In 2017, Disney announced a new television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe called New Warriors. The series would have focused on a team of six heroes -- Squirrel Girl (played by Milana Vayntrub), Mister Immortal (played by Derek Theler), Night Thrasher (played by Jeremy Tardy), Speedball (played by Calum Worthy), Microbe (played by Matthew Moy) and Debril (played by Kate Comer). Of all the New Warrior characters, Squirrel Girl in particular put this series on a lot of people's radar. This led to disappointment when the show never came to be.
The series was set to premiere alongside Cloak and Dagger on the Freeform channel back in 2018. However, as we know now, the ten-episode series never premiered on Freeform and, to this day, even the pilot remains unreleased. Many still wonder why a potentially successful MCU series would remain dead in the water.
Freeform Had No Room For It
In April 2017, Freeform greenlit a 10-episode first season for New Warriors. The series spawned from an initial pitch for a solo Squirrel Girl series. The first ten-episodes were planned to premiere on Freeform in 2018, with the intention being to launch spin-off shows based on the various characters in the New Warriors -- Squirrel Girl no doubt being an obvious candidate. Keith David was even cast as the Avenger's villain MODOK.
The pilot episode tested very well with audiences and things seemed to be on track for the series. However, in 2017, Freeform announced that the channel had no room for the New Warriors series on its 2018 schedule, forcing Marvel Television to sell the show to a different platform. As of 2017, Marvel Television was unable to sell their shows to any station not owned by Disney. Many people expected New Warriors to be sold to Hulu, which distributed The Runaways series. Disney, at the time, owned a large stake in the streaming platform and would go on to own more of it as the company increased its streaming presence.
However, as it turned out, Hulu selected not to greenlight New Warriors. Of course, it wasn't the only show to be rejected. Donald Glover's Deadpool animated series and the Ghost Rider solo series were also rejected. Even Hellstrom, which aired a single season on Hulu and was intended to launch a new universe of horror-centric MCU content, was ultimately canceled after one season.
The End of Marvel Television
New Warriors was a program developed by Marvel Television. One of the reasons why it is believed New Warriors is completely dead in the water is because Marvel Television no longer exists. In 2019, Marvel Studios absorbed Marvel Television as part of a bigger Marvel Studios consolidation.
This resulted in a lot of projects first produced by Marvel Television ending abruptly. While projects already in production, like Hellstrom, survived long enough to air on Hulu, projects not in active development were shut down. This included New Warriors. With the closure of Marvel Television, any hope that New Warriors would survive into the future of Marvel -- atleast in its current form - were dashed.
