Grendel, Based on Dark Horse Comics, Not Moving Forward at Netflix
Netflix has nixed its Grendel comic book adaptation, one year after granting it an eight-episode series order.
Hailing from Supernatural co-showrunner Andrew Dabb and starring Abubakr Ali (Katy Keene) as the masked vigilante from the award-winning Matt Wagner/Dark Horse comic books, the series was to follow Hunter Rose, a gifted fencer, writer and assassin who, in seeking to avenge the death of a lost love, goes to war with New York’s criminal underworld. Except then he realizes, “Why beat them, when you can join them?”
Dabb served as writer and showrunner and exec-produced alongside Wagner, Dark Horse Entertainment’s Mike Richardson, Keith Goldberg and Chris Tongue.
Per our sister site Deadline, Grendel, which had completed much of its filming but is not finished, might be shopped elsewhere.
The Grendel cast also included Jaime Ray Newman (Midnight Texas) as Jocasta Rose, Julian Black Antelope (Tribal) as Argent, Madeline Zima (Californication) as Liz Sparks, Kevin Corrigan (The Godfather of Harlem) as Barry Palumbo, child actress Emma Ho as Stacy Palumbo, Erik Palladino (NCIS: Los Angeles) as Teddy Ciccone, Brittany Allen (Falling Water) as Annabelle Wright, and Andy Mientus (The Flash) as Larry Stohler.
Back in a September 2021, comic book author Wagner had said, “I couldn’t be more thrilled about the Grendel saga, one of the longest-running independent comics series, finally being translated into live-action for the screen. Under the sharp guidance of showrunner Andrew Dabb, our incredible creative team, sure-to-be stellar cast and Dark Horse Entertainment have teamed with Netflix to produce this provocative adaptation that will bring my characters and concepts to an all new audience and yet still provide excitement and surprises for die-hard fans.
“I’m especially excited to see Abubakr Ali bring the character of Grendel/Hunter Rose to life,” Wagner added. “He has the charisma, style and vital edginess that I’ve been envisioning in the role for years.”
Did they shoot the series and then decide not to air it? Or was it cancelled in pre-production? The article is not clear on that.
Edited for maximum Pepsi Clear clarity.
Considering Netflix’s standards, this must’ve been quite the hot mess for them to pass on with the whole thing nearly finished…
Netflix kept going back with changes. The old “that’s exactly what we wanted, can you do it completely differently? ”
The lack of real star power probably didn’t help.
Almost already finished content? Seems tailor-made for Roku channel. Isn’t that where the Quibi stuff ended up?