‘The Walking Dead’ Creator Writing Violent ‘Invincible’ Animated Series Pilot

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman will write the pilot for the “adult animated” Invincible series based on his superhero comic book, Kirkman revealed Thursday during Skybound’s San Diego Comic-Con presentation.

Kirkman confirmed the animated series will be as violent as its comic book counterpart and hopes to have images from the series at next year’s Comic-Con.

“It is going to be as violent as the comic book series. And as far as staying close to the original story, I’m writing the pilot and I’m working very closely with Simon Cappioca to craft the series so it’s gonna be awesome,” Kirkman said.

In June, Amazon Studios issued a straight-to-series order for the hourlong adult drama animated series based on the recently concluded comic series penned by Kirkman and illustrated by Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley.

Kirkman’s Skybound produces with Kirkman, David Alpert (The Walking Dead), Catherine Winder (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) attached as executive producers. Simon Racioppa (Teen Titans) serves as showrunner and Justin and Chris Copeland (Ultimate Spider-Man) are on board as supervising directors.

Running for 15 years until its February conclusion, Invincible tells the story of 17-year-old Mark Grayson, who learns his father is Omni-Man, an alien and the planet’s most powerful superhero. When his own powers develop, Mark embarks on his own adventures, encountering superhero groups Teen Team and the Guardians of the Globe.

Invincible marks the first project birthed out of Kirkman’s first-look production deal Skybound inked with Amazon. Preacher EPs Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will write, direct and produce the Invincible movie, still in the works at Universal Pictures.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the series Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley and I did together for over 15 years. To know our characters will live on in multiple iterations in other media is almost too exciting to bear! What Amazon is allowing us to do in animated form is nothing short of ground-breaking, and I can’t wait for our rabid fan base to experience it,” Kirkman said in a statement announcing the series last month.

“Robert has an uncanny talent to predict the zeitgeist, and we are incredibly excited to see him break boundaries in an animated one-hour format,” added Sharon Yguado, head of scripted genre programming at Amazon Studios. “In a world saturated with superhero fare, we trust Robert to subvert expectations while encapsulating a story filled with heart and adrenaline. We love his ambitious plan for the show and believe it will look like nothing else on television.”

Amazon has not yet disclosed a premiere date.