The past few years have been wildly positive for Marvel's Squirrel Girl, who went from oft-forgotten b-side hero to one of Marvel's funniest characters, and actress Anna Kendrick kicked things up a notch earlier this year when she expressed interest in playing Squirrel Girl on the big screen. But instead of a movie, it looks like Squirrel Girl is actually headed to TV as part of an in-development new project based on the New Warriors comics.
As you might have expected, details about this project aren't very widespread, as everyone involved is declining to comment, but it appears Marvel is working with ABC Studios on New Warriors, and it's being planned as a half-hour single-camera comedy. The titular super-squad are teenagers that can be described as the J.V. Avengers. While no destination is set just yet, TVLine reports the pitch is being shopped around, though it looks like only cable and streaming outlets are being considered for this one. Considering how packed Netflix's Marvel slate is, and that Hulu just ordered Runaways quite recently, those might be out of the running.
If you're extremely knowledgable about comics, you might know that Squirrel Girl was really only a part of the New Warriors team during a particular episode of the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man. Real name Doreen Green, she made her debut in 1992 and later joined the Great Lakes Avengers, becoming a supporting character in the New Avengers comics a few years ago. It really wasn't until The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl debuted last year that the character became more of a household name, which led to her joining the All-New, All-Different Marvel series New Avengers. What's more, she is also part of the upcoming U.S. Avengers comic, a project I previously wrote about wanting as a TV show. This feels like a nice consolation prize.
Though Squirrel Girl may be the standout character here, there are all of the actual New Warriors that fans have been reading about since the first team debuted in 1989. Some of those include Marvel Boy, Nova, Speedball, Firestar, Hummingbird, Scarlet Spider and many more. All or none of these characters might show up, but for now, it's only She Who Communicates With Rodents that has been confirmed for the group.
If New Warriors indeed comes to fruition as a series, that means we likely won't see Squirrel Girl on the silver screen anytime soon, either in a standalone movie or elsewhere. No complaints here, especially since we've been patient about Marvel finally delivering a proper comedy series to counter its super-serious shows on Netflix. Neither Damage Control nor that other project have gone very far on the road to development. Here's hoping there's a different "tail" when it comes to New Warriors. Squirrel humor!
We're certainly anxious to hear something big about New Warriors in the near future. But while we're waiting, check out everything coming to TV later this year with our fall premiere schedule.
