Marvel’s Inhumans Assembles A Great Cast In Middling First Look

Marvel Entertainment’s television division, appropriately called Marvel Television, has been producing quality productions for the small screen since 2013’s debut of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. With the vast majority of these set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, viewers have seen the shared media property expand its mythology through some of the most creative works, from the crime drama Daredevil to the neo-noir series Jessica Jones.

2017 objectively presents the biggest growth in this franchise as it sees the debut of four brand new shows: Iron Fist, which already aired in middle March of this year; The Defenders, The Punisher, and finally Inhumans. Unlike the previously-mentioned titles, Inhumans has a couple of things going for it: one, it will airing on ABC instead of Netflix, and two, it has had a very troubling production that seems to be leaving a mark on the upcoming product.

To give some backstory, the Inhumans are a race of comic book characters that were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in the mid-1960s. Their backstory involves the forced mutation of a primitive human species by the Kree aliens through a substance known as the Terragenic Mists. In recent years, because Marvel Studios sold the cinematic rights of the much more famous X-Men to 20th Century Fox, analysts have noticed an increasing focus on the Inhumans, perhaps as a method of acting as a replacement of sorts for the purposes of the MCU. Regardless, this attention resulted in the announcement of a movie adaptation in August 2014, with a 2019 release date being announced in February 2015.

This timeline somewhat matched up with the characters’ debut throughout the second season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. where they served as an integral plot point. In January 2016, however, actor Clark Gregg, who portrays Phil Coulson in AoS, revealed that there was a good chance the 2019 movie would not even connect to the set-up in the TV show. Further disappointing news emerged in April 2016 when Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige proclaimed that the film had been pulled from the upcoming schedule until further notice.

Thus, things were silent for fans of the underrated comic book property for a good long time until November of the same year, during which Marvel and ABC confirmed that the aforementioned miniseries would be premiering in fall of 2017, with the first two episodes being available to view in IMAX theaters for two weeks.

Showrun by Scott Buck of Iron Fist, the line-up will consist of the following members: Black Bolt, Medusa, Gorgon, Triton, Maximus, Crystal, and Auran. The synopsis, published today, reads as the following:

After the Royal Family of Inhumans is splintered by a military coup, they barely escape to Hawaii where their surprising interactions with the lush world and humanity around them may prove to not only save them, but Earth itself.

Accompanying this synopsis was a promotional image for the show, featuring the cast posing for Entertainment Weekly. Unfortunately, the quality is not the best for a series that is purportedly getting a funding boost from IMAX. While the costume designs look fine, the material for them seems of a lesser quality than what has typically accompanied past Marvel TV superheroes like Daredevil and Ghost Rider. Particularly noticing is actress Serinda Swan’s red hair for Medusa, which appears as an off-putting wig, and, considering the character’s trademark power is her ability to manipulate every strand of her hair, this makes it a glaring problem in an otherwise fine looking attire.

Regardless, first looks are not always representative of the final product, especially for a show like this that is going to be heavy on computer-generated imagery. We look forward to seeing more details emerge regarding Marvel’s Inhumans.

[Featured Image by Marvel/Entertainment Weekly]