Amazon Studios is getting into the animated superhero business.
The company announced Tuesday it’s ordered eight episodes of Invincible, an hour-long animated series from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who signed an overall production deal with the streaming platform last year.
“Robert has an uncanny talent to predict the zeitgeist, and we are incredibly excited to see him break boundaries in an animated one-hour format,” Sharon Yguado, head of scripted genre programming at Amazon Studios, said in a statement.
“In a world saturated with superhero fare, we trust Robert to subvert expectations while encapsulating a story filled with heart and adrenaline. We love his ambitious plan for the show and believe it will look like nothing else on television,” Yguado added.
The series is based on Kirkman’s Invincible comic books, which he co-created with artist Cory Walker and illustrator Ryan Ottley. After 15 years, the final issue was published in February 2018.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the series Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley and I did together for over 15 years. To know our characters will live on in multiple iterations in other media is almost too exciting to bear!” Kirkman said in a statement. “What Amazon is allowing us to do in animated form is nothing short of ground-breaking, and I can’t wait for our rabid fan base to experience it!”
The comic books center on Mark Grayson, a teenager who inherited his father’s superhuman strength.
Amazon describes its new offering as “suspenseful, action-filled, and emotion-packed, yet builds upon poignant and heartwarming moments of love, friendship, and humanity.”
Kirkman’s production company, Skybound Entertainment, will produce Invincible. The comic books are also being developed separately into a feature film.
Invincible will debut on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories at a date yet to be determined.
Last week, Amazon Studios inked a production deal with Nicole Kidman’s company, Blossom Films.
