In a surprising move, Netflix announced it has acquired the independent publishing house Millarworld from founder and comic book creator, Mark Millar. The deal will bring Millar’s characters and stories to the streaming service in the form of movies, television and kids series.
“As creator and re-inventor of some of the most memorable stories and characters in recent history, ranging from Marvel’s The Avengers to Millarworld’s Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Wanted and Reborn franchises, Mark is as close as you can get to a modern day Stan Lee,” said Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos in a press release. “We can’t wait to harness the creative power of Millarworld to Netflix and start a new era in global storytelling.”
“This is only the third time in history a major comic book company has been purchased at this level,” said Millar. “I’m so in love with what Netflix is doing and excited by their plans. Netflix is the future and Millarworld couldn’t have a better home.”
Millar revealed on his personal blog that Kick-Ass and Kingsman have their own Hollywood deals, so those IP won’t be part of this acquisition.
The acquisition of a comic book publisher by a major media company is rather rare; like Millar said, it has happened only three times in history. The first was Warner Bros. acquiring DC Comics back in 1968, which led to many movies and television series over the decades.
Disney acquiring Marvel Comics was the second instance in 2009, spawning the multi-billion-dollar empire that is Marvel Studios. The Disney acquisition also has brought the Marvel Comics characters to network television in Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter and the upcoming Inhumans and to Netflix with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist.
It’s probably the success of the Marvel-Netflix roster of shows that has the streaming service looking to acquire more comic book-related IP for new movies and series. Millarworld has plenty of that, bringing a more adult tone to the superhero genre with titles such as Nemesis and Superior.
There’s plenty of stories in the Millar-verse and we’ll be interested to see what Netflix has in store for it and the press release also states that Millar will “ continue to create and publish new stories and character franchises under the Netflix label.”
So what do you think of Netflix acquiring Millarworld? What property do you want to see adapted? Let us know in the comments section below.
