Netflix's first Millarworld venture, a live-action TV adaptation of Mark Millar and Frank Quitely's comic series Jupiter's Legacy, has been cancelled after a single season. But while that isn't particularly surprising, given the lukewarm response from critics and viewers alike, the detail that Jupiter's Legacy season 1 reportedly had a budget of $200 million is definitely a shock.
For context, the final season of Game of Thrones had a budget of $90 million, and The Mandalorian season 2 reportedly had a budget of $15 million per episode, or $120 million for the whole season. Jupiter's Legacy's $200 million budget puts it on par with recent Disney+ Marvel series WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in terms of cost. This has raised questions about what the money was spent on, given that Jupiter's Legacy was mocked for its cheap-looking wigs and costumes.
Though Millarworld was a major investment for Netflix, the streaming giant didn't originally green light Jupiter's Legacy with a $200 million budget. Speaking to The Scottish Sun in September 2020, Millar himself described it as a "$100 million show" - which, while still very lavish, is more in line with what would be expected of a Netflix fantasy series. For example, the first season of The Witcher had a budget of approximately $70-80 million. Where Jupiter's Legacy appears to have run significantly over-budget is in the reshoots that began in early January 2021. The series had a troubled production, with original showrunner Steven S. DeKnight leaving partway through production due to creative differences. Reshoots and pick-ups are a common part of TV production, but if Jupiter's Legacy had to be significantly reworked ahead of release then the costs could have quickly added up.
Another factor that would have driven up the budget for Jupiter's Legacy is season 1 being split between two different time settings, which required several of the actors to be aged up with make-up and wigs for the modern storyline. Though the excessive backstory and story set-up made the pace of the show drag, there were actually a number of expensive setpieces in it - such as the original superhero team's journey across a mysterious island, and a hilltop battle between supervillain Blackstar and the superheroes of the Union of Justice.
Ultimately, a big budget doesn't automatically mean a quality TV show, or even a good-looking TV show. By the same token, a clear vision and judicious spending can make a smaller budget go a long way. Another recent Netflix fantasy offering, Shadow and Bone, had a budget of less than $25 million for its first season, according to a film industry report from About Hungary. While those numbers may not reflect the total final cost, Shadow and Bone is a prime example of a show that had used its budget to create a truly epic feel, and Jupiter's Legacy looks rather cheap by comparison.