It’s been almost four years since it was revealed Netflix had acquired Mark Millar’s Millarworld for a sum that accounting reports placed at around $31 million, which at the time was viewed as a shrewd investment on the streaming service’s part.
After all, the deal gave the company access to a raft of comic book properties ripe for adaptation in both live-action and animation, allowing it to theoretically craft a string of brand new franchises that it could call its very own. Sound in conception, then, but the execution has been less than stellar to put it lightly.
Jupiter’s Legacy was the first project to emerge in May of 2021 at an eye-watering cost of $200 million, only for the blockbuster superhero series to be greeted tepidly by critics and largely shunned by audiences, causing it to be cancelled mere weeks after premiering to get the Millarworld era off to a hugely discouraging start.
13-episode animated series Super Crooks arrived that November after any and all plans for a Jupiter’s Legacy universe were swept under the rug, but it’s okay if you don’t remember because it barely made a splash. In fact, that trend has continued through to today’s release of The Chosen One, with the latest of Millar’s works to make the jump to Netflix going completely unnoticed, unheralded, and unhyped by the streamer that’s airing it.
In four years we’ve gotten three projects; one of which exists as the biggest bomb in Netflix history, a follow-up that was immediately forgotten, and a third that’s barely been marketed. When you consider what Jupiter’s Legacy alone cost, Millarworld hasn’t exactly been worth the initial outlay.
Then again, Millar has regained the film rights to Kick-Ass, so there could always be a reboot.