WGN to adapt Jason Aaron’s DC Vertigo comic Scalped into a series

One of the best comic series ever made is coming to TV and I’m nervous as hell. Jason Aaron’s Scalped, a violent noir crime drama that takes place in the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation in South Dakota, is one of the absolute best pieces of comic-book work done in the last decade. Beautifully drawn by series regular R.M. Guera and intricately woven by Aaron, the story follows an undercover F.B.I. agent named Dashiell Bad Horse, who returns to the reservation to infiltrate a crime organization run by casino boss Lincoln Red Crow, who is also the President of the Oglala Tribal Council and Sheriff of the Tribal Police. Bad Horse is pulled into a world of crime, drug addiction, murder, double crosses, and everything in between as he confronts his own past in the course of trying to solve both old and new mysteries. The 60-issue series ran from 2007 – 2012. For more on the book, check out CBR’s excellent write-up here.

Banshee’s Doug Jung will pen the script and executive produce the Warner Horizon Television drama. WGN isn’t quite HBO, FX, or AMC, so my nerves are a bit rattled in terms of how they’ll adapt this. For a work that is unflinchingly violent, dark, and filled with expletives, I am leery of a “tame” version of Scalped. One of the book’s greatest strengths is that it tackles themes that are typically deemed too “adult” for a comic, including abortion, homosexuality, poverty, etc. (i.e. real-world stuff). It would be easy to make this a shoot-em-up detective series on an Indian “rez” but I’m going to hold out hope that they’ll adapt this with as much integrity as possible. With AMC tackling a similarly seminal work with Garth Ennis’ Preacher and NBC adapting Constantine, the move to adapt edgier comic material is on the horizon, especially after the proven success of The Walking Dead. The only question now is whether or not anyone can pull it off outside of the zombie realm.

No word on casting or planned premiere dates as this is currently in development.