According to Deadline, Amazon Studios is currently in the process of finalizing deals for a television adaptation of Ed Brubaker’s (Cruel Summer, Bad Weekend) hard-boiled crime comic series Criminal. Brubaker’s ongoing comic book series was first published in October of 2006 and is illustrated by Sean Phillips (Hellblazer, Marvel Zombies). Brubaker and Phillips have been working together for 15 years, creating works such as Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out, and Kill or be Killed that have all sold millions of copies. Brubaker is known for his episodic crime sagas and will reportedly be showrunning and executive producing the series.
The series is said to be an interconnecting universe of crime stories from the Criminal series, but not much else is known. It has been reported that there is currently a writers room working on the series.
In 2019, the TV adaptation of Criminal was initially in production with EVP Development and Legendary Television when Amazon Studios Head of US SVVOD Development and Series, Nick Pepper, was president of Legendary Television.
Brubaker is a widely acclaimed comic book creator, having won the Eisner and Harvey Awards for Best Writer five times. He wrote Catwoman, illustrated by Darwyn Cooke (Hypaspace, The New Frontier), and was a co-creator of Gotham Central. His Captain America run included the introduction of the “Winter Soldier”, who became an iconic character and a staple in the Marvel franchise.
Brubaker worked on episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+ and worked as a supervising producer and writer on HBO’s Westworld. He notabley co-created Amazon’s Too Old to Die Young with Nicolas Winding Refn (Pusher, Drive), which was the first streaming series to debut at Cannes Film Festival.
Criminal was originally published under Marvel Comics’ Icon Imprint and was eventually moved to Image Comics.