These days it’s all about franchises and brand recognition, and Netflix just picked up a comic book series that’s building both of those things. The streamer is in talks for a series adaptation of Boom Studios’ horror comic Something Is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV, Werther Dell’Edera, and Miquel Muerto. And it’s getting big guns for the gig: Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy, two of the people behind The Haunting at Hill House and The Haunting at Bly Manor, as well as Doctor Sleep, are aboard to produce.
Originally published in September 2019, Something Is Killing the Children begins with a kid named James who has somehow survived a string of mysterious, gruesome attacks on children. He’s trying to tell the adults what’s going on, but they don’t believe him until a mysterious stranger rolls into town. Her name is Erica Slaughter — a monster killer and the main character in the series. Though it was originally envisioned as a miniseries, huge word of mouth drove the comic’s popularity and turned it into an ongoing, multi-layered series. Last year, it was nominated for the Best New Series Eisner and scooped up a few other awards too.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of the deal and makes a point that development is still early, so there’s no guarantee the show ever gets made. But if does, Macy, who has only acted as a producer on his and Flanagan’s projects thus far, would be the showrunner. There’s no word if Flanagan himself would direct, but since he’s done so for most of his shows (including the upcoming Midnight Mass and Midnight Club) you’d have to imagine he might.
Overall, if this comes to pass, Something Is Killing the Children sounds like the right mix of youthfulness and darkness mixed with comic book sensibilities and mainstream horror to really be a breakout hit. Plus Flanagan and Macy have proven they have the right touch when it comes to adaptations, making shows and movies with a similarly strong balance of human emotion and abject fear and terror.
We’ll be keeping our eyes on this one.