FX Boss Says Marvel Cancelled Donald Glover’s Deadpool Series

Creative savant Donald Glover had plans to make an animated Deadpool series for FX, but those plans were cancelled unceremoniously. In response, Glover revealed a script for an unmade episode, seemingly written in response, that skewered both Marvel Television and current pop culture in a way that only Wade Wilson could.

At the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour, FX CEO John Landgraf revealed that Marvel pulled the plug on the series Donald was creating with his brother Stephen Glover, though he didn’t specify why.

“They didn’t want to do the show that Donald and Stephen [Glover] wrote,” Landgraf said. “We would have done the show that Donald and Stephen wrote, but it wasn’t our decision. When Marvel decided not to do that show, we parted company with them, as did Donald and Stephen.”

FX and the Glovers still have a fruitful partnership, having just wrapped up the second season of the award-winning series Atlanta, and it seemed like they were poised to continue on that path into the future.

Fans were left confused after FX’s statement on the cancellation, which chalked up the reasons to the oft-quoted issue of “created differences.”

“Due to creative differences, FX, Donald Glover, Stephen Glover and Marvel Television have agreed to part ways on Marvel’s Deadpool animated series,” said the statement from the network. “FX will no longer be involved with the project. FX and Marvel have an ongoing relationship through our partnership on Legion, which will continue.”

While Legion has been renewed for Season 3, there’s no telling where — or if — the Deadpool animated series will show up.

Rumors began to surface that Glover was too busy to work on the Deadpool show, given his obligations to Solo: A Star Wars Story, the live-action remake of The Lion King, Atlanta, and his music as Childish Gambino, but the creator refuted those claims when he posted a “finale” script for the series that took aim at topical events and the cancellation itself, seemingly written in just a few days.

“For the record: I wasn’t too busy to work on Deadpool,” Glover wrote in a since deleted tweet. He then proceeded to post the full script for the hypothetical episode.

Either way, it sounds like Landgraf is still upset with Marvel Television’s decision to back out of the series. But it’s only freed up Glover to pursue more creative endeavors without corporate overheads to appeal to, which might be better for his career in the long run.

[h/t Variety]