Mouse Guard, the Eisner-winning comic book series by David Petersen, was set for a highly anticipated feature film adaptation (with Idris Elba attached, no less!) when Disney canceled the production after its merger with Fox. In the wake of the cancellation, Petersen, director Wes Ball, and musician John Paesano shared snippets of the concept art, a demo reel (screencapped above), and the soundtrack, giving fans a devastatingly clear picture of what might have been.
But now, it looks like our goodbyes might have been premature. As Collider reports, Mouse Guard’s publisher BOOM! Studios has signed a “first-look” deal with Netflix, possibly breathing new life into an adaptation.
According to Collider, the deal is for both live-action and animated series, which means a new Mouse Guard adaptation would arrive in the form of a TV show, not a film. Our money’s on an animated series, considering the original film would have been a lavish CGI production, based on the demo reel Ball released (an official copy of which has since been taken down, but which can be seen here).
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The publication also singled out another BOOM! Studios title for possible adaptation: Lumberjanes, written by Noelle Stevenson, Grace Ellis, Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh, and Faith Erin Hicks. Like Mouse Guard, Lumberjanes also had a planned feature film adaptation (live-action, this time) that was reportedly shelved following the Disney-Fox merger. And considering Stevenson is the showrunner of Netflix’s popular She-Ra and the Princesses of Power series, that definitely makes the case for bumping Lumberjanes to the top of the adaptation list.
Other BOOM! Studios comics we’d like to see on the small-screen? Destroyer, Abbott, Goldie Vance, and Ladycastle, just to name a few.
As Collider notes, this isn’t the first time BOOM! Studios has worked with Netflix. In November, the streaming service bought the feature film rights to Cullen Bunn and Jack T. Cole’s The Unsound, which will be directed by Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation’s David F. Sandberg.
