8 Years Later, Marvel Writer Remembers the Canceled TV Show Whose Hero Would’ve Ended Doomsday In One Minute
2018 was a tough year for Marvel Television. Netflix began to wind down its Marvel partnership, while Marvel Studios prepared to take over TV show production ahead of the launch of Disney+. Perhaps the saddest of all was the cancellation of New Warriors, teased as a humorous show “with powers and abilities on the opposite end of the spectrum of The Avengers.” Milana Vayntrub had been announced as New Warriors‘ Squirrel Girl alongside the rest of the cast, and the show was supposed to air in April 2018. But 2018 came and went, and New Warriors died – with no explanation ever really given.
Over on X, users have found themselves remembering New Warriors‘ cancellation – with the amusing comment that the “Unbeatable” Squirrel Girl would have ended Avengers: Doomsday in a minute if the show hadn’t been cancelled. This has prompted writer Demi Adejuyigbe (The Good Place, Ghostbusters, The Late Late Show) to reminisce over writing two episodes of the show.
What Actually Happened to New Warriors?
New Warriors would have been a very different kind of Marvel TV show, one with a much more humorous edge. Looking back, it would have foreshadowed some of Marvel Studios’ more experimental shows; WandaVision, She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, and the like. The pilot reportedly performed well, but Freeform passed on the show, and it never found a new streaming home. Most viewers assumed New Warriors got caught up in behind-the-scenes drama, given Disney’s preparations for Disney+. The old Marvel Television was wound down in 2019, with Marvel Studios taking charge of shows as well as movies. The rest, as they say, is history.
That said, back in 2021 there were reports of another reason. Per ScreenRant, showrunner Kevin Biegel shared a swiftly-deleted post on social media claiming he’d worked on a show that was “very proudly gay,” and that it was killed by “a singular power that be.” He never specified who he blamed, but fans have long suggested he alluded to either former Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter or Marvel Television’s Jeph Loeb. Biegel spoke pleasantly of Loeb elsewhere, and Adejuyigbe praises Loeb in the above comments, so attention will naturally focus on Perlmutter now.
Whatever the truth may be, the sad reality is that New Warriors has become Marvel’s ultimate “What if?” project. Some hoped the show would air on Disney+, but there never seemed any real chance of that – and certainly not now, eight years later, as Marvel seem to be winding down TV output altogether. There’s still a desperate desire to see Squirrel Girl in the MCU, especially given the character’s new popularity in the wake of Marvel Rivals. If it does happen, it’s sure to be a very different version; Vayntrub’s incarnation, and the rest of the New Warriors, are sadly consigned to history. It’s a disappointing fate for what could have been a tremendous series.
