Kevin Smith Confirms His Howard the Duck Marvel Show Is Still Moving Forward on Hulu

The last few months have brought some major changes to Marvel Entertainment. This fall it was announced that the company would undergo a massive reorganization that would bring all of the company’s various facets shifted to being under the supervision of Kevin Feige, who himself was making the move from president of Marvel Studios to the role of Chief Creative Officer over the entire Marvel outfit. That includes Marvel Television, meaning that Jeph Loeb would part ways with the company, marking a new direction for the division. It’s something that filmmaker and fan Kevin Smith welcomes — and insists that the changes haven’t had any impact on his Howard the Duck series for Hulu.

During a recent episode of his Fatman Beyond podcast with Marc Bernardin, Smith spoke at length about Loeb’s impact on Marvel Television, while also expressing that he was very excited for the direction things were going now, particularly noting that he’s heard nothing but good things about Disney+’s WandaVision.

“Jeph I spoke to about it not too long ago. He wasn’t like ‘f**k!’ he was like ‘this is cool, I’m ready to do something,’” Smith said about Loeb’s time at Marvel Television coming to a close. “Remember, we’re now coming into an age where Kevin Feige has the Marvel shows on Disney+ and they’re gonna be f**king amazing. Everything I’ve heard about WandaVision is f**king incredible.”

“That being said there was a time when we were so f**king delighted to have a legit wonderful Daredevil and that came from Jeph,” Smith continued. “We were so excited, maybe I was, to have a legit wonderful Runaways. I absolutely loved that f**king show. That came from them. A lot of people love Agents of SHIELD, that came from f**king them. The list goes on and on and they were carrying the torch and trying to connect them to the movies when they were allowed and stuff like that. I thought they did a wonderful job, the whole way. There’s nobody who leaves that operation with shame. And I’ll be honest with you, it makes absolute sense what they’re doing, to put it all under Kevin Feige, like he’s got the movies now, he’s got the TV shows and the comic books it sounds like are going to be under him as well. That makes absolute f**king sense. That being said, it takes nothing away from all the great work that Jeph and Marvel Television have done for the last ten years.

Smith then went a bit further and revealed that things, for the moment, are still going forward with his animated Howard the Duck show being developed for Hulu.

“Now, Marvel TV won’t cease to exist it’s just becoming this different version. I hear the Hulu shows are still alive. So far, so good for Howard the Duck. I’ll let you know if anything happens,” he said.

The animated Marvel’s Howard the Duck series was announced back in February along with three other series, including Patton Oswalt’s Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. Since that initial announcement there hasn’t been much in the way of additional updates, though during the “Kevin Smith Reboots Hall H” panel at San Diego Comic-Con back in July Smith acknowledged that work had not yet started in earnest on the series at that time.

“In terms of the order of the shows, right now, our show goes last,” Smith said. “Right now it’s MODOK, then Hit-Monkey, then Dazzler & Tigra, then Howard the Duck. My partner on that show is the brilliant Dave Willis who created Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He’s the sensibility that you want to go along with Howard. I’m there, I’ll give it my all, but Steve Gerber’s Howard was genre-bending. We need a genre-bender to come in and work on the show, so Dave is putting together a writers room that I’ll add some people to, too, and then we’re going to be moving forward within the next 2 months our writers’ room opens up. We’re a year away from the cartoon, to be honest with you, but I’m sure it will be good, because Marvel doesn’t do anything bad.”

While Smith didn’t have any specific updates about Howard the Duck during the podcast or that rough timeline that he offered this summer, he did remain confident about the direction things with Marvel Television were going in the future.

“I think, ultimately, it’s sad to see an era come to an end, but I kind of look forward to see what they’re doing next,” he said.

Are you still looking forward to Smith’s Howard the Duck series? Let us know in the comments below.