Back in September 2018, Marvel TV fans were delighted to learn that ABC was in early development for a female superhero team Marvel show with Wonder Woman scribe Allan Heinberg who was penning the script and attached to executive produce. At the time, the untitled project had been granted a major production commitment by the Disney owned network.
While it was never revealed which heroes would be used specifically, it was potentially going to feature lesser known Marvel heroes as the leads of the series. Since then, we haven’t had any new details come out until today. Deadline revealed today, in the midst of ABC having their TCA Winter Press Tour day, that the network has decided to not move forward with the project.
Despite the fact that the show isn’t happening on ABC, it hasn’t been ruled out yet whether the series might be developed elsewhere, like on the new Disney+ streaming service that is arriving later this year. Karen Burke, the new president of ABC, did reveal to Deadline that, even though they didn’t go forward with Heinberg’s series, the network still wants to remain in the Marvel TV business.
“I hope there is more than we are doing together.”
Currently, the network has the long-running Marvel spy drama Agents of SHIELD, that is officially slated to premiere its sixth season in the summer. The series has also been secured for the 2020-2021 TV season as ABC handed out an early Season 7 renewal to the show back in the fall. This is not the first Marvel drama that ABC has tried to develop outside of Agents of SHIELD.
Years ago, American Crime’s John Ridley was working on a mystery Marvel superhero series that would feature an existing superhero from the comics who would be getting re-imagined for the small screen. There have also been a number of Marvel comedy shows developed that never got to pilot stage.
There was even an attempt to spin-off Agents of SHIELD characters Mockingbird and Lance Hunter in Marvel’s Most Wanted that, despite scoring a pilot order, was never picked up to series. With pilot season ramping up, Marvel fans will sadly have to wait till the next development cycle to find out if ABC will ever expand their Marvel TV franchise besides Agents of SHIELD.