‘Deadpool’ Animated Series Loses FX And Donald Glover Over Creative Differences
Last May, FX’s sister network FXXgave a straight-to-series orderfor aDeadpoolanimated series that had actor, writer, director, producer, comedian and Grammy-winning R&B recording artistDonald Gloverattached as showrunner, executive producer and writer. However, after working on the project for nearly a year, both Donald Glover and FX have left the project due to creative differences.
News of theDeadpoolanimated series canceled comes fromVariety, who confirmed that FX, Marvel and Donald Glover have all parted ways on the project. However, this doesn’t appear to create a rift between FX and Marvel because they will still collaborate on the FX seriesLegionfrom Noah Hawley.
FX reportedly said “creative differences” were the reason for the shake-up, but it’s not clear where those differences came from. One would think that FX would get along with Donald Glover since they have quite a lucrative relationship collaborating on the Emmy-winning comedy seriesAtlanta. Plus, Marvel and FX have been working together onLegion. And on top of that, Donald Glover had a role in the Marvel-producedSpider-Man: Homecoming. So what happened here?
One possible explanation, albeit an entirely speculative one with no evidence to support it, might be the continuing development with 20th Century Fox being purchased by the Walt Disney Company. Maybe Donald Glover and FX wanted to go for an edgier animated series than Marvel Television was willing to move forward with, perhaps thinking about a possible future with Disney. That seems like as likely as it is unlikely though, so who knows what the problem really was.
Another potential reason for the split between FX, Marvel and Donald Glover might be that the latter is just too busy to tackle theDeadpoolanimated series properly without spreading himself too thin. After all, he has complete control over his seriesAtlanta, and he’s now Lando Calrissian inSolo: A Star Wars Story. And if he’s the breakout favorite of the movie as early reactions to the trailer indicate he may be, then he might haveA Star Wars Storyof his own to lead in the future.
No matter the reason, this is rather disappointing. Donald Glover spent time writing theDeadpoolanimated series with his brotherStephen Glover(who was on the writing staff forAtlanta)during productionfor the aforementionedStar Warsproject, and we would have liked to see what the writer brought to the table for the Merc with a Mouth.
As of now, it’s not clear if Marvel Television will attempt to develop the series with new creative talent, or if they’re going to let the project die. At the very least, Deadpool fans won’t have to wait long for more Merc with a Mouth action sinceDeadpool 2iscoming to theaters in May.
