Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship to develop a Naomi DC comics series for The CW

Aux Features TV
Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship to develop a Naomi DC comics series for The CW
Photo: Rich Polk/Getty Images for ESSENCE

The CW’s Arrowverse is set to get a little young blood injected into its increasingly aging veins, with Variety reporting that Ava DuVernay and Jill Blankenship are teaming up to potentially bring a series based on DC Comics character Naomi to the multiverse. Blankenship is best known for her tenure on Arrow itself, where she eventually rose to the rank of executive producer, while DuVernay—in addition to her long list of credits as a director—has carved out a comfortable niche for herself in TV in recent years with shows like Queen Sugar. (She’s also a noted comic book nerd, having signed on for the presumably still-in-the-works-somewhere New Gods movie with Warner Bros.)


If you’re unfamiliar with Naomi, meanwhile, it’s because she’s that rarest of things in comic books: A completely fresh and new character, with no weird legacy baggage linking her to an existing hero. Originally created by Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker (with art from Jamal Campbell), the character launched last year as part of DC’s Wonder Comics imprint. Originally hailing from an alternate universe, Naomi (whose adopted last name, McDuffie, pays tribute to late comics legend Dwayne McDuffie) is gifted with energy powers that allow her to blast stuff and transform into a stronger, more armored version of herself.

With Arrow over, Black Lightning ending, and Batwoman in a state of transition with new lead Javicia Leslie stepping into the cowl, the Arrowverse is currently in a bit of flux. It’ll be interesting to see if DuVernay, Blankenship, and Naomi can inject some much-needed light and energy into one of genre TV’s most established brands.

8 Comments

  • millionmonroe-av says:

    DuVernay is such a fucking hack. She’s not a good director and she’s a bitch. 

  • weedlord420-av says:

    I’m intrigued to see how this will go because aside from her initial mini which introduced her backstory (or really her parents’ backstory), Naomi’s barely been featured in any comics. This show would almost be creating the character whole cloth.

  • smittywerbenjagermanjensen22-av says:

    As much as I love the original ArrowVerse shows I am pretty interested to them creating some new fresher shows like Stargirl and Batwoman and this to pair with their holdovers like Legends of Tomorrow and the now starting to seem kind of long in the tooth The Flash

  • mrrpmrrpmrrpmrrp-av says:

    o.O

  • brontosaurian-av says:

    I wish they’d highlight some lead people with weirder niche powers as leads. This just seems like ah yes generic superhero abilities, unless I’m missing something. She’s cool and I’m glad there’s a Black female lead in CW DC, giving her odd powers could be questionable though because of that. Guess the more intriguing stuff is just HBO DC now, well one of them entirely.

  • dr-boots-list-av says:

    I nominate Neutral Milk Hotel for the theme song.Sounds like a comic book superhero to me!

  • docprof-av says:

    Good. Those people behind this make me think it will be solid and I work for a local CW affiliate and have been getting a bit concerned that just about every show we have is seeming to be ending.

  • director91-av says:

    Everyone already forgot Supergirl is ending too huh

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Share Tweet Submit Pin