tca 2018

In the End, It Was Marvel That Killed Donald Glover’s Deadpool Animated Series, Says FX CEO

Donald Glover. Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

There are certain shows, gone too soon, that you’ll always wonder about, specifically Donald Glover’s animated Deadpool series for FX. When news of the show’s demise first emerged back in March, the Atlanta star made it clear he personally very much wanted to move forward with the passion project, which he had written with brother Stephen Glover. “I wasn’t too busy to work on Deadpool,” he said at the time. According to FX CEO John Landgraf, however, it was out of the network’s hands. “Marvel controls the IP and the decisions around the IP,” he said while at TCA yesterday. “It was their decision not to go forward with Donald and Stephen’s version. I personally liked it.”

While Donald Glover’s Deadpool will likely never see the light of day, Landgraf predicts you will see Ryan Reynolds’ saucy little super-violent anti-hero as an adult cartoon series somewhere sooner or later. “I think that Marvel will revive it, because they have the rights. They own the IP and they have the rights to do an animated adult series based on any of the X-Men characters, and based on Deadpool specifically,” Landgraf explained to Variety. “They didn’t want to do the show that Donald and Stephen [Glover] wrote. We would have done the show that Donald and Stephen wrote, but it wasn’t our decision. When Marvel decided not to do that show, we parted company with them as did Donald and Stephen. Now it’s totally up to them [Marvel] whether they hire someone else to do a different show.” So, no pressure, whoever is going to write the next iteration of Deadpool the animated series. And good luck!

FX CEO Says Marvel Killed Donald Glover’s Deadpool Cartoon