Ava DuVernay is doubling down on DC Comics IP for her latest television project: an adaptation of teen superhero story Naomi. DuVernay, who is set to direct the feature film adaptation of DC’s New Gods, is developing the drama for the CW. She has teamed with Arrow writer and co-exec producer Jill Blankenship to write and exec produce the project.
The show will follow a teen girl’s journey from her small northwestern town to the heights of the multiverse. When a supernatural event shakes her hometown to the core, Naomi sets out to uncover its origins, and what she discovers will challenge everything we believe about our heroes.
It is based on the eponymous comic book series that debuted in 2019, co-written by Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker, and illustrated by breakout artist Jamal Campbell. It will be produced by DuVernay’s Array Filmworks in association with Warner Bros Television. Sarah Bremner and Paul Garnes will produce for Array Filmworks.
It marks the latest DC adaptation at the youth-skewing network this development season. The broadcaster is also developing an adaptation of Wonder Girl, based on the DC characters created by Joëlle Jones, with Queen of the South executive producer/co-showrunner Dailyn Rodriguez and Greg Berlanti as well as Black Lightning spinoff Painkiller.
The latter, which will star Jordan Calloway, has been set up as a planted pilot spinoff that will air as the seventh episode of Black Lightning’s fourth season, which will premiere in February 2021. Black Lightning showrunner Salim Akil will write, exec produce and direct.
Blankenship is repped by Echo Lake Entertainment and Del, Shaw, Moonves, Tanaka, Finkelstein and Lezcano?