Doc Savage movie to instead become a TV series minus Dwayne Johnson

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

After years of being trapped in development limbo, it's been announced that the pulp magazine adventurer, Doc Savage, is finally heading toward the small screen. Word comes from Deadline that Sony Pictures Television and Neal H. Moritz's Sony-based Original Film have partnered with Condé Nast Entertainment to present a scripted television series revolving around Doc Savage, a hero that hails from the Street & Smith library.

Much like Savage's literary adventures, the upcoming series will feature "The Man of Bronze" engaging in a multitude of derring-do, including run-ins with ferocious dinosaurs, shadowy cults, villains bent on world domination and much more! In other words, Doc Savage is sort of like Nathan Drake turned up to eleven, minus the dinosaurs, of course.

Moritz and Pavun Shetty will produce courtesy of Original Film, while Oren Katzeff and Jon Koa will also produce by way of Condé Nast Entertainment.

Previously, Moritz’s Original Film partnered with director Shane Black for a Doc Savage movie in 2013. As per the arrangement, Black was poised to write the script, which had Dwayne Johnson in line to star after the box office behemoth signed on in 2016. Unfortunately, the project failed to get off the ground, with Johnson citing "business affairs issues" as a reason for the stall.

"First of all, love Shane Black and we’ve had multiple meetings on that project that we were going to work on. Right now, Shane’s doing things. I’m doing things. That project had a few issues, not creative issues but more so business affairs issues — where the project once was, who had rights to it, where we were trying to move it to. There was a lot of that, which we’re still kind of working through. At the end of the day, Shane’s such a spectacular writer or director, but whether it’s that project or something else, we’ve made a pact that we’re going to work together at some point in our careers," Johnson told Collider in 2018.

With the project now heading to television, Moritz’s philosophy is that the Doc Savage IP will be better served as part of an episodic format, especially when taking into account that there are literally hundreds of characters to meet along Savage's many adventures.

For those of you who're unfamiliar with the character, please allow me to give you a bit of background. Doc Savage arrived in pulp magazines circa 1933. Known to his many readers as Clark Savage Jr., the character was was inspired by (and created to be an amalgam of) legendary literary and pulp heroes such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot and Tarzan. In addition to his impressive physique, Doc Savage also possesses a genuis-level intellect as well as an eidetic memory. Along his many adventures, Savage uses his brute strength in addition to his wits to combat evil wherever it might rear its ugly and sinister head. In time, Doc Savage would serve as an inspiration for many superheroes that emerged in the late 1930s, including a number of iconic characters hailing from the DC and Marvel universes.

Is the world ready to engage in the death-defying escapades of Doc Savage? I certainly hope so, because this project has been a long time coming, and it sure would be nice to see more pulp-oriented heroes make the scene amidst legends the likes of Wonder Woman, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and soon, the Eternals. Without a doubt, this is an amazing time to be a comic book fan!