Marvel Studios Didn’t Let Hit-Monkey Use Surprising Netflix Character

Despite Hulu’s animated Marvel projects being as separated from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as two properties could possibly be, there were some regulations in place on what characters the animated shows could use. Earlier this year, Kevin Smith revealed he and his team on Howard the Duck couldn’t use Werewolf by Night and now, it seems as if the Hit-Monkey team wanted to use an iconic Daredevil villain but were shut down.

Speaking with Murphy’s Multiverse, Hit-Monkey creators Will Speck and Josh Gordon revealed the show wanted to use Bullseye in the series, except the powers that be said they couldn’t.

“Yes, Bullseye. Bullseye was in the original issues of Hit-Monkey and that was who we originally thought we would use but for various reasons, we couldn’t,” the duo told the website of charactesr they weren’t able to use.  “But Marvel offered us Lady Bullseye instead and we thought, ‘Wow. That’s so much more interesting since she’s a character we haven’t seen much of yet.’ We were thrilled that we got that pivot.”

Instead, the series uses lesser-known Marvel characters like Lady Bullseye, Silver Samurai, and Iron Fist supporting character Fat Cobra. Unlike Smith earlier in the year, Speck and Gordon didn’t express whether or not they’d heard the film division had planned on using Bullseye.

“Two years ago when we announced, ‘Hey, we’re gonna be doing Masters of the Universe!‘ which is now about to happen, we also announced ‘Hey, we’re gonna be doing Howard the Duck!’ over at Hulu, remember that?” Smith shared with fans in July. “For a red hot minute, I was working on Howard the Duck and before Dave [Willis, Aqua Teen Hunger Force co-creator] involved, when it was just me, Jeph Loeb was like ‘Hey man, I think you’d be good for Howard the f–king Duck.’ I reached out to Walter Flanagan from Comic Book Men and told him I’m gonna take a stab at all the f–king 70s characters. Walt was giving suggestions and Werewolf By Night was absolutely on the list.”

He added, “In my head, as I started building my season, I was like, ‘Alright. Episode 5. Werewolf by Night.’ The idea of our story was that Howard was trapped here and he was trying to get pages of the Darkhold, which would allow him to go back. There’s Howard as I’m laying it out and then I go into Jeph and told him what I wanted to do, and that’s when they said ‘You can’t use Werewolf by Night,’ and I asked why. They said the movie division was using him.”

Hit-Monkey hits Hulu on November 17th while Bullseye can be seen in Daredevil Season 3, now streaming on Netflix. What other Marvel characters would you like to see in an animated series? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things Marvel!