Buoyed by the successful adaptation of Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba’s The Umbrella Academy, Netflix has inked a first-look deal with Dark Horse Entertainment. This is great news for the publisher, which recently has lost several high-profile licences including Star Wars (Marvel), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BOOM! Studios), and recently Usagi Yojimbo (IDW Publishing). This also strengthens Netflix’s inroads with the comic book community, having acquired Millarworld in 2017.

It’s unclear if this deal includes the Mignolaverse properties, such as Hellboy, BPRD, and Lobster Johnson. However, those could use a bit of rehabilitation in the broader public eye after this year’s disastrous Hellboy movie.

For the official press release, see below.

MILWAUKIE, Ore. (May 9, 2019)—
  • Netflix has closed a first look deal with Dark Horse Entertainment. Under the new deal, Dark Horse Entertainment will give Netflix a first look at its IP for both film and TV and has started exploring future projects. Dark Horse Entertainment’s Mike Richardson, Keith Goldberg and Paul Schwake signed on to produce.
  • Netflix and Dark Horse have previously collaborated on the action-comedy series The Umbrella Academy, which was recently renewed for a second season, as well as Jonas Åkerlund’s feature film Polar.
  • “We are very excited about this new arrangement with the talented people at Netflix,” said Mike Richardson, Dark Horse Entertainment’s President and Founder. “We have strong creative relationships as well as a large content library to work with and, as we have seen with our recent projects, Netflix is the perfect partner to bring our stories to fans around the world.”
  • “With The Umbrella Academy and Polar, Netflix has pushed our content out into the world and allowed it to spread in a way that we’ve never experienced before, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring a whole new slate of movies and shows to their world-wide audience,” said Keith Goldberg, Senior Vice President,Dark Horse Entertainment.

  • “Following the success of The Umbrella Academy, we’re excited to extend our relationship with Dark Horse Comics,” said Cindy Holland, Vice President, Original Content for Netflix. “The Netflix teams are already working in deep collaboration with Dark Horse to identify projects beyond the world of traditional superheroes — branching into horror, fantasy and family entertainment — that we think our members will love.”

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Dan was introduced to the 1960s Batman show at a young age, which developed into a lifelong passion for comics. When he's not grinding out his day job, he can be found reading about Scarlet Speedsters, Web-Heads, or Sagas just about anywhere. If it's good he'll read it. If it's bad... there's a chance he still might read it.