Kevin Feige’s decision to shutter Marvel Television, absorb it into his already-existing studio and designate anything prior to WandaVision as not being official cinematic universe canon has created no shortage of indignation, debate, and discussion over the years, so much so that it’s easy to completely forget about New Warriors.
In August of 2017, the series had been ordered for a full season of 10 episodes by Freeform – the home of the regularly overlooked Cloak & Dagger – with Kevin Biegel set as showrunner and the cast featuring Milana Yayntrub as Squirrel Girl, Derek Theler as Mr. Immortal, Jeremy Tardy as Night Thrasher, Calum Worthy as Speedball, Matthew Moy as Microbe, and Kate Comer as Debrii.
The pilot episode was produced and reportedly tested well, but then Freeform decided it didn’t have enough room on the schedule for another superhero show, which eventually led to New Warriors floating around televised purgatory for a while, before it was officially confirmed to have died on the vine by late 2019.
Squirrel Girl remains one of the quintessential fan favorites, though, and judging by her recent TikTok post, Vayntrub hasn’t gotten over missing out on the opportunity to play the character.
Mr. Immortal did finally make his Marvel debut in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law as the running gag to define an entire episode, but the rest of the team remains absent. New Warriors was a victim of circumstance as being the right project at the wrong time in what ultimately turned out to be the right place, but at least the would-be stars still keep it close to their hearts.
