Can The Russo Brothers Do Comedy Hero TV Right? Quantum & Woody Are Headed To Small Screen
by Staff
As reported exclusively on The Wrap and now around the web, the Producers on a Quantum & Woody TV show have been announced as the Russo Brothers, who intend to start work on that project when they have finished filming the latest Avengers film. Take a moment to reflect on that sentence and what a great development this is for Valiant Entertainment. Quantum & Woody are interracial, adopted, “estranged siblings, petty rivals, and washed-up failures”, to use Valiant’s words, who end up as a painfully inseparable superhero team trying to avenge their father’s death.
Recently, at Emerald City Comic Con, the director on Valiant’s Bloodshot film with Sony was announced as Blur Studio Partner Dave Wilson, making waves, a film which will be written by Eric Heisserer, writer of the Oscar-nominated film Arrival.
This follows on from building excitement over their digital webseries Ninjak vs. The Valiant Universe. So, all in all, it’s an era of screen development for Valiant, and one which offers viewers an alternative or accompaniment to films and TV shows featuring characters from DC and Marvel.
But there is a significant difference here, as fans of Quantum & Woody will point out–the comedy element in their comics are much stronger than we’ve yet seen in hero TV. Powerless has aired on NBC to mixed reviews–the pilot particularly met with criticism–though more recent episodes seem to have found their stride. But even in that case, heroes are a backdrop, not a central feature. Comedy in hero shows hasn’t yet been done right, and maybe this is a niche that Quantum & Woody can step into and show us not only that it can be done, but it can be done well.
With comedic films like Deadpool breaking the box office, it makes sense that we should see mixed-genre TV shows based on comics do well also. We just need the right material, and Quantum & Woody has plenty of promise. Then we need the right support from like-minded Producers who will commit to comedy. And we’re looking at you, Russo Brothers.
The fact that Executive Producers with experience working on the Ant-Man films, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari are also attached, is another good sign.
