Prime Video has officially given a series order to its planned adaptation of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips‘ Image Comics series Criminal.
Last February, news broke that the Amazon-owned streaming service was developing a small-screen adaptation of Brubaker and Phillips’ comic. Deadline now brings word that Prime Video has ordered the project to series. Brubaker, who wrote the pilot script, will serve as co-showrunner alongside crime fiction author Jordan Harper.
Amazon MGM Studios produces Prime Video’s Criminal. Amazon was initially fast-tracking the adaptation, though the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike resulted in a temporary pause in development.
“Sean and I have been building this world in our books for over a decade, and now to be able to bring it to life for Amazon is just incredible,” Brubaker said. “And to have Amazon support the project the way they have, and show so much faith in my and Jordan’s vision for the show is even more incredible.”
What is Criminal about?
Criminal originally launched at Icon Comics — a now-defunct imprint of Marvel Comics — in 2006. Marvel/Icon published several incarnations of Brubaker and Phillips’ series through 2011. The title then jumped ship to Image in 2015.
Brubaker described the premise of Criminal at length during a previous interview with Deadline. “Criminal tells the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past,” he said. “And one of the big events in many of these characters’ pasts, which has been referenced since the very first Criminal story, was the death of Teeg Lawless. Before we even met Teeg, we knew that he had died when his son was a teenager, but other than the identity of his killer, we have never told the rest of that story. It’s just been a ghost haunting the series, as Teeg Lawless has become one of the most popular characters in the comic.”
