The Chew animated movie is officially dead, but a new television deal is in the works that will hopefully bring the series about a psychic detective who gets clues by eating evidence (see: people) to the small screen. This will likely be a familiar refrain to fans, who have long-awaited an adaptation of John Layman and Rob Guillory’s Cibopath thriller. The series’ adaptation prospects haven’t fared well in the past.
Word got out back in 2011 that Chew was going to be adapted into a series at Showtime, a partnership that fell through quickly – the show reportedly didn’t even get past the development phase. After that, 2014 brought news of an animated movie that sounded promising. The feature even had a cast. The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun would voice the protagonist, Tony Chu, while Felicia Day would play Amelia Mintz. David Tennant was going to play Mason Savoy, a fellow Cibopath. Layman said the film was “guaranteed to blow minds.”
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Now, it seems the dream of a Chew animated movie is dead, too. According to Pursue News, Layman has confirmed the film’s demise, but also teased that a “new Hollywood person” is trying to get another Chew series off the ground.
Now might be the best chance a Chew show has at hitting big. Years have passed since the Showtime series and the animated movie were announced, and the media landscape has shifted significantly. Fans have rallied around a series like Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal, which chronicled the exploits of the sinister cannibal Hannibal Lecter. Maybe now is the time for a series with a sympathetic cannibal lead.