American comic book company
Millarworld Limited is an imprint of comic books published by Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar as a creator-owned line, featuring characters created by him in a shared fictional universe, the Millarworld.[5] These characters include Wesley Gibson, Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl, Eggsy Unwin, Nemesis, Duke McQueen, Edison Crane, and others, while the events of The Unfunnies, Jupiter's Legacy, and Supercrooks exist as popular fiction within the world of the Millarworld. The imprint was launched in 2003 with the publication of the miniseries Wanted, followed by Kick-Ass – The Dave Lizewski Years, Kingsman, War Heroes, and The Magic Order, and later the crossover series Big Game. While the majority of series in the line are written by Millar himself, the series Kingsman, Kick-Ass – The New Girl and Hit-Girl feature new writers from their second volumes onward, after Millar wrote the series' first volumes.
Licensing and adaptation
Wanted, published by Top Cow Productions, was loosely adapted into a feature film of the same name by Universal Pictures, released on 27 June 2008.[2] Chosen, published by Dark Horse Comics, was described by Millar as a sequel to the Bible, and has been optioned by Sony Pictures. The Unfunnies was an anthropomorphic animal horror story published by Avatar Press. Kick-Ass, which was illustrated by John Romita Jr. and published by Marvel, was adapted into a film of the same name by Matthew Vaughn, and released in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2010 and the United States on 16 April.
In September 2008 it was announced that the yet unfinished War Heroes had been optioned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, with Michael De Luca as producer and Millar taking an executive producer role.[6]
Millar has stated that whenever he sells the film adaptation rights to one of his creator-owned comics properties, he gives half of the money to the artist who illustrated the comics, despite his agent's reaction to this, saying, "Everything, all the money from the advance, the toys, the games, 50–50, so it's fair. I see it as a collaboration. If I drew, I could keep everything for myself, but I actually like the idea of having a talent that I'm not selling. One of my friends said, 'You could make even more money by drawing, too,' and I said, 'Yeah, and I suppose I could make even more money by lap dancing. It's nice to have something that's just for me."[7]
History
In October 2014, following months of delays for Jupiter's Legacy #5, Millar stated that beginning in April 2015, all Millarworld series would be completely drawn before the publication of their debut issues, in order to maintain a monthly schedule.[8]
On 7 August 2017, Millarworld was acquired by the American streaming media company Netflix.[9][10]
The first comic book series that Millarworld published post acquisition was The Magic Order.[11] The first issue was published on 13 June 2018.[12]
On 17 July 2018 it was announced that Netflix had started work on the first set of films to be adapted from comics. These are: Empress, Huck and Sharkey the Bounty Hunter. The comic book series Jupiter's Legacy and American Jesus will be adapted as television series.[13]
On 6 December 2018, Millar provided an update to the progress of the Millarworld properties adapted for Netflix. Jupiter's Legacy is going to be first television series released, with Steven S. DeKnight as the showrunner (before Sang Kyu Kim took over following DeKnight's exit from the series), with The Chosen One (based on American Jesus) as the second live-action television series released, with Everardo Gout and Leopoldo Gout as the showrunners and Gout serving as director. Empress, Sharkey the Bounty Hunter and Huck are scheduled to be feature films in development. Under Netflix, Millar will exclusively adapt new Millarworld properties to the streaming service, with select properties having comic book tie-ins, starting with Prodigy.[14]
On 11 March 2019, Netflix announced that it will produce an anime series based on Supercrooks. It will be produced by Bones, and is described as a "superpowered heist comic".[15]
In late 2022, several updates on Millarworld production were given, including that Huck would be redeveloped as a TV series as opposed to a movie and that a live-action Supercrooks series would follow Jupiter's Legacy after the show was canceled after its first season.[16] That same year it was announced that Millar would be launching four brand new comic series (Night Club, Nemesis Reloaded, The Magic Order 4 and The Ambassadors) and that they would lead into a crossover event entitled Big Game, which would be illustrated by Pepe Larraz and serve as a crossover between every Millarworld property.[17][18][19][20][21]
In May 2023, it was revealed that Big Game is actually a sequel to Wanted, Millar's first creator-owned work, and follows Wesley Gibson and the Fraternity teaming up with Matthew Anderson / Nemesis to take down the latest wave of superheroes that have popped back up in the world following the actions of Dave Lizewski / Kick-Ass.[22]
In December 2023, it was revealed that Millar had signed a deal with Dark Horse Comics to become the new publisher of the Millarworld titles. This includes reprints of previous Millarworld titles and new series, with five brand-new series launching in 2024, one of them being Nemesis: Rogues' Gallery with artist Valerio Giangiordano.[23]
