Umbrella Academy TV Series In Development with Netflix
Netflix are looking to develop a series based around Gerard Way, frontman of punk band My Chemical Romance, and Gabriel Bá’s comic book series The Umbrella Academy.
Looking to take more risks with their projects, Netflix are looking to bring the series, which is set in 1977 during an alternate timeline where John F. Kennedy was never assassinated, to screens with Way and The Exorcist screenwriter Jeremy Slater on board.
The series, which was once optioned for a movie adaptation by Universal Studios, follows a dysfunctional and estranged group of superheroes who reunite after nine years apart to save the world from a lethal threat.
In a 2016 interview with Collider, Slater, who also wrote the 2015 Fantastic Four and Olivia Wilde horror film The Lazarus Effect, talked about the importance of capturing the spirit and tone of the series through adaptation: “There’s a lot of weird shit in The Umbrella Academy, and it would be very easy to sand down some of those weird edges and make it more familiar to American audiences. I’m fighting very hard to not let that happen. We’re shopping around the pilot, at the moment. We’re trying to find the right home for it and trying to find someone as excited as we are.”
Despite the report by Splash Report, Netflix are yet to comment on the rumours.
