Predicting Netflix's Next 10 Smash Hit Shows
1. Jupiter's Legacy
Released: Late 2020
While Marvel are pulling out all the stops in bringing their comic book heroes to Disney+ (and, at the same time, taking them away from Netflix), Netflix themselves have taken a huge, ambitious swing at replacing them with their own in-house comic book universe. Later this year we're likely to get our first glimpse of how well this will work out.
Back in 2017, knowing that they were about to lose the license on Daredevil and his fellow Defenders, Netflix bought Mark "Kick Ass" Millar's line of Millarworld comics. Not just the license for the screen rights to Millar's characters, they bought the whole company outright. By owning all of Millarworld they no longer have to worry about a Marvel situation where the characters get taken away from them and, as such, have a hugely ambitious plan for a raft of Millarworld shows.
The first of these is Jupiter's Legacy. Created for TV by Daredevil Season 1 showrunner Steven S. DeKnight, Jupiter's Legacy follows a group of revered Golden Age superheroes (led by Josh Duhamel's The Utopian) and the struggle of their present day offspring to live up to them. "What would it be like to grow up as Wonder Woman and Superman's kids?" was Millar's elevator pitch for the concept.
With shows like The Boys and Watchmen proving that there's a dedicated audience for deconstructions of classic superheroes and their role in America's past and sense of self, Jupiter's Legacy has an obvious in-built audience.
If it goes well then this could be the start of the biggest Netflix hit of all: a whole MCU-style shared universe. Series based on Millarworld's American Jesus and The Magic Order are already in development, the latter from Aquaman's James Wan, so it's clearly something Netflix are going all in on.