Brian Michael Bendis has offered an update on his planned Legion of Super-Heroes animated series for HBO Max, sharing a photo of the cover page of the pilot script's latest draft.
Bendis shared the sneak peek at his Legion of Super-Heroes script on Instagram. In addition to featuring the show's title and Bendis' writer's credit, the title page credits original Legion of Super-Heroes creators Otto Binder and Al Plastino. The second draft of Bendis' pilot was evidently completed this past April, with the third draft being completed just a couple of days ago on July 5. The writer's post also includes cover artwork from his and artist Ryan Sook's recent run on DC's Legion of Super-Heroes comic series. "LONG LIVE THE LEGION!" Bendis wrote. "#FingersCrossed."
Binder and Plastino's Legion of Super-Heroes first appeared in 1958's Adventure Comics #247, with the futuristic DC superhero team having been rebooted in the comics multiple times since. Bendis' run on Legion of Super-Heroes began in 2019 when he teamed with such artists as Jim Lee, Dusting Nguyen, Nicola Scott, the aforementioned Sook and more on the two-part limited series Legion of Super-Heroes: Millennium.
The Millennium limited series was followed up by a Legion of Super-Heroes ongoing series, written by Bendis and illustrated by Sook, which saw Jon Kent/Superboy join the titular team in the 32nd century. Bendis and Sook's Legion of Super-Heroes ran for a total of 12 issues from November 2019 to January 2021.
The Future Is Now
In December 2021, Bendis announced that he was developing an adult animated series based on his own Legion of Super-Heroes run for HBO Max. A children's Legion of Super-Heroes animated series focusing on a young Clark Kent/Superman previously aired for two seasons on Kids' WB from 2006 to 2008.
"HBO Max has put me to work on a Legion of Super-Heroes TV show," Bendis wrote in his initial announcement. "At the moment it is being developed as an adult animated show. Can you tell I am jumping up and down about this? I've been working on it for a while and last week I was sent to the next phase." The writer explained that, like his and Sook's comic series, the upcoming show would "harken back to so many classics while at the same time doing what Legion does: pushing all the ideas of superheroes forward in every direction."
Source: Instagram