Here’s the professional way to say this.
Today, Marvel.com announced that their very first scripted comedy, The New Warriors, featuring Squirrel Girl, will be coming to the Freeform channel, previously known as ABC Family.
Here’s the way I want to actually say it.
3…
2…
1…
OHMYGOD!SQUIRRELGIRL!
AREYOUEVENKIDDINGME??
SQUIRRELGIRLISCOMINGTOABCFREEFORM!
ICAN’TEVENCONTAINMYSELFTHISISMADNESSINTHEBESTWAY!
Okay. With that out of the way, let’s jump into this story.
Marvel.com announced, with Variety and Deadline quickly following, that a new series from Marvel, titled Marvel’s New Warriors has been ordered straight to series to air on the ABC channel, Freeform. As reported on Marvel.com, this marks Marvel’s first attempt at a straight comedy series and has “ordered ten 30-minute episodes slated to debut in 2018.” This, of course, means we’ll start hearing casting announcements later in the year.
And who will they be casting? We don’t know any of the other characters yet, but we do know that Squirrel Girl herself, Ms. Doreen Green, will be one of the leads. The site describes her as a “totally empowering fangirl — tough, optimistic and a natural leader,” who is “…confident and has the powers of a squirrel.” Just what does that mean? It means “She’s acrobatic” and “can fight and talk to other squirrels.” However, all that being said, her most important trait “is that she has faith in people and teaches them to believe in themselves.” In the comics, it should be noted, Squirrel Girl is the only character declared to be “unbeatable” and has defeated the likes of Doctor Doom and Galactus.
Marvel described the series as being about “…six young people with powers living and working together.” They went on to add that, “With powers and abilities on the opposite end of the spectrum of The Avengers, the New Warriors want to make a difference in the world… even if the world isn’t ready.” They finish off their description saying that this team is “Not quite super, not yet heroes,” and that the series is “about that time in your life when you first enter adulthood and feel like you can do everything and nothing at once — except in this world, bad guys can be as terrifying as bad dates.”
As for the rest of the cast, none of that has been announced yet. However, Squirrel Girl has never actually been a member of the New Warriors. However, she was a part of the Great Lakes Avengers, which was a comedy book from Marvel that featured ridiculous characters like Mr. Immortal — who’s only power is that he can’t die, Flatman — who’s only power is that he’s two-dimensional and Big Bertha — supermodel by day, but obesely overweight strong-girl by night.
Pulling from the ranks of the New Warriors themselves, for a comedy, we could see characters like Speedball — who’s power is that he can bounce off walls and shoot energetic bouncy balls, or Microbe — who’s power is, basically, that he can talk to germs, being a good fit for a comedy series. Also, let’s go out on a limb here and say that the current Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, would be an incredible addition to this cast, though Marvel may hold on to her for her own series.
Jeph Loeb said of the series, “Marvel’s New Warriors’ have always been fan favorites and now particularly with the addition of Squirrel Girl, they are Marvel Television favorites as well. After the amazing experience we’ve had with Freeform on Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger we can’t think of a better place for our young heroes.”
Speaking of, Cloak and Dagger have also been a part of the New Warriors, so it’s entirely possible they’re building their own little mini-extended universe over on FreeForm.
He has two cats and knows all things about Doctor Strange but little else.
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