Marlon Wayans’s New Comedy Series Is Leaving HBO
Where's it headed?
This article is more than 2 years old
When it comes to television families that have changed the landscape of viewing habits for American audiences, the Wayans brood might be at the top of the list. Known for groundbreaking series like In Living Color and The Wayans Bros., the Wayans family has made their mark on television history and comedy in general. Moving into film with the Scary Movie franchise, the Wayans made history again when the first film became the highest grossing flick directed by a Black person at the time. Now, a member of the Wayans family is staking a claim on a new television series, which has sadly been affected by the recent changes constantly occurring at Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max.
According to a report by Deadline, Marlon Wayans will be starring in a new comedy series for Starz called Book of Marlon. The show was supposed to stream on HBO Max and has been in development at the subscription streaming service since 2020, but has since changed over to premiere on Starz instead. Wayans will star in the vehicle as well as produce and write, which will see the veteran performer in a new light as Book of Marlon will detail Wayans’s life and career in the spotlight. This news follows the upcoming The Curse of Bridge Hollow, which Wayans will star in and debut on Netflix this October just in time for the Halloween season.
Book of Marlon has been a passion project of sorts for Marlon Wayans since its inception, and the news that the series will be developed at Starz instead of HBO Max is just another hurdle for the actor. His semi-autobiographical television series Marlon ran for two seasons on NBC before its eventual cancellation in 2018. According to Collider, Book of Marlon will be a thirty minute episode series that will see Wayans depict a fictionalized impression of himself in a twisted, yet humorous, way. A play off of the famous stage production The Book of Mormon, Book of Marlon seems to promise a lot of heart mixed with a warped sense of relentless laughs.
Before the news broke that Book of Marlon will hit Starz in an unprecedented way, Marlon Wayans has enjoyed a lengthy career as part of the Wayans family. As part of various roles on In Living Color that was created by his brother, Keenan Ivory Wayans, Marlon Wayans starred on the WB sitcom The Wayans Bros. alongside his real-life brother Shawn. The entire family embarked on the ride that became the Scary Movie franchise, with Marlon and Shawn Wayans costarring in many of the films and brother Keenan directing. Rotten Tomatoes currently ranks the first Scary Movie film with a 52% on its Tomatometer and a 43% Audience Score, despite a box office gross of $278 million against a budget of $19 million. The film spawned several sequels as part of the franchise, in addition to influencing other parodies like Not Another Teen Movie, and helped actor Anna Faris become a household name. Since then, Marlon Wayans has costarred in movies like On the Rocks and the Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect.
