Half of IMDb’s Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2019 Are Based on Comics

The Internet Movie Database recently released their list of 2019’s most anticipated movies and TV series.

While Avengers: Endgame and Captain Marvel are on the feature film list, it is arguably even more interesting to see that fully half of the ten TV series listed are comic book adaptations.

The Umbrella Academy, Watchmen, The Boys, Deadly Class, and Doom Patrol are the five comic book titles on the list. None of those series will air on network TV, and each has a separate broadcast partner.

The Umbrella Academy is coming to Netflix next year, while Watchmen is on HBO. Amazon Prime has The Boys, SYFY has Deadly Class (to go with its other comic book series Krypton and Wynonna Earp), and Doom Patrol will spin out of Titans on DC Entertainment’s own branded DC Universe app.

The Umbrella Academy is written by Jeremy Slater. It is based on the Dark Horse Comics series written by Gerard Way and drawn by Gabriel Ba. The series tells the story of an eccentric, dysfunctional, and estranged family of superheroes. The family is forced to come together to solve the mystery of their father’s murder.

Watchmen will not adapt any specific comic books from the world created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, but will instead chart new territory within that world. “This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built,” showrunner Damon Lindelof said recently. “It must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens. Most importantly, it must be contemporary. The Old Testament was specific to the Eighties of Reagan and Thatcher and Gorbachev. Ours needs to resonate with the frequency of Trump and May and Putin and the horse that he rides around on, shirtless. And speaking of Horsemen, The End of the World is off the table…which means the heroes and villains – as if the two are distinguishable – are playing for different stakes entirely.”

The Boys is set in a world where superheroes embrace the darker side of their massive celebrity and fame. It revolves around a group of vigilantes known informally as “the Boys” who set out to take down corrupt superheroes with no more than blue-collar grit and a willingness to fight dirty. The Boys is based on the Dynamite Entertainment series of the same name, which is created by Preacher creator Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The television adaptation will be created by Rogen, Goldberg, and Supernatural and Timeless alum Eric Kripke, with the pilot episode directed by 10 Cloverfield Lane‘s Dan Trachtenberg.

Deadly Class follows a homeless teenager named Marcus (Bejamin Wadsworth) after he is recruited to a boarding school for budding assassins, is based on a comic book written by Rick Remender, who also produces the show. The pilot hits next month, but ComicBook.com has already had a chance to look at it, and we think it is one of the best comic book TV pilots ever made.

Doom Patrol is a re-imagining of one of DC’s most beloved group of outcast Super Heroes: Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Girl and Crazy Jane, led by modern-day mad scientist Dr. Niles Caulder (The Chief). The Doom Patrol‘s members each suffered horrible accidents that gave them superhuman abilities — but also left them scarred and disfigured. Traumatized and downtrodden, the team found purpose through The Chief, who brought them together to investigate the weirdest phenomena in existence — and to protect Earth from what they find. Part support group, part Super Hero team, the Doom Patrol is a band of super-powered freaks who fight for a world that wants nothing to do with them. Picking up after the events of Titans, Doom Patrol will find these reluctant heroes in a place they never expected to be, called to action by none other than Cyborg, who comes to them with a mission hard to refuse, but with a warning that is hard to ignore: their lives will never, ever be the same.

IMDb characterizes the list as “the 10 new TV shows and miniseries that will have series premieres in 2019 and consistently ranked highest on the IMDbPro proprietary weekly TV rankings throughout 2018…based on the actual page views of the more than 250 million monthly unique visitors to IMDbworldwide.”