Netflix's Jupiter's Legacy Loses Its Showrunner

Netflix's adaptation of the superhero comic Jupiter's Legacy has lost its showrunner. Steven S. DeKnight, who co-created and ran the first season of Marvel's Daredevil for Netflix, was set to helm the streaming service's new superhero series. According to Deadline, DeKnight, who has an overall deal in place with Netflix, left Jupiter's Legacy midway through filming, with four of the season's eight episodes already wrapped. The report attributes DeKnight's departure to "creative differences." The search for a new showrunner is said to already be underway, though Netflix does not plan to halt production in the meantime. Netflix hopes that continued production will lead to a smooth transition whenever the new showrunner is named.

Jupiter's Legacy began filming in July. The show is an adaptation of Mark Millar and Frank Quitely's superhero comic book. Netflix describes the series as "what would happen if a hero like Superman married Wonder Woman and had children... and those children grew up in the age of reality TV."

The show's cast includes Josh Duhamel as family patriarch Sheldon Sampson, aka the Utopian. Leslie Bibb plays Sheldon's wife Grace, aka Lady Liberty. Their children are Chloe, played by Elena Kampouris, and Brandon, played by Andrew Horton. Rounding out the cast is Ben Daniels as the family's Uncle Walter, aka Brain-Wave and Mark Wade as The Flare, a hero whose career ended early due to an accident.

The Jupiter's Legacy television series is part of the slate of new content being created based on the comic book works of Mark Millar after Netflix purchased Millar's comic book company, Millarworld.

The synopsis for the series reads: "A multi-generational American superhero epic, Jupiter's Legacy follows the world's first generation of superheroes who received their powers in the 1930's. In present day they are the revered elder guard, but their superpowered children struggle to live up to the legendary feats of their parents."

Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Dan McDermott are executive producers on the series. DeKnight was also an executive producer and directed the show's first episode.

Millar and Quitely launched Jupiter's Legacy in 2013. The comic book so far spans two core limited series and a prequel limited series titled Jupiter's Circle, which featured art by a variety of artists. The story is a post-modern take on superheroes that creates an entirely new set of heroes in the archetypes popular during the Golden Age of Comics and uses their lives and those of their children to examine the connection between superheroes and the ideals of America.

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