Marvel Turned Down Its Own Clone Wars TV Series by Genndy Tartakovsky

The creator of Samurai Jack and Primal pitched a Marvel Cinematic Universe animated series of his own.

By Evan Valentine

Genndy Tartakovsky has become a legend in the animation world and for good reason. Creating major series including Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, Unicon: Warriors Eternal, and Primal, the animator continues to work on new projects that are sure to shake up the medium. While Tartakovsky might have legendary status, it doesn't mean that all his proposed projects are brought to life. The future of the adult animated film Fixed remains up in the air and it appears that Genndy once had a major idea for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In a new interview, the animator stated that he was aiming to bring his Clone Wars aesthetic to Marvel.

If you're unfamiliar with Genndy Tartakovsky's Star Wars: Clone Wars animated projects, the two television series arrived in 2003 and isn't to be confused with Star Wars: The Clone Wars released in 2008. In the two-season series, viewers followed Anakin Skywalker, Obi Wan Kenobi, and several big-time Jedi as they fought in the titular conflict. Taking place between the live-action prequel films, Star Wars: Attack of The Clones and Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith, the series was beloved by many viewers and is currently available to stream on Disney+.

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(Photo: Disney)

The Marvel Project That Never Was

In chatting with the outlet Collider, Tartakovsky revealed that years prior, he had pitched Marvel's Kevin Feige on an animated superhero series focusing on the world-renowned superheroes, "At the time, I had my own studio, and we were floundering. It was around 2008 and 2009, and couldn't get any work. It was the recession. I went into Marvel to pitch them an animated superhero series, like, 'I can take your characters and do what I did with Star Wars: Clone Wars.' So I met with Kevin Feige, and we started talking, and he goes, 'You know, Jon Favreau is a big fan of yours. Do you mind if he calls you?' And I was like, 'Yeah, of course.'"

While this project would never see the light of day, the pitch did score Genndy a job working on Iron Man 2, "And so then Jon actually called, and the animated superhero thing they weren't really interested in. So, Jon calls and we met for lunch, and he talked about how he really liked Samurai Jack and the way I do stuff. He actually told me that in Iron Man 1 he would look at the way I structured an action sequence, and he would kind of try to follow it, which was super, super nice. So, he asked if I could help him with the big action ending on Iron Man 2, and I said, 'Yeah, of course.' I just kind of got in there and just did what I did, and it was super interesting."

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(Photo: Adult Swim)

Tartakovsky's Future

As mentioned earlier, Tartakovsky's Fixed might never be released by Warner Bros. Despite this Genndy has stated in the past that both himself and his studio is working on Primal's third season. Based on how the prehistoric series ended its second season, expect some big changes with the next chapter as Tartakovsky has stated he is looking to explore a more anthology style. On top of the Adult Swim series, Genndy is also working on an animated movie titled "Black Knight", though details about its story are few and far between.

Want to stay up to date on Tartakovsky and Marvel's animated futures? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on the anime world and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime. 

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