Nearly a decade after the comics initial release, Gerard Way’s comic brainchild The Umbrella Academy is getting its own Netflix series. The original will be a 10-episode straight-to-series and will be live action instead of animated.
While many know Gerard Way for his work as My Chemical Romance’s frontman – until the group disbanded in 2013 – the singer has been writing comic books since he was 16 years old. After many failed attempts, Way managed to form a relationship with Dark Horse Comics. The company released the artist first comic, Apocalypse Suite, in their Free Comic Book Day issue on May 5, 2007.
That very same year, Way teamed up with Brazilian Illustrator Gabriel Bá to create Umbrella Academy. The comic is a story that follows the estranged members of a dysfunctional family of superheroes known as Umbrella Academy, all hoping to solve their father’s mysterious death.
This time, his comic did well, as the first issue sold out, meriting a second printing released on October 17, 2007. It was announced back in 2013 that the two had started working on three and four of the series as well.
While the comic may be in its infancy, enough so that it may not warrant a show so quickly, it has a solid foundation of people behind it. Steve Blackman (Fargo) will serve as Umbrella Academy’s showrunner and executive producer, alongside Bluegrass Television, Mike Richardson and Keith Goldberg from Dark Horse Entertainment according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I am thrilled that The Umbrella Academy has found a home at Netflix. I couldn’t think of a better place for the vision Gabriel Ba and myself had when creating the comic, and cannot wait for people to experience that world as a live action show,” Way said.
The superhero drama will join a long list of Netflix originals like Marvel’s The Defenders series, so it should be interesting to see how it measures up when it is released in 2018. For more information, be sure to check out the site for updates, as well as all of your other Nerd News and Needs!
