Take A Look At Squirrel Girl From Marvel's Canceled New Warriors Series
There was an idea to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more... But it's not the group you're thinking about. Long after the Avengers pulled together, Marvel was plotting the course for six super-powered young people to team up in a series called "New Warriors." Based on the team from Marvel comics, the show planned to feature a Young Avengers-esque team of C-List heroes figuring out how to be heroes, including the popular character Squirrel Girl. "Cougar Town" and "Enlisted" creator Kevin Biegel was set as showrunner and writer for the series back in 2017, when the pilot was produced. And though it was ordered straight to series and planned to premiere on Freeform, the show didn't pan out.
Back in 2017, "New Warriors" was pulled from Freeform on reportedly amicable terms, because the network couldn't find a slot for the series to air. Even at the time, that story sounded a little fishy. Many began to speculate that the then in development streaming service Disney+ would become home to the series, to help pull in subscribers. But that never came to be, and the series was considered dead by the end of 2019.
Last night, Biegel took to Twitter (via CBR) to give the fans everything they wanted — well, everything short of the show itself. Biegel provided his take on the shows eventual cancelation. Earlier in the evening he teased fans by tweeting "feelin frisky. May do something uncouth," which then exploded into a series of revelatory tweets, including a look at Squirrel Girl and other characters. Posted on Wednesday night, the tweets have since been deleted.
However, the internet is forever, and you can still find images of Squirrel Girl if you just click on the right link.
Via his twitter account Biegel wrote,
"There's a show we wrote a few years ago.
It was very very proudly gay
A SINGULAR power that be killed the show. Because it was too gay. A rich, straight, Brentwood turd.
He got fired for being vile at his company.
We, on the other hand, live.#newwarriors
Biegel refrained from naming the mystery turd behind the "New Warriors" cancelation, but in a later tweet clarified that the executive wasn't Jeph Loeb, the prolific Marvel producer accused of racism on Netflix's "Iron Fist." (Loeb left Marvel in 2019.) It's certainly not uncommon for a show to be dropped after the production of a pilot, but the "New Warriors" disappearance came as a shock. The show was already generating plenty of buzz and even sparked a competitive bidding war that eventually landed it on Freeform.
Biegel's tweets stirred plenty of love from the Marvel fanbase, especially "New Warriors" followers who were left wondering why plans for the series evaporated. The series creator also got the attention of his star, Milana Vayntrub, once slated to play Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl) in the pilot. She wrote, "Doreen would try to reason with the higher-ups at @marvel and ask them to bring back #NewWarriors"
Doreen would try to reason with the higher-ups at @marvel and ask them to bring back #NewWarriors https://t.co/13FTFrzkhd
— Milana Vayntrub (@MintMilana) September 9, 2021
Biegel also shared a much closer look at "New Warriors," including behind the scene photos of Vayntrub as Squirrel Girl, in costume with her giant tail and squirrel sidekick, Tippy-Toe. He also shared footage from filming and even a clip from the unaired pilot that he played for his kids.
The New Warriors and What Could've Been
Here's how Marvel described "New Warriors" back in the initial press release.
"Marvel's New Warriors" is about six young people with powers living and working together. With powers and abilities on the opposite end of the spectrum of The Avengers, the New Warriors want to make a difference in the world... Even if the world isn't ready. Not quite super, not yet heroes, "Marvel's New Warriors" is about that time in your life when you first enter adulthood and feel like you can do everything and nothing at once — except in this world, bad guys can be as terrifying as bad dates."
From the sound of it, "New Warriors" would've centered a diverse group of C-List heroes. One of Biegel's tweets included a quote from the New Warriors script where a character (probably Debrii) describes herself as "Black. Queer. Powered." Given all the love from both creator and star, "New Warriors" was full of heart. It would've been an exciting change of pace for Marvel to center queer characters, instead of throwing them into background roles and patting themselves on the back for doing bare minimum representation. Disney's been doing the "look at our first gay character" dance for years now, so the cancelation of a series that wove diverse identities into its story is a major disappointment ... but sadly, not shocking.
Given Biegel has since deleted his tweets (both those explaining the cancelation and the behind the scenes photos) Twitter is already speculating that he's gotten a call from a Marvel higher up. Is it too much to hope that they took criticism to heart and might even move forward with the show's production? Probably. But fingers crossed.