Two years after rumors first surfaced suggesting Amazon might be interested in bringing Ben Edlund’s cult classic The Tick back to live-action TV, Deadline is reporting that the streaming service has okayed a pilot for a new series about the boisterous, “Spoon!”-shouting superhero. The series will be written and executive produced by Edlund, who’s currently one of the creative voices behind Fox’s Gotham, a comic-based series that isn’t supposed to take place in a world that’s aggressively full of nonsense.
But while Edlund (and fellow executive producer Barry Josephson) are returning to the supercrime-filled streets of The City, one prominent name is not: Patrick Warburton, who played the title character in the 2001 adapation of Edlund’s comic. (Exuberantly throated voice actor Townsend Coleman, meanwhile, played the big blue bug of justice in the 1994 Saturday morning cartoon.) Earlier reports suggested that the always-busy Warburton might get involved with the revival project, but he’s currently hard at work lobbing Puddy-esque deadpans on the set of his new NBC sitcom, Crowded.
Also absent: David Burke, who played moth-suit-clad sidekick Arthur on the live-action show; he’s been replaced with Vinyl co-star Griffin Newman. The Following’s Valorie Curry, meanwhile, will play Arthur’s concerned sister Dot, while the role of the big guy himself—who’ll be suffering amnesia, apparently, when the series starts—has yet to be cast.