Back in August, Netflix made a huge move toward producing even more original content byacquiring Millarworld,Mark Millar’s creator-owned comic book banner that’s home to such titles asWanted,Kick-Ass, andKingsman. Those names should ring a bell since they’ve been adapted into feature films, but they’re only a handful of the stories that Millar has created over the years. Now, with the vast resources and kinetic energy of Netflix behind Millarworld, the acclaimed author is ready to unleasha barrage of new contentto current fans and new converts alike.
Millar has been mum about specifics of the deal with Netflix and what the new partnership’s plans are for the near future, but he’s starting to thaw a bit now that the first interview is out in the world. Chatting withComicbook.com, Millar spoke at length about how the deal has affected his work day, what the environment has been like with Netflix, and his hopes for the future of their collaboration. He’s still a bit stingy on details at the moment, with the exception of mentioning that bothKick-AssandKingsmanstill reside under his control due to the deal with filmmakerMatthew Vaughn. But for an idea of what’s in store for the future of Millarworld, see what the writer had to say:
Millar compares the modern Netflix to classic Hollywood:
There’s no more amazing place to be than Netflix right now and no better home for the Millarworld characters. It’s always exciting to see your work in print and amazing to see those stories turned into movies, but this is another level entirely. Let me try to put it in perspective. A big movie studio makes around 30 or 40 hours of original material every year. Netflix has over 1,000 hours of original content this year alone and growing.Had we sold Millarworld to a typical studio we’d have seen some of these franchises trickle out over the course of the next decade. When I walked into my first Netflix meeting the guys were buzzing about the first four or five they want to get moving on as soon as possible. There’s just a completely different way of doing business here and it’s tremendously exciting. I compare it to how Hollywood must have felt in the 1920s. It’s fearless and they’re just charging ahead, which as a creator has the kind of energy I love.
Millar will continue producing comics, of course, alongside his Netflix content. A new project is being announced this weekend. He teased it as follows:
Well, this first book we’re launching is coming in Spring and you’ll hear about that at the weekend. This comes out of a brand new project I’ve created in-house and I’ve asked pretty much the best artist in the industry right now if he’d like to draw the comic-book. Now that Millarworld is owned by Netflix it’s a pretty different set-up than before. I’m creating stories directly for Netflix, to be used as movies or TV shows, but some of them are going to be comic-books too following the same stories and design bibles. I’m not going to own them. I’m on-staff and this is all being done in-house, but because I love doing comics we’re taking the ones that will work great in my own traditional medium and just letting me have some fun with them.
As you can imagine, all the best artists are very, very keen to work for Netflix too so I’ve really had my pick of the crop here. I’ve finished this series we’re announcing at the weekend and already on a second project. The first is a completely original piece of work, the other a sequel to one of our existing franchises people really liked a couple of years back. Both artists are people I google in my tea-breaks. You’ll smile when you see who we’ve bagged.
And as for what you can expect from Netflix/Millarworld in the future, keeping theKingsmanandKick-Assdeals in mind:
Honestly, right now there’s just nothing off the table. That’s what so exciting about these guys. There’s no limit and all the various departments are poring through our back-catalogue. It’s really just a matter of what excites us as we sit around the table and the best possible screen-writers and directors available to us … [W]e’re also going to be doing a lot of brand new stuff too on top of the franchises you’ve already seen. I’ve made a major commitment here and the first of the brand new franchises is the one announced tomorrow. They bought seventeen franchises when they bought our company and I’d like to create that many again too for Netflix.
Be sure to let us know which Millarworld titles you’re looking forward to seeing on Netflix!
