At the start of November it had been announced that
Marvel's New Warriors had stopped production after Freeform, not being able to find room on it's schedule (why that is, you'll get an idea of later in the article), and Marvel asked to shop around the one episode they had finished (or at the very least had shot and tested, to reported stellar internal tests). While the show has not been picked up, reportedly it is pitching to cable networks and streaming services (as opposed to their cousins over at ABC), it seems that internationally the show has been being sold to international distributors.
At an upfront event for
Canal Sony in Brazil, it was announced that Marvel's New Warriors would be joining the other Marvel shows (including Inhumans, Runaways, and Cloak and Dagger) as part of it's international distributors. During the presentation, they also showcased an official logo for the series.
Other photos on Instagram from those in attendance verified that the logo is in fact genuine, and not a photoshopped image. While it doesn't mean that Marvel has found a new home for the show yet, per se, but if they are still selling the show to international distributing channels that means they definitely believe the show will land it's two season order somewhere.
The email that brought this to my attention also had a significant amount of other purported details about the show, along with their own evidence to back it up (which I vetted, to the best of my non-professional article writing abilities), which were as follows:
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The pilot was actually shot almost half a year ago; initial filming began at the end of July, right as Keith David had been cast as the show's antagonist. They shot the pilot for a bout a week give or take (which while it sounds short, in terms of actually shooting, a week is pretty normal shoot time for one episode, especially a half-hour comedy). This seemed to check out, as they cited the social media accounts of some crew listed on IMDB as on the show posted pictures on a set together on the 26th, (and no, there isn't another project where all the people involved had worked on before) as well as the showrunner, Kevin Biegel, with some cryptic post on Instagram that seemed to indicate something exciting was going on (as well as coupled by some relative radio silence by the show's cast for the following week).
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Portlandia veteran Bill Benz seems to be involved in the show in some capacity, possibly as a producer or as the director of the pilot.
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The reason the show was passed on despite testing very well is that New Warriors is pretty expensive, at least as far as half-hour comedies tend to go (especially at much smaller outlets like Freeform). Testing really well is great, but Freeform balked at the price tag the show would need. This is why Marvel is looking for a two-season order: they're really confident in the show, but want a bit of overhead due to the (relative for a comedy) higher costs.
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The source also speculated that Tippy Toe, Squirrel Girl's faithful animal partner and one of the best superhero pets in comic history (sorry, Lockheed) might be played by...a real squirrel. There wasn't any super concrete evidence for this, but did point out an account that the show's cast and showrunner had followed on Instagram shortly after the period when the pilot had purported to have been shot, @this_girl_is_a_squirrel, an account primarily featuring Jill, a squirrel some may have remembered from going viral after being rescued in the midst of Hurricane Isaac. As nice as Old Lace looks in Runaways, a real squirrel would sure be an impressive feat to pull off.
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In addition, on a smaller note, it seems Night Thrasher will be keeping his signature skateboard in the series, as his actor, Jeremy Tardy, posted an Instagram video of him practicing on a skateboard for "superhero training". This was also followed by comments of excitement and encouragement from the rest of the New Warrirors cast, which is just, god, just so friggin adorable.
So it seems that New Warriors will in fact happen, barring Disney having to explain to some very unhappy international distributors why they sold them a show and timeslot, and then actually not make the show. If the plan is still 2018, we should see in about a month, possibly before the year's end, as to what and where the future of the New Warriors will be.
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