Ed Brubaker’s ‘Criminal’ Ordered To Series By Amazon With Jordan Harper As Co-Showrunner

deadline.com:

Prime Video has given a series order to Criminal, a drama based on the multi-Eisner Award-winning graphic novel series created by Ed Brubaker, who writes the comic, and Sean Phillips, who illustrates it.

Brubaker, who penned the pilot script, will co-showrun the TV series with crime fiction author Jordan Harper (Hightown). The project, produced by Amazon MGM Studios, has been on fast track development at Amazon, which opened a writers room in early 2023.

The process was interrupted by the WGA strike. Criminal is described as an interlocking universe of crime stories. As Brubaker explained to Deadline in a 2019 interview, “Criminal tells the interweaving saga of several generations of families tied together by the crimes and murders of the past.” Brubaker and Harper executive produce alongside Phillips, Sarah Carbiener, Phillip Barnett and Legendary Television. “Criminal is a beloved graphic novel created by the most iconic team in the history of comics,” said Nick Pepper, head of U.S.

SVOD wholly owned development, Amazon MGM Studios. “I know our global Prime Video customers will immediately embrace this story, and I look forward to working with Ed, Jordan, and the team to bring it to the screen.” As Deadline reported last February, Pepper and his lieutenant Matt King, Head of Tentpole, Genre and Universe Development of Wholly Owned Content, championed bringing in Criminal to Amazon.