Netflix executives have cancelled Grendel, a brand new big-budget adaptation of the hit Darkish Horse comic-book sequence, earlier than the present has even completed manufacturing.
Even supposing the present, which was given an eight-episode order in September of 2021, had accomplished the majority of its filming, Netflix’s executives have pulled the plug on the present.
According to Deadline. (opens in new tab) the present, which was being overseen by Andrew Dabb, showrunner on Netflix’s not too long ago cancelled reboot of Resident Evil, is now free to be shopped to different producers in its unfinished state.
Grendel is predicated on Matt Wagner’s much-acclaimed comedian sequence and follows Hunter Rose, a profitable author who’s pushed to a lifetime of masked vigilantism within the murky legal underworld of New York Metropolis after the demise of his girlfriend. Nonetheless, regardless of having fun with some success in his quest for revenge, he shortly realizes that the underworld presents a chance and plots to take over the entire thing.
Newcomer Abubakr Ali had been solid as Rose with Jaime Ray Newman, Julian Black Antelope, Madeline Zima, Kevin Corrigan, Emma Ho, Erik Palladino, Brittany Allen and Andy Mientus additionally within the solid.
The present was because of being one other instalment from Netflix’s first-look cope with Darkish Horses comics, which has so far included the Mads Mikkelsen-powered thriller Polar, animated present Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, and, most efficiently, The Umbrella Academy.
Reviews concerning the cancellation haven’t any particulars on why Netflix executives determined to name time on the present now, with no stories of poorly obtained footage or spiralling prices or any of the standard causes the plug will get pulled.
Evaluation: Netflix’s cost-cutting continues
Whereas everyone seems to be remaining tight-lipped so far, one thing has clearly gone incorrect with Grendel to necessitate Netflix’s prime brass calling time on the manufacturing earlier than its even completed filming.
Netflix’s tie-up with Darkish Horse nonetheless has six different diversifications in improvement, and there isn’t any indication that is going to vary with this announcement. The Umbrella Academy is ending, however solely after one remaining season in 2023. In addition to that, Netflix’s tie-ups with Picture Comics and Millarworld additionally look set to ship extra exhibits and films in 2023 and past, so the streaming big is not turning its again on comics.
That is probably all the way down to Netflix’s quest to chop prices, the identical quest that has seen so many exhibits get cancelled in the course of the 12 months and a number of rounds of layoffs. As we have seen with Warner Bros. Discovery’s axing of Batgirl, cancelling a challenge, even when filming has completed, can save tens of millions in taxes. And Netflix must maintain prices down wherever it could.
