In May 2021, Jupiter’s Legacy premiered on Netflix. Only a month later, the American superhero series was canceled. Netflix actually had other plans for the comic adaptation – as indicated by the huge budget of 200 million US dollars.
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 parallel in two timelines. The eight episodes are about a group of superheroes who gained supernatural powers during the time of the economic crisis.
The superhero oldies pass on the task of caring for the well-being of humanity to the next generation. Thus, the content of the series spans over 100 years.
What plans did Netflix have with Jupiter’s Legacy? Jupiter’s Legacy was the first project from Mark Millar’s “Millarworld” that Netflix pursued to compete with Marvel productions.
Interestingly, Millar himself has written for Marvel Comics, including the storyline “Civil War”, which later inspired the film The First Avenger: Civil War.
In an interview with The Guardian, Millar stated that Netflix has “infinite money and infinite time.” “It will take risks where a studio would not.”
Here you can see a trailer for Jupiter’s Legacy:
With Jupiter’s Legacy, the streaming provider truly took a risk because the production cost 200 million US dollars, or approximately 182,600,000 euros. Breaking this down per episode, it amounts to about 25 million US dollars (at current exchange rates 22.8 million euros) per episode.
For comparison: The most expensive series productions
- Stranger Things: 30 million US dollars per episode
- WandaVision: 25 million US dollars per episode
- House of the Dragon: 20 million US dollars per episode
- Game of Thrones: 15 million US dollars per episode
- The Mandalorian: 15 million US dollars per episode
According to The Hollywood Reporter, there have been problems with the production of Jupiter’s Legacy from the start. Initially, producer Steven S. DeKnight requested a budget of at least 12 million US dollars, but then managed to negotiate it down to 9 million.
Additional shoots and delays later exceeded the initial request. DeKnight was replaced during filming by Sang Kyu Kim as producer, but that did not help save the series. Our colleagues at the site 3DJuegos refer to the series in an article as “the great failure of superheroes on the platform.”
“I have never seen anything like this”
Series fans and journalists are currently picking up Jupiter’s Legacy on Twitter and wondering how 200 million US dollars could be spent without them ever having heard of the series.
Tweet translation: “I’m not saying this in a ‘ha ha, I don’t know what this is’ sense, but I genuinely don’t know what this is. How could 200 million dollars be spent on something I have never seen?”
One user criticizes the “strange textures and patterns” of the superhero costumes. Another notes that the series only became exciting towards the end of the season, only to be canceled afterward.
“I watched the series, it was pretty good. But I can’t remember seeing any marketing for it before.” writes another user (via Twitter).
It probably wouldn’t have been a bad idea to invest some of the huge budget in marketing campaigns.
No good news so far regarding the second season of this popular “League of Legends” series.
