Netflix Reportedly Ends Its Ambitious Millarworld Comics Deal

Nearly eight years after Netflix made its first-ever company acquisition by buying Mark Millar’s Millarworld imprint, the streamer appears to have quietly closed the book on the deal—leaving the future of several high-profile comics and potential adaptations in question.

From billion-dollar IP to a fizzling slate

Back in 2017, Netflix bought Millarworld in a splashy move that gave it ownership of creator-owned titles from the Kick-Ass, Kingsman, Wanted, and Reborn universes, positioning the company as a kind of DIY Marvel Studios for original comics IP.[1] Millar’s earlier work for Marvel—The Ultimates, Civil War, Old Man Logan—had already shaped some of the biggest MCU movies, and three Millarworld-linked film franchises (Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kingsman) had together pulled in close to $1 billion at the global box office.[2]

On paper, the partnership looked unbeatable. In practice, it yielded just a handful of screen projects: the pricey superhero drama Jupiter’s Legacy, cancelled after one season, an anime take on Super Crooks, and the YA adaptation The Chosen One (from American Jesus). Other long-teased series like The Magic Order, Huck, Empress, and Prodigy never made it off the development slate.

The underwhelming output fits a broader pattern of Netflix trimming back ambitious book and comics projects—something we’ve already seen with its recent decision to scrap a long-planned Stephen King adaptation, detailed in our coverage of Netflix axing The Talisman series.

Millarworld moves on—to Dark Horse and beyond

The latest sign that the Millarworld era at Netflix is effectively over comes not from a press release, but from paperwork. As first flagged by Bleeding Cool, Millar recently renamed his corporate entity from Dave and Eggsy Ltd. (a nod to Kingsman) to Mark Millar Productions Ltd, and new titles such as Psychic Sam and Conquered are being created under that banner rather than Netflix-owned Millarworld.

At the same time, the Millarworld publishing line itself has shifted. In 2024, the imprint moved to Dark Horse Comics, where new and revived series like Jupiter’s Legacy, Superior, Nemesis, Huck, MPH, Reborn, and the sprawling crossover Big Game (which marked Millarworld’s 20th anniversary) are now being released or relaunched.[3]

For comics readers, that shift means the Millarworld universe is once again firmly rooted in the direct market, with a clearer path to collected editions and future tie-ins. It also aligns with a broader trend of creators building multimedia empires around their worlds rather than ceding full control, something Brandon Sanderson has openly discussed in his own plans for cross-media expansions.

What this means for future adaptations

One point of confusion: while speculation suggests the Netflix–Millarworld deal has lapsed, Millar himself is still described as a Netflix executive who continues to develop projects—including Psychic Sam—with the company.[4] That implies a softer landing: less of a sweeping comics-universe play, more of a project-by-project partnership.

For book and graphic-novel fans, the stakes are bigger than any single show. Rights shifts determine who can reprint older stories, whether we’ll see deluxe omnibuses tied to potential TV launches, and how coherent a shared universe like Millarworld feels across page and screen. With Dark Horse now shepherding the comics line and Netflix seemingly stepping back from full ownership, future adaptations of Millar titles may increasingly come from other studios—and arrive bundled with new editions, annotations, and crossover events built for collectors.

In other words, Netflix’s quiet retreat from Millarworld may close one chapter in the streamer’s IP land grab, but for readers, it could mark the start of a more flexible—and possibly more interesting—era for how these stories reach shelves and screens.