Last October, in an interview with Syfy, Fabian Nicieza, famous for co-creating Deadpool as well as writing a stint on the New Warriors, was asked about his opinions of the (then Freeform-bound) TV show. He had this to say:
Well, I'll start with the caveat that I wrote a version of New Warriors, the original. But there are several versions of the group. Many will say, although it would be crass of me to say so, that MY version was the best, but ... but I will say it was the most successful version of New Warriors, so we'll go with that! I've actually had numerous conversations with the showrunners to discuss this very thing. The TV thing is not the original comics thing; it is its own entity, and my desire is for it to be as good as it can possibly be for what it is. And what it is is a half-hour dramedy, comedy docu-comedy show about a young group of 20-somethings living in a house, pretending to be superheroes. What I think is the core underlying ethos of New Warriors that made my run so successful and that others struggled with was the strident, passionate, and relatively immature perspective the young bring to seek change in the world. There has to be an element of anger and passion to that, which infused the original series. There also has to be an element of positive aspiration to it, too, because they're supposed to be good people who just don't know enough about the world yet. I hope they use those elements in the TV show, because then, to me, it's the brand of New Warriors. If they don't, it will be other iterations that Marvel published, and there's a reason those didn't succeed: because it lacked the core DNA.
Now, in this context the phrase 'docu-comedy' could lead people to draw connections with shows like The Office, Modern Family, and Parks and Recreation, which all have used a documentary style format. The pilot's cinematographer, John Tanzen, also has a history with working on Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which, while it does not use the cutaway format of the prior shows, has a similar vibe to it. In fact, the New Warriors themselves had a run in the comics where they were the subjects of a reality show, written by Skottie Young. Two characters who were created in that run, Microbe and Debrii, are to be featured in the prospective TV show as well, played by Matthew Moy and Kate Comer respectively. This also fits with the concept art that was released upon the announcement of the show being picked up by Freeform, which features several cameras and screens reminiscent of a reality/documentary show style, as well as a cover from Young's run.
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