Marvel Pulls 'New Warriors' From Freeform; Eyeing Online Streaming Services Instead

In some out-of-nowhere news earlier this morning, The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that New Warriors won’t air on Freeform, rather — it will be shopped around to different networks for its first season. From the mind of showrunner Kevin Biegel — New Warriors was supposed to have a ten-episode first season on the freshly-rebranded ABC Family, but according THR, Freeform was unable to get a time slot for the show.

We are extremely excited about Marvel’s New Warriors and look forward to finding the perfect partner to launch the series with in 2018,” said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Entertainment

While THR mentions that the show could find its home on Disney’s much-anticipated streaming service, their insiders say that it’s a longshot given how a 2019-launch date is being eyed for the service and how Marvel wants New Warriors out by 2018. THR also notes that may be taken to other streaming services instead. Perhaps the biggest news hidden within this announcement (among several others) is that a pilot has been filmed — and tested — and was well-received, attracting the attention of several high-level Disney executives. With the show receiving high praise after testing, and Freeform unable to give it a proper timeslot, Marvel TV asked for the rights back to shop around and Freeform had no choice but to oblige. Marvel is super confident with the show that they’re said to be eyeing an instant two-season pick up, wherever it may land.

In addition to that, THR sources are saying that New Warriors was a property Freeform sought out way before Cloak & Dagger became a thing on their show and that the network bidding was super competitive. Why Freeform couldn’t make way for a show they wanted badly is beyond us. However drastic this change may seem, it does bode well for the series given how many appropriate platforms there are out there for New Warriors.

Source:  The Hollywood Reporter.