Marvel Reveals How ‘Inhumans’ Went From A Movie To A TV Show

Head of Marvel TV and The Inhumans executive producer Jeph Loeb has revealed how the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby creation, once poised to be a Marvel Studios production on the big screen, found its way to the small screen.

“Well, as you know Marvel is one big giant company, and this was a property that was in [the] movie division, and when they looked at their schedule and realized what they wanted to be doing, [Inhumans] was something that was gonna push very far out,” Loeb told That Hashtag Show. “So we started having a conversation with them about, ‘well, maybe this is something that would work as a television series.’ And that worked out really well.”

Marvel was developing The Inhumans as a live-action movie as far back as 2011, with a report from August 2014 saying the blockbuster factory wanted to handle the property in a manner similar to Guardians of the Galaxy, which proved itself a major late-summer hit. By October 2014, Inhumans was confirmed by Marvel Studios for a November 2, 2018 release date, a date that was later moved to July 12, 2019. Though the planned movie would have centered around Black Bolt and the Royal Family, the concept of “Inhumans” — altered beings who receive superhuman powers through a process known as “terrigenesis” — were introduced in the second season of ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., where it was later revealed one of the series’ leads, Daisy Johnson (Chloe Bennet), was of Inhuman heritage.

Inhumans fell off Marvel’s 2019 release schedule altogether in April 2016, with Marvel and ABC announcing The Inhumans for television in November 2016. The first two episodes of the series were co-financed by IMAX, with the episodes premiering in IMAX theaters worldwide earlier this month for a limited two-week engagement. An eight-episode series, Inhumans will air on ABC beginning September 29.

Inhumans debuted to poor reviews from critics and stands at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes with 12 reviews. Fans who saw Inhumans in theaters weighed in with mostly mixed to negative reactions, taking to the internet to reveal the series’ biggest flaws. Still, fans of the outcast Marvel Comics heroes hope the show will find its footing and make a recovery. The series comes after Marvel debuted Iron Fist and The Defenders to Netflix, earning a “rotten” and “fresh” rating, respectively. The next Marvel TV series, The Punisher, hits the streaming service in November.

You can read ComicBook’s in-depth Inhumans review here.

The first two episodes of Inhumans are now in IMAX theaters ahead of the series’ television debut on ABC Friday, September 29.