Ruben Fleischer Compares Stumptown to Venom

This fall, Cobie Smulders speeds to ABC with Stumptown, an adaptation of the Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth comic of the same name. Venom helmer Ruben Fleischer is executive producing the project and teases fans that show could carry some tones from the symbiote-filled film. In a panel at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, Fleischer likened the process of creating Stumptown to the process on Venom, because both properties are comic book adaptations.

"The truth is, comic books — I think there's a reason why they're making their way to mainstream media," Fleischer said. "They're just great stories, great characters, and we are always, in the entertainment industry, looking for new stories. The great thing about artists like Greg, who have such a voice and such a vision, they make our job easier because they're providing such great source material and characters and stories to draw from. I think that's true for all the Marvel stuff as well as it is for more indie, smaller stuff, as well. It all comes back to character."

The same panel, Smulders revealed training for Stumptown was much tougher than anything she went through during her time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including on The Avengers and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

"It's always fun to do a job where you get to learn new skills," Smulders said. "We had an amazing team do the pilot and will continue to do great sequences. I think the thing that's very exciting about this show is, my character is not a superhero. She's not really skilled but she's a scrapper, and the fights we're going to see throughout the show are going to be really dirty and really grounded and very realistic. I'm a woman and I'm going to come up against men who are a hundred pounds heavier than I am, so it's finding ways to even out the playing field. That's been really cool to choreograph and get into."

Stumptown's cast includes Smulders, Tantoo Cardinal (Sue Lynn Blackbird), Cole Sibus (Ansel Parios), Adrian Martinez (Tookie), Camryn Manheim (Lieutenant Cosgrove), and Michael Ealy as detective Miles Hoffman. The show is executive produced by Ruben Fleischer and David Bernard (The District), Greg Rucka, Matthew Southworth, and Justin Greenwood (Stumptown).

Stumptown premieres on ABC September 25th.