Another case of a series that was almost finished being canceled occurred with the comic book adaptation Grendel by Netflix. The company yanked the production of Grendel, even though all eight episodes of the season had already been filmed. However, all is not yet lost for the series creators.
Grendel was originally a Matt Wagner comic book series. It was first published in 1982 by Comico. After Comico went bankrupt, Dark Horse took over the publishing house. Grendel is the mantle of author Hunter Rose, who puts on a mask for his nocturnal exploits as an assassin and crime boss. The series gained quite a bit of popularity and even participated in a crossover with Batman.
The first attempt to create a live-action series based on the Grendel comics is just the canceled eight-episode Netflix series. It was announced back in September 2021. “Supernatural” executive producer Andrew Dubb was named showrunner. Aboubakr Ali has been cast in the lead role, joined by Kevin Corrigan as Barry Palumbo, Julian Black Antelope as Argent, Emma Ho as Stacy Palumbo, and “Flash” series alum Andy Mientus as Larry Stoler.
The Deadline was the first to report that Netflix had decided to stop the production of Grendel. However, streaming allowed the producers to sell the series to another company. Since Mentus claims the company had time to shoot all eight episodes, it could be a good buy.
On the other hand, it is unknown how things stand with post-production. Perhaps creating all the special effects and computer graphics will require a considerable budget. It’s unclear who will buy Grendel and if it will happen at all. Many sources say that the most likely buyers are Prime Video (which owns the “Boys” universe) and Paramount+ (which just premiered the original superhero comedy “Secret Headquarters”). Since the other big players are busy developing allied superhero universes and are unlikely to have an extra budget for another superhero.
