Netflix drops plan for live-action version of Dark Horse’s Grendel comic

Netflix had ordered an adaptation of Grendl a year ago

Netflix’s planned eight-part live-action adaptation of the long-running Grendel comic book is not going ahead.

Commissioned a year ago under the streamer’s first-look deal with Dark Horse Entertainment, the production arm of comic book publisher Dark Horse Comics, the project had been set to star Abubakr Ali as a gifted fencer, writer and assassin who is out for revenge following the death of a loved one.

Andrew Dabb (Supernatural) was attached as the writer, executive producer and showrunner. Matt Wagner, the creator of the original comic book, was also executive producing.

The cancellation of the show will not affect the first-look agreement between Netflix and Dark Horse Entertainment, and C21 understands the producers will have the chance to shop the project elsewhere.

The companies have worked together on several other projects including feature film Polar, The Umbrella Academy and CGI action-comedy Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles. They also have a pair of projects in development, Mind MGMT and Revenge Inc.

In addition to Ali, the Grendel adaptation had also been set to star Jaime Ray Newman (Dopesick), Julian Black Antelope (The Flash), Madeline Zima (Californication), Kevin Corrigan (Scenes from an Empty Church), Emma Ho (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds), Erik Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs Maisel), Brittany Allen (What Keeps You Alive) and Andy Mientus (The Flash).

Other genre shows coming down the pipe for Netflix in the coming months include The Midnight Club, The Witcher: Blood Origin, Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities, 3 Body Problem, One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender, in addition to new seasons of Stranger Things and The Umbrella Academy.