With the interruptions to film and television production being halted and canceled from the coronavirus pandemic, Marvel Studios announced the termination of an upcoming series the deals of showrunners Steve Lightfoot and Paul Zbyszewski, according to Slash Film. One of the biggest studios in the film and television industry, Marvel has announced in recent weeks since stay-at-home orders that upcoming Disney Plus programs like Wandavision, Loki, and Captain Falcon and the Winter Soldier were being delayed. However, with on-going financial losses from this crisis, Marvel has shown its first sign of releasing talent.
Lightfoot is best known for his role as the showrunner for the Marvel Netflix series The Punisher. Debuting in 2017, the comic-book action series followed Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) as Frank Castle or “The Punisher” as he fought crime. The series ran for two seasons before being canceled by Marvel Studios along with other comic book company series on Netflix including Jessica Jones. Since its cancellation in early 2019, there was yet to be announced project under Lightfoot’s control.
Zbyszewski has worked on series such as Lost and has currently worked as a producer on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D since 2013. He was recently signed by Marvel Studios in 2019 to work as the showrunner for its Hulu series, Helstrom. The upcoming series is set to star Tom Austen (The Royals) as Daimon Helstrom and Sydney Lemmon (Succession) as Ana Helstrom while the two siblings work together to fight the evil within humanity. Despite the release of its showrunner, Helstrom is still aimed to be a part of Marvel’s current production plans, yet information on a resumed date for production is still absent.
The release of these showrunners from their studio deals adds to a long list of other production studios attempting to cut costs as the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted its cash flow.