Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's Ava DuVernay, and she's developing an adaptation of the DC Comics series Naomi for The CW. DuVernay will partner with Arrow writer and co-exec producer Jill Blankenship on the project, which Blankenship will write and co-produce.
The comic series hails from Brian Michael Bendis, David Walker, and artist Jamal Campbell. It takes place within the larger DC Universe and focuses on a young, adopted teenager, Naomi, who in time discovers that she has energy-based powers. When a supernatural event shakes her hometown to the core, Naomi sets out to uncover its origins, and what she discovers will challenge everything we believe about our heroes.
Naomi is the latest superhero-related project to be in the works at The CW, following the announcements of Wonder Girl, based on the DC characters created by Joëlle Jones as well as the Black Lightning spinoff Painkiller, starring Jordan Calloway as the title character. Wonder Girl will be hitting The CW courtesy of Queen of the South executive producer/co-showrunner Dailyn Rodriguez and Greg Berlanti, while Salim Akil will write, executive produce, and direct Painkiller. The latter is slated to receive a backdoor pilot as a part of the fourth and final season of Black Lightning.
Naomi will be produced by DuVernay's ARRAY Filmworks banner in association with Warner Bros. Television. DuVernay is also set to direct the feature film adaptation of DC’s New Gods.
On a more personal note, I think I just heard my Talking Comics Podcast co-hosts, Joey and Aaron, break the sound barrier as they shouted with joy over this news. We're all major fans of Naomi and I could not be more excited about today's announcement. So far, the comic book series has presented Naomi as an inquisitive, fearless individual whose mysterious past is just the beginning of her inspiring superhero story. Moreso than other teenagers in comics, Naomi reads like a real person caught up in a bizarre situation that takes her beyond the stars as she uncovers the truth about her mysterious past. While I've tapped out of CW shows in the past, you can bet that I'll be there for the launch of Naomi.