In 2017, the news broke that Netflix had acquired Mark Millar's Millarworld imprint. The promise at the time was that "Netflix and Millar [would] bring Millarworld’s portfolio of critically and fan-acclaimed character franchises to life through films, series and kids' shows available exclusively to Netflix members globally."
Over eight years later, and all the deal has delivered is Jupiter's Legacy, which was cancelled after one season, a quickly forgotten anime version of Super Crooks, and a six-episode adaptation of American Jesus titled The Chosen One.
While The Magic Order, Night Club, Huck, Empress, Prodigy, and Sharkey the Bounty Hunter have all been reported to be in development at one time or another, none of them have materialised. As comics published by either Image or, more recently, Dark Horse, these titles have found success, but never quite managed to reach the same heights as Millar's earlier creator-owned works, Kick-Ass, Kingsman, and Nemesis.
Unfortunately for Netflix, the rights to those are tied up elsewhere, and it appears the streamer's deal with the Ultimates, Civil War, and Superman: Red Son scribe has quietly ended.
Bleeding Cool reports that Millar renamed his company, Dave And Eggsy Ltd, to Mark Millar Productions Ltd back in January. His newer comic book projects, Psychic Sam and Conquered, appear to fall under that banner rather than the Netflix-owned Millarworld, and there may be a good reason for that...
"Might the Netflix contract have been up in January at the beginning of the year, alongside the company name change? With Netflix deciding it wasn't worth the million dollars a year to keep him on the company books? That is what is being suggested to me by people who should know. If true, it's no wonder he quit social media when the news that Netflix was buying Warner Bros. went public; it might have been too hard to avoid the questions about what his role might be, without revealing he was no longer a Netflix staff member."
Millar has frequently talked about launching his own movie studio and also teased the possibility of returning to Marvel or DC. It seems the Netflix deal didn't pan out as he likely hoped, as the slate of live-action projects we expected to see on the platform came to nothing.
Similar to Zack Snyder's lucrative Netflix deal that fell apart when the expensive Rebel Moon movies bombed, it's possible that Jupiter's Legacy left the streamer uncertain that movies and TV shows based on Millar's work would be a draw to subscribers (it was a pricey series, and drew largely negative reviews). That's a shame, particularly when so much of the Scottish writer's work is well-suited for the screen.
While there's still an audience for Millar's creator-owned comics, it feels like those largely come and go with little fanfare. Kick-Ass and Kingsman have also seemingly been shelved as film properties after their most recent instalments underwhelmed, so a return to either one of his former employers could be what's needed to get the writer behind many of their best—and controversial–stories from the 2000s back on the map.