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Neil Gaiman Tried to Create a TV Series of ‘Marvel 1602’, but it Got Shot Down

By July 1, 2019Authors, News

Neil Gaiman has become one of the world’s best loved authors, and it’s not hard to see why. His Sandman series is considered one of the finest graphic novels of all time, he’s published several critically acclaimed books from American Gods to Stardust, and he co-wrote the excellent Good Omens alongside the great Terry Pratchett. In recent years, a number of Gaiman’s novels have been adapted into films and TV shows, including the likes of American Gods and Coraline, and now the author has revealed he recently tried to get a TV show of Marvel 1602 off the ground.

Marvel 1602 was a comic book mini series Gaiman wrote in 2003 which told the story of some of Marvels best known superheroes, but it was set in the Elizabethan era rather than the present day. The series proved popular and three more sequels have been released since.

On Twitter, space flight reporter Robin Seemangel Gaiman’s praised the recent Amazon adaptation of Good Omens and told the author that he’d love to see a similar show based on Gaiman’s Marvel 1602 run. Gaiman responded, saying that last year he did try to persuade Disney (the parent company of Marvel) to create such a show, but alas they weren’t interested.

Given many of the superheroes who feature in Marvel 1602 are currently in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s hard to say exactly how such a show would’ve fit in with the pre-existing films, but no doubt such an adaptation could be excellent. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was recently asked about the idea of an adaptation of Gaiman’s story, and he seemed open to the idea.

“Something like 1602 I think would be really cool to do at sometime down the line. I love it. It is spectacular,” he said. “But the key to it, the fun of it, is that you need to know those characters very well. You need to know each and every one of those characters and who their present-day reincarnations are in order to enjoy and understand and appreciate how Neil was able to reinvent them and do that period spin on them for 1602. If you don’t know them yet and if they haven’t had their own stories yet, I don’t think it would be as much fun. If you don’t know them well and you haven’t been introduced to them in a similar medium in their traditional environments, plucking them out of that won’t seem as unique or different. I’d love to do stuff like 1602 or What Ifs or something like Marvel’s Earth X, but somewhere down the line. You need the audience, or the movie-going public to have a great understanding of who they are before you alter it like that.”

It certainly sounds like an adaptation of Marvel 1602 could eventually happen, and clearly Gaiman’s interested. Here’s hoping we see such a show sooner rather than later.

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