Marvel's 'New Warriors,'Ordered Straight-to-Series at Freeform Update: Won't air on Freeform

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Marvel is expanding its relationship with Freeform and getting into the comedy space.

In a competitive situation with other cable and streaming outlets bidding, the younger-skewing Disney-owned cable network has handed out a straight-to-series order for New Warriors, the comic book powerhouse's first 30-minute live-action comedy. Cougar Town and Scrubs alum Kevin Biegel is near a deal to pen the script and serve as showrunner on the comedy.

The 10-episode comedy will launch in 2018 and marks Marvel's second straight-to-series order at Freeform. It will join drama Cloak and Dagger at the Tom Ascheim-led cable network. The latter, starring Olivia **** and Aubrey Joseph, is not expected to premiere until winter 2018. Casting is expected to begin shortly.

New Warriors revolves around 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. With Freeform focused on a group dubbed "becomers" — those experiencing a series of firsts in life including first loves and first jobs — New Warriors explores the journey into adulthood, except in this world, they're not quite super and not yet heroes and the guys can be as terrifying as bad dates.

The series will feature Marvel fan-favorite "Squirrel Girl" (aka Doreen Green) as a totally empowering fan girl who is described as tough, optimistic and a natural leader. Doreen is confident and has the powers of a squirrel: she's acrobatic, can fight and talk to other squirrels. Her most important trait is said to be her faith in people and ability to teach them to believe in themselves.

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 programming and development at Freeform.

New Warriors hails from Marvel Television and ABC Studios' cable arm ABC Signature. Marvel head of TV Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory will exec produce alongside Biegel.

"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," Loeb said. "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."

New Warriors comes as Marvel continues to expand its TV footprint. In addition to ABC's Agents of SHIELD — its first live-action scripted series — the comic book company also has The Inhumans (a straight-to-series drama set to debut in Imax theaters in a groundbreaking deal) set to debut in the fall on ABC. Beyond that, Marvel has a slate of shows at Netflix including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and mini-mashup The Defenders as well as The Punisher. The company also just scored a second season for FX's X-Men take Legion and has a Matt Nix pilot in the works at Fox with Amy Acker attached as well as a take on its beloved Runaways, starring Gregg Sulkin.

Biegel, meanwhile, has been a longtime Marvel and Squirrel Girl fan. His credits include The Real O'Neals andEnlisted. He's repped by UTA.

For Freeform, New Warriors joins a slate that also includes Baby Daddy, The Fosters, Shadowhunters, Stitchers, Switched at Birth, Young and Hungry, Beyond, Famous in Love, Alone Together and The Bold Type.

Below, Burke talks with The Hollywood Reporter about what to expect from New Warriors as well as how it fits in at Freeform
Marvel's 'New Warriors,' With Squirrel Girl, Ordered Straight-to-Series at Freeform (Exclusive)

Burke talks with The Hollywood Reporter about what to expect from New Warriors as well as how it fits in at Freeform.

How competitive was this?

It was super competitive as everything is right now. We were already in business with Marvel on Cloak and Dagger, which was our first foray with them. We had chased Squirrel Girl before Cloak and Dagger and Marvel had said they would let us know when they were ready to do something with it. Our head of development wore her Squirrel Girl hat in the pitch, which may have put us over the top. We've been longtime fans.

What makes this the right show for Freeform?

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. I wanted to be in business with Marvel when I first got here but I didn't want to chase them just to chase them. It was important to both of us to find the right characters that felt like they would speak directly to Freeform's audience. The Avengers wouldn't work here but the about-to-be-Avengers works here.

How will New Warriors fit in with the Freeform brand? What does this mean for older, aging multicam shows like Baby Daddy and Young and Hungry? Are you making a single-cam push?

I love Baby Daddy and Young and Hungry and believe in multicam comedy. I believe these single-cam broader and ballsier concepts in comedy can live alongside those. It may be that we do another night or that we have a night of branded comedy that starts multicam and goes to single-cam. But I believe we can have both. This represents an evolution. It's not that we're shifting away from something, but toward something that is important. It's louder. Cable comedies, the hallmark ones, have been single-camera. They've been more conceptually distinctive. Knowing that was one of our strategies, this was an easy reach for us. We have another single-cam that we're starting production on, Alone Together, from Andy Samberg and his company. These shows feel like they belong together. We are a network for young adults but we're proud we're No. 1 with young women and we want to find characters who speak to them. There's a reason we chased Squirrel Girl: she embodies all of that.

Is the plan for Cloak and Dagger still winter 2018? Will these shows launch at the same time? Could they air on the same night? Maybe Alone Together and New Warriors leading Cloak and Dagger?

Yes, still winter 2018 for Cloak and Dagger. But that's not a bad idea. 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. Or we could not pair them together and have a Marvel comedy on the comedy night and Cloak and Dagger as part of the drama night.

Marvel likes to say that "everything is connected." Will Cloak and Warriors be connected the way, say,Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter were?

It's a great question. If you know these two properties, they're not particularly connected. There are many degrees of separation with where they fall in the Marvel universe. But anything is possible with Marvel. Their tones are so wildly different. Cloak is this angst-filled achingly beautiful heartfelt romantic drama. And Squirrel Girl is a balls-out comedy.

