Noted Avenger Robert Downey Jr. Is Producing A New Netflix Series… For DC Comics

Marvel Studios might be the house that Robert Downey Jr. built, but now that the actor has officially hung up his Iron Man armor, he’s apparently going to work for the “Distinguished Competition.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, Downey and his wife will produce an eight episode live-action adaptation of the DC Comics/Veritgo series Sweet Tooth for Netflix. Will Forte and James Brolin are currently attached to star.

Written by Jeff Lemire, here’s the official synopsis for Sweet Tooth, which ran for 40 issues starting in September 2009:

After being raised in total isolation, Gus – a boy born with deer-like antlers – is left to survive in an American landscape devastated a decade earlier by an inexplicable pandemic. Even more remarkable is that Gus is part of a rare new breed of human/animal hybrid children who have emerged in its wake, all apparently immune to the infection. Enter Jepperd, a violent, hulking drifter who soon takes in Gus and promises to lead him to “The Preserve,” a fabled safe-haven for hybrid children. Along the way they’ll have to contend with science militias, deadly scavengers, rival bounty hunters, and hybrid worshipping cultists as they fight to make it to safety and solve the mysteries of this deadly new frontier.

Pushing Sweet Tooth to series is an interesting move, but fitting for Netflix’s current strategy of still pursuing comic book properties even after it publicly cut ties with Marvel. It also jibes with Downey’s recent foray into television, which includes shepherding the Perry Mason series starring Matthew Rhys at HBO. What does raise questions is why Sweet Tooth landed at Netflix and not HBO Max, which has been aggressively mining DC Comics properties for streaming content and already has a relationship with Downey. But that could be a simple matter of who had the sweetest deal.

(That was uncalled for. You’re right.)