After almost a year of silence, Academy Award winning screenwriter John Ridley has confirmed that his mystery project with Marvel Television is still "very much alive." As reported by IGN, Ridley gave the update during ABC's 2016 winter Television Critics Association press tour.

"The Marvel project is still very much alive," said Ridley, whose "American Crime" anthology series just began its second season on ABC. News of the partnership between Marvel and Ridley was first announced in April 2015. Ridley refrained from giving out too many details about the series, which he says is "still in development." Ridley, who won an Academy Award for adapting "12 Years a Slave" into a screenplay, did add that he wants the project to mix the social consciousness with "straight entertainment."

"You look at 'Jessica Jones,' and [Marvel's] doing an interesting job of integrating [social consciousness]," said Ridley. "I would say in general, graphic novels, their reason for existence is a little different. It's about wish fulfillment, whether you're talking about Peter Parker, a young, misunderstood kid trying to figure out his way; if you're talking about Bruce Wayne, a man who's dealing with the loss of his parents; whether you're talking about Clark Kent, an orphan who's trying to figure out what he's meant to do without the guidance of his parents.

"That's not unusual for the graphic novel space, so I would just say I hope that I would bring an appropriate amount of reflective sensibility to whatever project I may or may not be involved with in the Marvel universe. But I do want it to be entertaining in its own right."