Squirrel Girl to Lead NEW WARRIORS on Freeform
[featured image: Marvel.com]
Hold onto your nuts, folks. Marvel has just announced that Squirrel Girl is coming to television.
The Hollywood Reporter first had the news that Freeform, which will be home to the teen drama Cloak & Dagger, has put in a straight-to-series order for New Warriors, a half-hour scripted comedy from Marvel, with Cougar Town‘s Kevin Biegel in talks to write the pilot and step in as showrunner.
“Freeform’s mission is to deliver incredible content to young adults and Marvel Television seamlessly aligns with that mission — we couldn’t be more proud to collaborate with them on Marvel’s New Warriors,” said Karey Burke, exec VP of programming and development at Freeform.
The series’ first season will be ten episodes, and will feature Doreen Green, also known as the increasingly popular character Squirrel — described as “tough, optimistic, and a natural leader”. She has the powers of a squirrel: acrobatic, can fight, and she can talk to squirrels. But her most important attribute is her faith in others.
From the announcement at Marvel. com:
“Marvel’s New Warriors” is about six young people with powers living and working together. With powers and abilities on the opposite end of the spectrum of The Avengers, the New Warriors want to make a difference in the world… Even if the world isn’t ready. Not quite super, not yet heroes, “Marvel’s New Warriors” is about that time in your life when you first enter adulthood and feel like you can do everything and nothing at once — except in this world, bad guys can be as terrifying as bad dates.
“Marvel’s New Warriors have always been fan favorites and now particularly with the addition of Squirrel Girl, they are Marvel Television favorites as well,” said Marvel’s Head of Television and Executive Producer Jeph Loeb. “After the amazing experience we’ve had with Freeform on Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger we can’t think of a better place for our young heroes.” Loeb and Jim Chory will again serve as executive producers.
Freeform’s Burke tells THR, “The more we got to know Marvel and the more comfortable they got with us as the home for their young adult IP, these conversations became easier. They started to see our strength with young adults and together we could create a pipeline for content that was specific to our audience that felt younger than what they’re doing at the other channels.”
Freeform’s target demographic is known as “becomers” — the younger crowd on the cusp of becoming adults, tweens, etc. With shows like Shadowhunters and now two Marvel properties, the cable network is past the point where they’re “dipping a toe in” with regard to genre fare.
Cloak & Dagger has been shooting in New Orleans with a planned release in 2018. New Warriors has a planned release in winter 2018. When asked about the schedule, Burke said, “We’re modeling schedules now as we head into the upfront [on April 19]. That is one alternative. Or we may stick with a comedy night and a drama night as originals that we’re doing now.”
Burke also acknowledges that discussions about casting have already included talk about Anna Kendrick and Shannon Purser: “Those names have come up! This network has made a lot of stars and we’re in a unique position with Squirrel Girl and Marvel. The character is such a calling card. I’m interested to see if name actresses feel right for it. ” Burke also confirms they have the rest of the team in place (characters, not cast), but he’s not allowed to say at this time.
So… this might actually now be a thing:
The Unbeatable @AnnaKendrick47 #SquirrelGirl pic.twitter.com/FcJjD3qElJ
— BossLogic (@Bosslogic) July 2, 2016
