As more news comes to light, we’ll be sure to let you know…