New Warriors TV Series Character List Revealed

Are you ready for a half-hour comedy series set in the Marvel Universe? One that features younger heroes with offbeat codenames and superpowers? Well, you'd better be, because Marvel and ABC are developing New Warriors.

The New Warriors first appeared in Marvel Comics in the late '80s/early '90s, and featured young heroes with unfortunate names like Night Thrasher and Speedball. There's no word on who would make up the TV roster, except for one important name: Squirrel Girl. Yes, Squirrel Girl, former Great Lakes Avengers member and star of current Marvel Comics sensation The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North and Erica Henderson. The character is descibed (in case you aren't reading the comics) as "a totally empowering fan girl—tough, optimistic and a natural leader. Doreen is confident and has the powers of a squirrel… She’s acrobatic, can fight and talk to other squirrels. Her most important trait is that she has faith in people and teaches them to believe in themselves."

Freeform, the YA-centric Disney cable network, has won the bidding for New Warriors, and it's going straight to series over there with a 10 episode order. Kevin Biegel (Cougar Town, Scrubs) will write the pilot and likely serve as showrunner. Freeform is also developing Marvel's Cloak and Dagger, which is currently in production. 

Here's the official synopsis from Marvel:

“Marvel’s New Warriors” is about six young people with powers living and working together.  With powers and abilities on the opposite end of the spectrum of The Avengers, the New Warriors want to make a difference in the world… Even if the world isn’t ready.  Not quite super, not yet heroes, “Marvel’s New Warriors” is about that time in your life when you first enter adulthood and feel like you can do everything and nothing at once — except in this world, bad guys can be as terrifying as bad dates.

Here's the official breakdown of the New Warriors character roster, courtesy of TV Line:

Doreen Green (Squirrel Girl)

Superpower:“The powers of a squirrel, the powers of a girl” (i.e. she is acrobatic, strong, can fight… and can talk to squirrels)

A natural leader, Doreen is confident and tough, but not innocent. Her greatest quality is her optimism. She also takes her pet squirrel, Tippy Toe, everywhere.

Craig Hollis (Mister Immortal)

Superpower:Cannot die. Ever. Maybe. So he says.

The team troublemaker and lothario, Craig is kind of like “The Most Interesting Man Alive,” except he’s more cocky than confident and, at times, charmingly grumpy. Although Craig’s superpower seems amazing, he hasn’t made use of it at all. (He’s lazy and figures if he has all the time in the world to learn how to fight, what’s the rush?)

Dwayne Taylor (Night Thrasher)

Superpower:None

A local “hero” with his very own YouTube channel, Dwayne is brilliant, strong, noble and maybe a bit full of himself. But he also deeply believes in justice – at least his version of it. Dwayne hides the fact that he comes from a really rich family because he’s afraid he’ll lose his street cred.

Robbie Baldwin (Speedball)

Superpower:Can launch kinetic balls of energy

Having grown up watching Quinjets take off from Avengers Tower, Robbie loves the idea of being a hero. Alas, while you would think that throwing kinetic balls of energy would be awesome and effective, his are completely out of control.

Zack Smith (Microbe)

Superpower:Can talk to germs

Zack is a shy hypochondriac whose ability nearly makes him a telepath – the germs tell him where you’ve been, what you ate and who you hung out with. As such, it’s impossible to keep secrets around him.

Deborah Fields (Debrii)

Superpower:Low level telekinetic; trickster

Confidently out as a lesbian, funny and quick-witted Deborah has experienced deep loss in her personal life as a direct result of super “heroics.” She’s the one who calls people on their BS and has no fear of putting her opinions out there.

There's been all manner of internet craziness recently surrounding the idea of Anna Kendrick as Squirrel Girl after comments she made about enjoying the comic, but that's unlikely to happen within the confines of a half hour TV series. Riverdale and Stranger Things actress Shannon Purser has also expressed interest in the character. Karey Burke, the executive VP of programming and development for Freeform told The Hollywood Reporter that "I'm interested to see if name actresses feel right," for the role.

"Marvel's New Warriors have always been fan favorites and now particularly with the addition of Squirrel Girl, they are Marvel Television favorites as well," Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb said in a statement. "After the amazing experience we've had with Freeform on Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger we can't think of a better place for our young heroes."

We'll probably see New Warriors hit Freeform in late 2018. We'll update this with more information as it becomes available.