Aeon Flux Live-Action TV Show Is Happening
Aeon Flux is coming back as a new live-action series.
This article is more than 2 years old
Hollywood is taking another crack at a live-action Aeon Flux adaptation despite an abysmal attempt in 2005.
It was announced in 2018 that Viacom was looking to reboot its previous MTV animated property, Aeon Flux, into a live-action series from Teen Wolf showrunner Jeff Davis. However, precious little has been said about the project since that initial announcement. However, in the years since big changes have happened at the company.
In 2019, Viacom merged with CBS and, together, they spawned the streaming platform currently known as Paramount+. In a mad dash to fill its streaming platform with content in order to beat the myriad of other streamers out there, MTV Entertainment locked down a multi-year deal with Davis, one of its most reliable TV creators. He’ll get started with a movie reboot of his popular 2011 series Teen Wolf that is currently looking into how many members of the original cast will be able to reprise their roles. Under the deal, he’ll not only write but also executive produce the movie. He’ll also serve as the showrunner to a new TV series titled Wolf Pack and, according to Collider, be the showrunner and executive producer of an Aeon Flux series at Paramount+.
Originally created by animator Peter Chung, the anime version of Aeon Flux ran on MTV from 1991 until 1995. While it wasn’t exactly a hit at the time, it gained a significant cult following after it stopped airing, leading to a myriad of comic book, movie and video game adaptations. The most significant of which is the 2005 box-office flop starring Charlize Theron.
Even though the actress has since proven herself in the spy/soldier genre with projects like Atomic Blonde, The Old Guard, and Mad Max: Fury Road she wasn’t enough to rescue the ill-conceived Aeon Flux movie. The movie was mostly derided at the time for trying too hard to pay service to fans of the animated series and falling short, never diving fully into the societal allegories that made the animated version so popular. With an estimated budget of $62 million and only earned a weak $53 million worldwide. Unlike its animated counterpart, the Aeon Flux movie did not have a better life after its initial release. It currently holds a nine percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
The series takes place in a dystopian future in which most of the population has been wiped out by a cataclysmic event. In the wake of the tragedy, the rest of humanity lives in a tense utopia that’s very clearly got nothing but a river of blood and misfortune for the have-nots running underneath it. The story of Aeon Flux revolves around a tall, gorgeous assassin who teams up with a group of biohacking rebels bent on figuring out what’s at the heart of this society and toppling their oppressive government.
Not only was the animated Aeon Flux heralded for its commentary on society, but it remains one of the most influential anime projects to put a woman at the forefront. Meanwhile, its style and general tone were cited as an inspiration for the Wachowskis when they made The Matrix.
