Yesterday, it was revealed by TheHollywoodReporter that Tigra & Dazzler showrunner Erica Rivinoja and staff writers on the series have been fired from the Marvel Television/Hulu project stemming over some creative differences.
Tigra & Dazzler Show showrunner Erica Rivinoja (Girls Trip, The Addams Family) and the comedy’s entire writing staff have been let go from the series following creative differences with Marvel. Sources say Rivinoja and her team had completed multiple scripts and outlines for others and were 15 weeks into a planned 20-week production cycle.
It also sounds like they’ve going to be making changes to the show, but remains to be seen how drastic that will be.
Production on the show has been paused as sources note Marvel plans to hire a new showrunner and have them build their own writing team as part of a larger creative overhaul. All of the work Rivinoja and her staff had completed is being thrown out. Sources say Hulu and Marvel — who both declined comment — remain committed to making Tigra & Dazzler.
Despite the caveat that Marvel plans to hire a new showrunner/writing staff, the news certainly is giving us the impression that there is a shot (even if it’s a slim one) 2that Marvel ends up cancelling all these animated projects since it’s now up to Marvel’s new chief creative officer Kevin Feige (now overseeing television/animation) if they plan to move ahead with these shows or not (Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb said to be exiting the company).
However, the report claims everything is hunky-dory with the other shows.
Production on the first two, M.O.D.O.K. and Hit-Monkey, remains on track, as does the fourth, Howard the Duck. While all four shows will come together in a special — titled The Offenders, in a nod to Marvel’s Netflix miniseries mash-up The Defenders — none of them are interconnected; they will not crossover until the one-off, so issues on Tigra & Dazzler will not have an impact on any of the other shows in the works.
Some of the shows getting kicked to the curb wouldn’t be terribly shocking after the recent wave of cancellations of Marvel Television live-action shows with Cloak & Dagger, Runaways, and Gabriel Luna’s Ghost Rider series (killed just before prep/production) being the most recent projects to end.
Essentially, Hulu’s Helstrom is the last live-action series standing from the Loeb era and most believe that it might only end up with a single season.
It was certainly interesting when it was announced that Marvel/Hulu was teaming up on a wave of mature cartoon series given the squeaky-clean cartoon lineups the brand is known for. So, we’ll keep our fingers crossed these animated shows will actually get made.
Here is the original blurb/synopsis for the series that was posted on the official Marvel website when Tigra & Dazzler was first announced.
In “Marvel’s Tigra & Dazzler Show,” two woke Super Heroes and best friends, Tigra and Dazzler, fight for recognition among powered people who make up the eight million stories in Los Angeles. “Marvel’s Tigra & Dazzler Show” comes from writers Erica Rivinoja and Chelsea Handler, with Rivinoja, Handler, and Jeph Loeb serving as Executive Producers.
SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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