What was Kevin Biegel's take on the property?

We were big fans of Enlisted and were excited when Marvel put him together. Marvel and ABC Studios had made that marriage before it came to Freeform. He has a great love for all the characters that are populating the show around Squirrel Girl. He has a deep respect for Squirrel Girl. Her greatest weapon is her optimism — and this is a character who could easily be made fun of — but she's written so lovingly that we were thrilled when he was packaged with it. When he came in and pitched it, he understood her importance in the world and as hopefully an iconic heroine for audiences.

A few actresses have been vocal about wanting the role of Squirrel Girl — Anna Kendrick and Stranger Things breakout Shannon Purser. Are you looking for an established actress?

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.

What can you say about the other characters who comprise the New Warriors?

You'll have to wait and see. We know who they are but I'm not at liberty to say.

Netflix created its own Marvel universe with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage, and then the super mashup with The Defenders. In success, is there a way New Warriors would lead to spinoffs in sort of the reverse of what Netflix has done?

Absolutely. The characters they've chosen are all really singular and could each carry the show that they're on. They're bound together as a band of underdogs for as long as we choose with this show but it's conceptually tailor-made for spinoffs.
 
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Clark Wayne

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Looks like Freeform going in on the superhero wave. With PLL ending this year they definitely need a new hit.
 

Emoryal

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Looks like Freeform going in on the superhero wave. With PLL ending this year they definitely need a new hit.
:what: that still ain't over yet
and are any of these shows going to be good?
Marvel doing an awful lot
 
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Find out who made the cast of Marvel Television's first live action comedy and see custom comic art!
“Marvel’s New Warriors” is a new comedic live-action adaptation of the popular Marvel comic featuring young adult heroes. This marks Marvel’s first foray into comedy for a television series. “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. The network has ordered ten 30-minute episodes slated to debut in 2018.

The New Warriors were created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz when they first appeared in the THOR comic book series in 1989. They proved to be so popular that one year later, they were featured in their own series by Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley. Since then, The New Warriors and their line-up have undergone many changes including the fresh and innovative take by Zeb Wells and Skottie Young on which the television series is based.

“Marvel’s New Warriors” is co-produced by Marvel Television and ABC Signature Studios. Marvel’s Jeph Loeb (“Marvel’s The Punisher,” “Marvel’s The Defenders”), and Jim Chory (“Marvel’s The Punisher,” “Marvel’s The Defenders”) serve as executive producers. Kevin Biegel (“Cougar Town”) serves as showrunner and executive producer.

New-Warriors-HR5b15d.jpg

Characters clockwise from top: Zack Smith (Microbe), Dwayne Taylor (Night Thrasher), Craig Hollis (Mister Immortal),
Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl), Deborah Fields (Debrii) and Robbie Baldwin (Speedball).


The following characters will be featured in the series:

Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl)
Superpower: “The powers of a squirrel, the powers of a girl” (is acrobatic, strong, can fight, can talk to squirrels)

Doreen is a totally empowered fangirl. She is a natural leader—confident and tough, but not innocent. Doreen is bouncy and energetic and her greatest quality is her optimism… She has faith in others and inspires people to believe in themselves. She also takes her pet squirrel, Tippy Toe, everywhere.

Craig Hollis (Mister Immortal)
Superpower: Cannot die. Ever. Maybe. So he says.

The team troublemaker and lothario… Craig is kind of like “The Most Interesting Man Alive,” except he’s more cocky than confident and at times, charmingly grumpy. Although Craig’s superpower seems amazing, he hasn’t made use of it at all—he’s lazy and figures if he has all the time in the world to learn how to fight, what’s the rush?

Dwayne Taylor (Night Thrasher)
Superpower: None

Dwayne is a local celebrity “hero” with his very own YouTube channel. Brilliant, strong, noble, and maybe a bit full of himself, Dwayne is a shameless self-promoter and entrepreneur. But he also deeply believes in justice — at least his version of it. Dwayne hides the fact that he comes from a really rich family because he’s afraid he’ll lose his street cred.

Robbie Baldwin (Speedball)
Superpower: Can launch kinetic balls of energy

Robbie grew up watching Quinjets take off from Avengers Tower and loves the idea of being a hero. He’s an impulsive and immature people-pleaser with a misplaced sense of confidence. Although you would think throwing kinetic balls of energy would be awesome and effective – his are completely out of control.

Zack Smith (Microbe)
Superpower: Can talk to germs

Zack is a shy hypochondriac whose ability nearly makes him a telepath — the germs tell him where you’ve been, what you ate and who you hung out with. It’s impossible to keep secrets around him. He’s a big sweet guy the team takes under their wing, and they help him find and grow his own confidence.

Deborah Fields (Debrii)
Superpower: Low level telekinetic; trickster
Deborah is proud, funny and quick witted. Confidently out as a lesbian, Deborah has experienced deep loss in her personal life as a direct result of super “heroics.” She can take care of herself, or at least says she can. She’s the one who calls people on their BS and has no fear of putting her opinions out there
 
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