Right up until launch, Jupiter’s Legacy was looking like yet another hit for Netflix. The superhero show was adapted from Mark Millar and Frank Quitely’s well-regarded comic and seemed set to be the streaming giant’s response to Amazon’s The Boys. Then came the poor reviews and, reportedly, lower than anticipated viewing figures.
The hammer fell down fast, with Deadline revealing that the cast had been released from their contracts and season 2 isn’t happening. Netflix threw a bone to Millarworld fans with an announcement of spinoff Supercrooks, but even then, so many were left disappointed that the story (which wasn’t terrible or anything) will now not continue.
A lot of the actors involved have stayed quiet, but star Josh Duhamel, who played Sheldon Sampson/The Utopian, offered up a great response this week. On his Facebook page, he posted an image of himself shirtless in full Utopian hair and makeup captioned:
“When you get dumped by @netflix and have to put yourself back out there …. #sexysantasummer What’s up, @hulu?”
Of course, Duhamel won’t be short of work for long. He recently voiced Harvey Dent/Two-Face in the animated adaptation of classic Batman story The Long Halloween and has a number of upcoming movie projects. Most interesting is Bandit with Mel Gibson and Elisha Cuthbert, in which he’ll play a career criminal who goes on a gigantic crime spree while being hunted by an elite task force. Gibson (whose career rehabilitation appears to be proceeding smoothly) is portraying a gangster who ‘invests’ in his heists.
Even so, losing Jupiter’s Legacy will naturally be a disappointment to Duhamel as The Utopian was a juicy role that would have developed nicely over a multi-season arc. There’s still a faint chance that one day he’ll strap back on the cape and return to the part, but for now, he’s once again a free agent in Hollywood. Though with a body like that, I’m sure another superhero gig can’t be too far away.