Patrick Warburton Would Have Reprised Role For Amazon’s The Tick

When news first broke (August 2014) that Amazon was reviving The Tick, a live-action series based on Ben Edlund’s campy comic book of the same name, it was reported that Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld) would return to star as the Big Blue Bug of Justice—a part he played in Fox’s short-lived 2001 series. It was exciting news, but last March, it was Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy) who ended up getting officially cast as the wacky and deluded superhero.

While promoting Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Warburton revealed that he wanted to play The Tick again, but Amazon wanted to start from scratch. “It would’ve been fun to do it again,” Warburton told Vulture TV Podcast. “I actually would’ve liked to have done it, but Amazon had different ideas. They wanted to build it entirely new from the ground up, and so I’m 100 percent in support of that. Supermans get replaced. Batmans get replaced. Even the Tick.”

Has he seen Amazon’s remake yet? “Yes, I like it,” he shared. “Ben [Edlund] wanted to do a darker version. He wanted more creative control in this one. I’m a producer on it. He knows what he’s doing, and I think it’s great. It’s drier, straighter, more of an Adam West take.”

As for Warburton’s Tick series, it was filled with action, sarcasm and parody on the lives of superheroes. Although it was well-received by fans and critics alike, the network never had faith in it. “Over at Fox, they didn’t get what we were doing,” Warburton said. “They were even asking questions like, ‘Do these people need to wear costumes?’ They let us shoot nine episodes, and then held us for a year, and buried us. We were initially supposed to be on Sunday night, we had a great time slot. They put us on Thursday nights against year two of Survivor. So, they really fed us to the dogs. They did not want to support the show. They didn’t care that every critic seemed to like this show. It was too expensive, and they didn’t know what it was.”

In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an underdog accountant with zero powers comes to realize his city is owned by a global super villain long-thought dead. As he struggles to uncover this conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero.

The pilot for The Tick starred Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), Griffin Newman (Vinyl), Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen), Valorie Curry (House of Lies), Yara Martinez (Jane the Virgin) and Brendan Hines (Scorpion).

The Tick is executive produced by Ben Edlund (Supernatural), Barry Josephson (Bones) and Barry Sonnenfeld (A Series of Unfortunate Events), directed by Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight), and written by Edlund. The Tick is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television.

MORE: Costume Designs for Amazon’s The Tick / The Tick Ordered To Series By Amazon / The Tick: First Clips Released / Amazon Releases New The Tick Photos / The Tick TV Series Gets A Premiere Date / Jackie Earle Haley Cast as The Terror in Amazon’s The Tick / Lie to Me Actor Brendan Hines Joins The Tick / Star Wars Veteran Peter Serafinowicz To Play The Tick In Amazon’s Live-Action Revival

If you haven’t seen The Tick pilot yet, click here to watch it for free.