‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ Not Returning, But Netflix Orders Spin-Off ‘Supercrooks’
‘Jupiter’s Legacy‘ will be short, as Netflix releases the cast from their series commitment, effectively ending the show, at least in its current form, after one season. However, the streamer has ordered a new live-action series of Millerworld comic ‘Supercrooks‘, which is set in the same universe.
‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ was an epic superhero drama that spanned decades and navigates the complex dynamics of family, power, and loyalty. After nearly a century of keeping mankind safe, the world’s first generation of superheroes looked to their children to continue the legacy. But tensions rose as the young superheroes, hungry to prove their worth, struggled to live up to their parents’ legendary public reputations — and exacting personal standards.
The series starred Josh Duhamel (‘Transformers’ movies), Ben Daniels (‘The Crown’, ‘The Exorcist’), Leslie Bibb (‘Tag’, ‘Iron Man’), Elena Kampouris (‘Sacred Lies’), Andrew Horton (‘Doctors’, ‘How to Talk to Girls at Parties’), Mike Wade (‘Timeless’, ‘For the People’), and Matt Lanter (‘Timeless’, ‘90210’).
“I’m really proud of what the team achieved with ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ and the amazing work everyone did on that origin season,” commented Millar. “I’ve been asked a lot about what we’re planning next with this world and the answer is to see what the super-villains are getting up to. I’ve always loved crime stories from Scorcese to Tarantino and super-villains are always the most fun part of any superhero story. To do something exclusively focused on the villains they fight just feels incredibly fresh as we explore what it’s like to be a bad guy in a world crawling with good guys who want to put you in jail. ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ is a vast and rich space with lots of characters to mine and so I’m happy to share that our next step here is a live-action version of the ‘Supercrooks’ comic I created with Leinil Francis Yu a few years back.”
You’ll notice in that statement, Millar is careful not to use the word “cancelled”, pivoting more to it being seen as a change of direction, to focus on the villains rather than heroes. He continues “Given where we’re going next, we’ve made the tough call of letting our incredible cast out of their show commitment as we continue to thoughtfully develop all realms of the ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ saga. We’re confident we’ll return to it later and just want to say thanks to you guys for your continued support and to the cast and crew who made this look so great.”
Netflix are in something of a unique position when it comes to adapting Millar’s work, due to the fact that they spend a substantial sum of money purchasing his company Millarworld back in 2017, so they own all his properties outright. They also didn’t skimp on the budget for the ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ adaptation, with that first season allegedly costing $200 million, meaning it cost an eye-watering $25 million an episode… I think it would be fair to say, as much as I mostly enjoyed the series, that money didn’t seem to translate to the final product on-screen, and clearly hasn’t drawn in the numbers the streamer was hoping for… Given all that, you can maybe see why Netflix has opted to change tack, converting it from an ongoing series to more of an anthology format. It’s not like they would want to abandon it completely, given they already own the property wholesale, so a pivot to a ‘Supercrooks’ series makes sense.
Set in the world of ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’, ‘Supercrooks’ follows a ragtag gang of supervillains, con artists, petty thieves and leg-breakers who band together for the heist of the century and the most outrageous crime story you’ve ever seen in your life. Crime pays, and they’re going to prove it. Some people just want to have the time of their lives and make a little dirty money while they’re doing it. If the superheroes get in the way, they’re going to be spitting teeth.
Whilst the cast of ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ have been released from their contract commitments, it is possible we may see some of the actors return in ‘Supercrooks’, as there is some crossover in the comic books. Millar does also hint that they may return to those hero characters in the future, however, that would require new contracts, and rely on the actors being available. Nothing has been confirmed at the moment, but we’ll let you know when we hear more.
