Marvel Star Don Cheadle Nabs Rights to Image Comics Series Rogues’ Gallery

Marvel mainstay Don Cheadle is about to head into an entirely new superhero domain. On Wednesday, it was announced that Cheadle’s production company This Radicle Act has optioned the recent Image Comics series Rogues’ Gallery, with the goal of turning it into a television series. Cheadle, who is next set to star in Marvel’s Secret Invasion and Armor Wars, has a first look deal with Industrial Media, and is expected to produce the series alongside Karyn Smith-Forge and This Radicle Act. The Rogues’ Gallery comic is written by Ballers and Nova Vita actress Hannah Rose May with art by Justin Mason. May is set to serve as EP and producer through her Weird Neighbour Productions banner.

Rogues’ Gallery follows Maisie Wade, who has just quit her role as the Red Rogue, a massively popular comic book character. But when her abrupt exit from Red Rogue’s hit TV series leads to its unceremonious cancellation, Maisie finds herself trapped in her own home by a group of unhinged superfans. Dressed up in the cosplay of the Red Rogue’s arch villains, these diehards want to teach Maisie a lesson. If Maisie is to survive the night, she must become the hero she has grown to despise.

Shortly after the news was publicly announced, May took to Twitter to say that she’s “humbled, honored, grateful and still in a state of shock.” She added: “as a longtime fan of @DonCheadle for both his talent and for what he stands for, this is an honor I can’t put into words.”

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“If Rogues’ was to be adapted into a show or feature, I’d absolutely want the book’s discourse to be the engine that drives the adaptation,” May told CBR in an interview earlier this year. “It’d be very interesting to see how fans of our comic would react to its adaptation, which I think could be its own meta-narrative within itself. I’d, of course, hope that the fans of the comic would cheer on any adaptation because it meant that Maisie, The Red Rogue, and Rogues’ Gallery‘s message was reaching a new, wider audience. I wish there were as many comic book readers as there are film/TV watchers, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. I’ve always been a big fan and believer of edutainment, and the goal with Rogues’ Gallery has always been to help shed a light on toxic fandom and the pain it causes. If an adaptation can help further that conversation, I’d like to think that fans of the book would celebrate it regardless of who plays Maisie or what liberties are taken.”

h/t: Deadline