In May 2021, Jupiter’s Legacy premiered on Netflix. Just a month later, the American superhero series was canceled. Netflix actually had other plans with the comic adaptation – which the huge budget of 200 million US dollars also suggests.
What is Jupiter’s Legacy about? The plot of the series is based on the comic of the same name by Mark Millar and is told in two parallel timelines. The eight episodes are about a group of superheroes who have acquired supernatural powers during the economic crisis.
The superhero oldies pass on the task of taking care of humanity to the next generation. Thus, the content of the series stretches over 100 years.
What plans did Netflix have for Jupiter’s Legacy? Jupiter’s Legacy was the first project from Mark Millar’s “Millarworld” that Netflix relied on to compete with Marvel productions.
What’s interesting is that Millar himself wrote for Marvel Comics, including the Civil War story arc, which later became the inspiration for the film The First Avenger: Civil War.
In an interview with The Guardian, Millar said Netflix has “endless money and endless time.” “It will take risks where a studio wouldn’t.”
Here’s a trailer for Jupiter’s Legacy:
Jupiter’s Legacy on Netflix – Trailer
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The streaming provider really took a risk with Jupiter’s Legacy, because the production cost 200 million US dollars, i.e. the equivalent of around 182,600,000 euros. If you break this down into the individual episodes, you are at around 25 million US dollars (at the current exchange rate 22.8 million euros) per series episode.
For comparison: The most expensive serial productions
According to The Hollywood Reporter, there were problems with the production of Jupiter’s Legacy from the start. Producer Steven S. DeKnight first asked for a budget of at least $12 million, but then negotiated it down to $9 million.
Additional filming and delays later exceeded even the initial requirement. DeKnight was replaced as producer by Sang Kyu Kim during filming, but that didn’t help save the series. In one post, our colleagues at 3DJuegos describe the series as “the great failure of superheroes on the platform.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this”
Series fans and journalists are currently picking up Jupiter’s Legacy on Twitter and wondering how $200 million could have been spent without ever knowing about the series.
Tweet translation: “I’m not saying that in the sense of ‘ha ha I don’t know what that is’, but I actually don’t know what that is. How could $200 million be spent on something I’ve never seen before?”
A user criticized the “strange textures and patterns” of the superhero costumes in the comments. Another notes that the show only got exciting towards the end of the season, only to be cancelled.
“I saw the series, it was pretty good. But I don’t remember noticing any marketing before,” wrote another user (via Twitter).
It probably wouldn’t have been a bad idea to put some of that huge budget into marketing campaigns.
There is no good news for the second season of this popular “League of Legends” series either.