Creator Mark Millar teases the epic scale of his Netflix superhero show, Jupiter's Legacy, calling it a mix of The Avengers, The Godfather Part II and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The first show produced as part of Millar's overall deal with Netflix, Jupiter's Legacy's first trailer confirmed a release date of May 7 of this year. Based on Millar's comic book series of the same name, Jupiter's Legacy's cast includes Josh Duhamel as The Utopian/Sheldon Sampson, Ben Daniels as Walter Sampson and Leslie Bibb as Grace Sampson, a family of superheroes who belong to The Union.
The cast also includes Tyler Mane as the villain Blackstar, as well as Elena Kampouris and Andrew Horton as Chloe and Brandon Sampson, the superpowered children of Sheldon and Grace, who struggle to live up to the immense legacy of their parents. The first images from the show revealed the detailed Millarworld costumes, proving that Millar and showrunner, Sang Kyu Kim, haven't strayed too far from the source material. Little else beyond those images has been seen, though, and fans are desperate for any news on what will be Millar's first big collaboration with the largest streaming service in the world.
Now Millar has revealed more about what to expect from the show while speaking to Empire. The British comics legend cites some lofty influences, from The Avengers to Francis Ford Coppola's multi-Oscar-winning crime family epic, The Godfather Part II, and even adds Stanley Kubrick's seminal sci-fi masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey to the mix. He adds that the story has a truly epic scope, taking place over 50 years, including a cast of "5o or 60" superheroes and villains. He ends by saying that Netflix never tried to curb his ambition on the series, always letting him go as big as he wanted. You can read his full comments, as well as take a look at a new image of Duhamel's Utopian and Mane's Blackstar battling it out, below:
[It's] part-2001, part-Avengers, part-Godfather II. It’s a 50-year story self-contained inside one franchise. It’s got a cast of 50 or 60 super-characters. The story starts in 1929 and runs until the end of time. It runs through all time and space and explains the mystery of human existence, all tied into a superhero story. There hasn’t been one conversation where someone said, 'Can we make that explosion slightly smaller?' Ambitious ideas are being rewarded.
The new image looks about as epic as the show Millar is promising, and if it proves to be even half as successful as any of the movies he's mentioned, Jupiter's Legacy will be one of the best TV shows ever. Of course, the creator would talk up his own series, but there's no doubting his ambition, particularly if he's trying to blend the high concept sci-fi of 2001 with the superhero action of The Avengers and the cross-timeline family drama of The Godfather Part II.
Whether Jupiter's Legacy actually pulls that off is another matter entirely. Shot in 2019, a process interrupted by the original showrunner's exit over "creative differences," the series has clearly had a long, hard road to release. Hopefully that's a sign of the immense post-production required to bring Millar's vision to life rather than signs of trouble, but with just a few months left before the release, more footage should roll out soon, and audiences will be able to make up their own minds.
Source: Empire