The Hollywood Reporter brings word that Robert Kirkman, the creator behind The Walking Dead comics, has found a new home for Invincible which was given a straight-to-series order by Amazon Studios. Originally planned as a feature film that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were going to helm, Invincible — based on Kirkman’s comic book series — will now be an adult animated show on the streaming service
The Invincible hourlong animated series announcement comes about a year after Kirkman inked an overall deal with Amazon Studios. The story centers on Mark Grayson, a normal teenager except for the fact that his father is the most powerful superhero on the planet. Shortly after his 17th birthday, Mark begins to develop powers of his own.
The series is described as a suspenseful, action-filled, emotion-packed show that builds upon poignant and heartwarming moments of love, friendship, and humanity. The comic launched in 2003 and wrapped up last February after 144 issues had been published. Ryan Ottley served as the central artist on the Kirkman and Cory Walker created comics.
Sharon Yguado, head of scripted genre programming at Amazon Studios, said: “Robert has an uncanny talent to predict the zeitgeist, and we are incredibly excited to see him break boundaries in an animated one-hour format. In a world saturated with superhero fare, we trust Robert to subvert expectations while encapsulating a story filled with heart and adrenaline. We love his ambitious plan for the show and believe it will look like nothing else on television.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of the series Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley and I did together for over 15 years. To know our characters will live on in multiple iterations in other media is almost too exciting to bear! What Amazon is allowing us to do in animated form is nothing short of ground-breaking, and I can’t wait for our rabid fan base to experience it,” added Kirkman.
Behind The Walking Dead, Invincible is Kirkman’s second-longest-running comic and the series serves as his first show under the new deal with Amazon. Invincible is Kirkman’s fourth scripted series based on his Skybound comics, alongside AMC’s The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead and Cinemax’s Outcast.
Kirkman’s Skybound is set to produce Invincible with Teen Titans’ Simon Racioppa serving as showrunner. Along with Kirkman and Racioppa, David Alpert (The Walking Dead), and Catherine Winer (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) will executive producer. Justin and Chris Copeland (Ultimate Spider-Man) act as supervising directors.
