JUPITER’S LEGACY
HOW MARK MILLAR’S JUPITER’S LEGACY SUPER-SIZES THE SUPERHERO GENRE...
Mark Millar on his superepic superhero show.
Writer Mark Millar’s work has been the source for movies spanning the comic-book spectrum, from Kick-Ass to Kingsman to Captain America: Civil War. “The world is [now] so superhero and comic-book literate, we can actually go to strange places,” says Millar, very much honouring that statement with Jupiter’s Legacy, the first fruit of Netflix’s acquisition of the writer’s company, Millarworld. Exec-produced by Millar, the generationspanning series stars Josh Duhamel as Sheldon Sampson aka The Utopian, a failed superhero in a story that kicks off in the wake of the Wall Street Crash of 1929...
Why are you starting the MillarNetflix era with
Jupiter’s Legacy?
We looked at the catalogue – because I sold 20 franchises [to Netflix] – and out of them all, the one that I was most excited about, just as a superhero fan, was Jupiter’s Legacy. Culturally, after 20 years of Marvel movies, people were ready to go to the next level and see a big, massive epic that covers centuries.
What inspired Jupiter’s Legacy when you first wrote it?
I’d done a lot of big superhero books. So the idea of doing something smaller creatively wasn’t that exciting. I thought, “Well, I’ll just go for epic – I’ll do a superhero story that starts in 1929, runs all the way into the far future, covers everything from the meaning of human existence to interpersonal relationships to big superhero, grand plans.” Everything I’ve ever wanted to write in a superhero story with violence, action, all those things, all in one big story. My plan was to write The Lord Of The Rings for superheroes. A selfcontained epic that you could read in six volumes. And you never have to pick up another comic to understand it. Something that, in 100 years’ time, hopefully people still have on their shelf.
Did you originally think of this as a movie?
The producer I worked with, Lorenzo di Bonaventura [Transformers, RED, The Meg], said to me, “I’m going to take it out to some filmmakers and see their takes on it.” And Guardians Of The Galaxy’s James Gunn said, “I don’t think this is a movie. I think it’s too big, even for a trilogy of movies, because there is so much material. I mean, you’re covering literally millions of years of time, which is just too much for even six hours of movie. This is a television show.” And he was 100 per cent right.
What sets Jupiter’s Legacy apart from all those other superhero stories?
Nothing’s come close to what we are attempting in Jupiter’s. I mean, the Marvel Universe has had over 20 movies, probably about 46 hours of story. And we are trying to do something beyond all of that, more ambitious than any of it, inside one franchise. We’re trying to do
‘WE’RE TRYING TO DO SOMETHING THAT COVERS ALL TIME AND SPACE ’ MARK MILLAR
something that covers all time and space, the mystery of human existence. Everything is answered. Every question you’ve ever had about life is contained in this one superhero story! We’ve got everything you could want!
How was it collaborating with showrunner Steven S. DeKnight?
Superheroes are really easy to do badly. Marvel’s had a really good hit rate. But even then, there’s been a few clunkers, and a lot of stuff outside Marvel that hasn’t worked. Something as ambitious as this could have been a complete disaster. And so the fact Steven had done Netflix’s Daredevil, and is such an accomplished showrunner with a lot of experience, helped us here. In the wrong hands, this could have been terrible, but it worked out great.
What’s the biggest change that Steven implemented?
The books cover six volumes. The first two are set in the past, the next two are set in the present and the final two – which start this summer – take place in the future. And what Steven did, which was very smart, he combined the past and the present and gave it a Godfather Part II, Once Upon A Time In America structure. I had the story of a father in the beginning, and then a son in the next [volume]. And he did a Michael/Vito Corleone thing, splicing the two storylines together.
And it gave it a real power.
The ensemble cast is really strong in this series. What were your thoughts on Josh Duhamel playing The Utopian?
Josh had the hardest gig in the whole project because he’s playing The Utopian as a 30-year-old, and he’s playing The Utopian as a 120-year-old. It’s like playing Hamlet and King Lear in the same production. He’s the man at the end of time. And he’s also the guy who starts in the now. So he’s got to have a world-weariness – but also have that glint of total optimism. That’s why he calls himself The Utopian, because he envisions a better world.
And Josh really nailed it. I phoned Matthew Vaughn and I said, “Hey, guess who we’ve got as The Utopian?” And Matthew hates everybody, right? I’m so used to Matthew saying, “Ah, he’s shit!” whenever I mention anyone, and Matthew said, “He’s the real deal.” James Mottram
JUPITER’S LEGACY IS AVAILABLE ON NETFLIX FROM 7 MAY.