Spoon! The long-in-development-hell reboot series for The Tick is finally going to see the light of day very soon thanks to Amazon. The series was announced during Comic-Con 2016 and will star Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy) as the big, lovable, blue goof superhero and Griffin Newman (Vinyl) as his level-headed, nerdy sidekick, with Amazon announcing today that the pilot will be available to stream on August 19.
In addition to the release date announcement, we also got a crop of new images from The Tick including the first look at Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen) as a very creepy looking super-villain, a couple other nefarious-looking tattooed people, and a few new shots of The Tick and Arthur.
Check out the new gallery of The Tick images from Amazon below:
Boy, I just have no idea what to make of this show. I love the original The Tick comics and cartoon and came to enjoy the 90’s Patrick Warburton live-action show on Fox. But this show is definitely none of those prior incarnations, judging by the images Amazon has released.
But there is no denying the talent involved in this particular version, with original creator/writer Ben Edlund, who has written some of the greatest episodes of many television series including Angel and Supernatural, executive producing alongside big name director Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black, Pushing Daisies). The pilot is also being director by Wally Pfister, the cinematographer for The Dark Knight.
Here’s Edlund himself talking about getting the series final up and running:
“This has been a labor of love for Amazon, Sony, and all of us. The only way for this to have value was if we found a wholly new expression of ‘The Tick’ and Arthur’s story in live-action, and I think we’re on to something! Visually and thematically this new ‘Tick‘ lives in the textures and rhetoric of today’s superhero saturation tsunami — and for it to be something you want to watch for hours, it needed to find its way to a story with heart and stakes, as well as absurdism. Is it a radically new hybrid of humor and super heroic action with characters you will care desperately about? YES! Yes it is.”
I will certainly give Ben Edlund the benefit of the doubt, but I have a feeling fans will need to go into the series with an open mind to experience something new, rather than see a direct adaptation of the original The Tick comics and animated series.
Amazon will begin streaming The Tick pilot on August 19th.
In a world where superheroes have been real for decades, an underdog accountant with zero powers comes to realize his city is owned by a global super villain long-thought dead. As he struggles to uncover this conspiracy, he falls in league with a strange blue superhero. The Tick stars Peter Serafinowicz (Guardians of the Galaxy), Griffin Newman (Vinyl), Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen), Valorie Curry (House of Lies), Yara Martinez (Jane the Virgin) and Brendan Hines (Scorpion). The Tick is executive produced by Ben Edlund (Supernatural), Barry Josephson (Bones) and Barry Sonnenfeld (A Series of Unfortunate Events), directed by Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight), and written by Edlund. The Tick is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television.