Donald Glover's 'Deadpool' Animated Series At FX Was Shut Down By Marvel

This past spring, fans were disappointed to learn that the Deadpool animated series ordered by FX and written by Donald Glover and his Atlanta co-writer Stephen Glover had been given the axe. At the time, creative differences were cited as the reason for the Deadpool animated series cancellation, and now we know it's Marvel who didn't like that the Glover Bros. had planned for the Merc with a Mouth.

Speaking to Variety at the Television Critics Association press tour, FX CEO John Landgraf revealed Marvel didn't want to move forward with the kind of series Donald and Stephen Glover had written. Landgraf said:

"I think that Marvel will revive it, because they have the rights. They own the IP and they have the rights to do an animated adult series based on any of the X-Men characters, and based on Deadpool specifically. They didn't want to do the show that Donald and Stephen [Glover] wrote. We would have done the show that Donald and Stephen wrote, but it wasn't our decision. When Marvel decided not to do that show, we parted company with them as did Donald and Stephen. Now it's totally up to them [Marvel] whether they hire someone else to do a different show."

This pretty much confirms what many had assumed after Donald Glover wrote a 14-page script mocking the cancellation of the series in the style of what the animated series might have looked like. It was chock full of pop culture references and self-referential jokes about the cancellation of the show, hinting at Marvel's distaste for what the Glover Bros. had conceived for the foul-mouthed mutant mercenary.

More than likely, the show was more edgy and obscure than Marvel might have hoped. Remember, this isn't 20th Century Fox we're talking about, who pretty much have free reign to do what they want with the character on the big screen. This would have come straight from Marvel, and maybe they're not looking to craft a series that felt much more TV-MA than TV-14.

If you want to read the pages that Donald Glover posted to Twitter shortly after the Deadpool animated series was canceled, you can still check them out over here (even though he deleted the original tweets containing the script pages). But they'll just make you lament the fact that Marvel didn't want to move forward with the series. Stay tuned to see if Marvel tries to get a different version of a Deadpool animated series off the ground.