As the conglomerate of Marvel superheroes known as the Avengers gradually assembles on the big screen, Marvel Animation is prepping an animated television series that will bring together such iconic comic-book heroes as Iron Man, Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Wasp and Giant Man. Toon shop Film Roman is producing 26 episodes of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for broadcast in 2011.
The cartoon show will should be available to broadcasters in time to take advantage of the media blitz for The First Avenger: Captain America, which will follow the Marvel Studios features Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Thor to theaters. Once the main players have been introduced in solo celluloid outings, Marvel will put them all together in The Avengers.
The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is being produced by Ciro Nieli, whose credits include the anime-inspired kids’ show Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go! and the DC Comics-based series Teen Titans. Returning to the Avengers property is writer Christopher Yost, who will serve as story editor on the new toon. He wrote the recently released direct-to-DVD animated feature Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, and also contributed to stories for the Marvel animated series Iron Man Armored Adventures and Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes.
Next Avengers was the third Avengers feature released on DVD. Marvel Animation kicked off its series of animated superhero features with Ultimate Avengers in 2006, and followed it with Ultimate Avengers 2: Rise of the Black Panther. Iron Man and Dr. Strange toon movies were also released at retail. Marvel Animation is in the midst of a big push in the toon sector. For television, Marvel is readying the animated series Wolverine and the X-Men and Iron Man: Armored Adventures for Nicktoons in 2009. The company has also teamed with cable outlet BET to bring The Black Panther to the screen vi animation, and is looking for a broadcast partner for its kids’ comedy Marvel Super Hero Squad, which features goofy versions of Marvel heroes and villains for younger tykes.
