Jeff Lemire Penning 'Black Hammer' TV Pilot

It's been all but a few weeks since news surfaced that Jeff Lemire and Dean Ormston had gotten their hit comic Black Hammer optioned by Legendary Pictures. When news first broke of the movie and television option, it was initially reported that Legendary had planned on creating a universe in and of itself.

Now, new reports suggest that at least one television is moving into development with Lemire himself penning the script for the pilot. According to Lemire, he needed to be "intimately involved" if he ever chose to option Black Hammer and its associated properties.

"TV/film development was something I was becoming more involved in, but I decided with Black Hammer, because it's so personal and near and dear to my heart, if I was ever going to option and develop it, I had to be intimately involved," Lemire told SYFY WIRE. "As far as that adaptation, I do have to be the one that is creatively steering that ship, like the comic."

"I'm the one that's writing the pilot for the initial project and that's my focus now."

Outside of the fact that Lemire is writing a pilot for a show, details remain scarce on what Legendary exactly has planned. According to the Gideon Falls scribe, a shared universe is definitely a piece of the puzzle.

"The idea is that it's multiple projects — some film, some TV, and a sort of shared universe."

The initial Black Hammer series debuted in 2016 and ran for 13 issues before walking away with the Best New Comic Eisner Award in 2017. Though Lemire has gone on to do work for the "Big Two" publishers — like an illustrious run on Moon Knight — the creator has turned his focus to creator-owned books.

"I reached a point in my life and career a year or two ago where Black Hammer, Gideon Falls, and Descender and other creator-owned books like Plutona were now my focus and not so much work-for-hire stuff," Lemire reflected. "I felt more control of what I was doing creatively, and satisfied with that... It's awesome once you get there, when you achieve something, but you look for the next challenge too. Film and television certainly started to be more intriguing to me over the last couple of years."

"It's scary but it's also exciting to try and take these all of characters that I love and built over the last decade and try to work them in a new medium and storytelling style. It's a new challenge for me, but it's fun!"

Are you excited to see a Black Hammer television show? Who would you cast as Colonel Weird? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!