One of the Best Unadapted Comic Books of All Time is Finally Getting a TV Series

With the seemingly unlimited supply of comic book movies from Marvel and DC, the smaller indies often get swept aside when they come out. However, there are exceptions, such as with the extremely successful Invincible and The Boys, which both have been massive hits on Prime Video. Other comics from outside the Big 2 have also had some success thanks to streaming, with titles like Locke & Key, The Umbrella Academy, and classics like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Spawn. In a recent announcement by the comics creator, it sounds like another great comic book series is coming to television.

Artist Rob Guillory took to social media and announced in a since-deleted post that his comic book Chew is actively in development for live-action TV at Blumhouse Productions/Atomic Monster. “It’s been kind of a secret, but the paperwork is done, so might as well start telling people,” Guillory wrote. “The Blumhouse/Atomic Monster folks are fantastic, so we’re excited to be working with them.”

What Can Fans Expect from Chew?

Chew is a comic book that follows Tony Chu, an FDA agent who gets psychic visions from anything he eats (a cibopath). His first mission sees him eating chicken soup and learning in a vision that the chef killed someone. When he eats part of the chef’s tongue to learn the names of all the victims, he is fired by the Philadelphia PD and hired by the FDA. The entire series has a character with food-related powers, each doing something different when they eat food. With an absurdist concept and a masterful blend of crime drama, sci fi, and slapstick humor, there is a lot here that a streaming series can tap into.

Artist Rob Guillory and writer John Layman created the title for Image Comics in 2009, and it ran for 60 issues, ending in 2016. Throughout its run, Chew won two Eisner Awards and two Harvey Awards. The original 60-issue series was collected in 12 trade paperbacks. There was initially an animated adaptation in the works in 2014 with Steven Yeun (Invincible), Felicia Day, and Robin Williams. After Williams died, David Tennant replaced him, but the series remained unmade by 2017.

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Nothing is known about the upcoming Chew adaptation other than the fact that Blumhouse is involved, and Guillory is working with them on the project. He also said that he wasn’t allowed to say anything else about the project other than that it exists. The fact that he removed the original announcement post from his social media makes it look like the studio wants to keep things under wraps while it develops the project. This is one of several Image Comics series that are coming to TV, with James Tynion IV’s WorldTr33 coming to Netflix and Matt Fraction’s Sex Criminals coming to Prime Video.

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