Netflix and Millarworld Team Up For Sharkey the Bounty Hunter Comic Series and Film
The streaming network teases a look at the upcoming comic from Mark Millar and Simone Bianchi.
Netflix and Mark Millar have lined up their next joint project together with the upcoming sci-fi action comedy series Sharkey the Bounty Hunter. The comic, from Millar and artist Simone Bianchi (Green Lantern, Wolverine), follows a former special ops soldier turned bounty hunter who teams up with 10-year old orphan Billy as they traverse outer space in a run-down ice cream truck.
Miller said of the project, “When I joined Netflix on staff last year we had this crazy plan of a big sci-fi universe of movies and Sharkey is the first of these. Sharkey kicks off a whole world of sci-fi that’s just a great action comedy in the style of all the movies I grew up with. I love blue-collar heroes and I like the parent/ kid dynamic from movies like Paper Moon or Leon: The Professional and, of course, Big Daddy and Hit-Girl.”
Sharkey will be the third project announced since Netflix purchased Millarworld, following the supernatural series The Magic Order and spy thriller Prodigy, which comes out next week.
With Netflix’s Marvel TV deal expiring in 2020, the streaming network is looking for its own comic book properties to compete with Disney+’s slate of MCU -based series. Millarworld has a deep reservoir of original content, with a proven track record of box office success with franchises like Kingsman, Wanted, and Kick-Ass. Sharkey will also be made into a Netflix film, with Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) attached to write the script.
It seems that Netflix and Millarworld are leaning into the darker, gritter world of comics, name-checking the family-friendly limitations Disney imposes on their properties. Millar said, “This is all the things Star Wars or Marvel can’t get away with. We start where they kinda draw the line and I love this freedom creatively as we’ve never seen space done this way before.”
While Disney has several MCU titles in their pipeline, they seem to be maintaining the PG-13 level of the MCU as opposed to the violent offerings of the Marvel Netflix run. If that turns out to be the case, then Netflix may have the monopoly over edgy comics content in the streaming sphere.
(via CBR, image: Netflix)
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