Netflix continues its collaboration with Dark Horse Comics, after their success with The Umbrella Academy, this time with an animated movie adapting the comic The Goon. After they lost all their Marvel shows in 2019, it is significant that they have another comic publisher they can pull from, and it is good that they are not adapting just superhero content. Comics are much more than that.

The idea of The Goon started taking form in 1995 in a title called Best Cellars #1. The story’s title was Monster Boy, written and illustrated by Eric Powell. The Goon’s official debut was in Avatar Illustrated in 1998, but due to dissatisfaction with the quality of the publication, Powell stopped contributing artwork after three issues. Unable to find another publisher, started to self-publish the comic with Albatross Exploding Funny Books in 2002. These self–published issues caught the attention of Dark Horse Comics, which approached him and moved the publication to their house in 2003, undoing their previous mistake of passing it in the past. Many stories have been published in The Goon’s universe over the years, up to 2016. 2019 began a new ongoing Goon series by Albatross Funnybooks, with the same artist.

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Here’s everything we know about Netflix’s adaptation.

The Goon: The Plot

     Dark Horse Comics

The Goon is a comic book series written and drawn by Eric Powell. The series is filled with dark and many times “ugly” and risky humor, along with intense, graphic violence. The main character, The Goon, and his friend Franky are fighting against mobsters and gangs, but also supernatural creatures, like zombies, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, ghouls, and anything else that goes out bumping in the night. They also fight aliens, mad scientists, and anything sci-fi and horror related. It is a weird series, but it is great.

The Goon: The Cast & Crew

Clancy Brown is giving his voice to the titular character in The Goon. His voice acting includes years in SpongeBob, Invincible, Marvel’s What If and so many more. His many live-action roles include roles in Promising Young Woman, the last season of Dexter in Dexter: New Blood, and John Dies at the End. Another actor from the cult classic John Dies at the End appearing in The Goon movie is Paul Giamatti, who gives his voice to the Goon’s friend, Franky. His large body of work also includes roles in Cindarella Man, 12 Years a Slave, Lady in the Water, and many more.

Tim Miller, the director behind the first Deadpool movie and Terminator: Dark Fate announced this movie at San Diego Comic-Con 2022, he has been trying to make this film for over a decade. He also announced that the director of The Goon is going to be Patrick Osborne, an Oscar winner for directing the short animated film Feast in 2014. He is working alongside the comic’s creator Eric Powell on this adaptation.

The movie is in development hell since 2008. There was a trailer proof of concept back in 2010. It was set to be produced by Blur Studio which was founded by Tim Miller himself and David Fincher. There was even a Kickstarter launched for it, it reached its goal, and it was eventually set for release by 20th Century Fox in 2019, though it was dropped after the merger between Disney and Fox.

‘‘Not that I can speak of at the moment, but it’s still going. It’s still very much alive. It’s been a long process that I’ve had to deal with, but we are still very much alive and kicking. Hopefully, we’ll get to tell people more soon.’’ said Eric Powel in an interview on Polygon about The Goon’s adaptation.

Release Date

Since the animated movie is still way too early in development, it is unreasonable to expect a release date from Netflix. We probably will not have any news about this before 2024, considering that animation takes a long time.

The Goon is a weird, funny, violent comic. It is definitely not for everyone, and even if the movie is animated it is safe to assume that children’s eyes should not be on it when it eventually comes out. We need more adaptations from more comics. There are as many types of comics out there as there are people’s tastes, but because of the success of superhero movies, general audiences tend to believe that comics mean superheroes, something that is far from true. It is also great to have an adaptation from someone who is not Marvel or DC. Dark Horse had some of their comics adapted, most famously the Hellboy movies (two of them great, the other one… less great), and The Umbrella Academy streaming show also on Netflix. We simply can not wait for this twisted animated movie.