Ben Edlund's The Tick is making another TV comeback, this time as a pilot for a potential series over at Amazon. However, no one should greet this news with the expectation that it's a revival of the nine-episode 2001 FOX series, because this is likely to be a very different Tick designed for today's audience.
Patrick Warburton, who played the character in that version, is tied up with his new series, Crowded, while Nestor Carbonell (Batmanuel) is a regular on Bates Motel. Although the title role is yet to be cast, announced is Vinyl's Griffin Newman as Tick sidekick Arthur Everest, with House Of Lies and The Following's Valorie Curry cast as his sister, Dot. Expected to direct the pilot - which Edlund is writing - is Wally Pfister (director of photography for The Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception, and director of Transcendence).
In this take on the subject, Arthur is someone who has been diagnosed as being schizophrenic due to his constant claims that their city will be ruled by evil. Naturally no one takes him seriously, until he encounters The Tick - who is suffering from memory loss - and the two of them decide to team up.
Introduced as a mascot of sorts for New England Comics 30 years ago, The Tick became the star of his own comic book series. In 1994 the character made the leap to television in the form of a three-season animated series, and then, of course, there was the 2001 live action show.
As it usually does, Amazon will film the pilot and put it out there with others for the public to view. In the end, it will be the public that determines whether or not the man in blue makes a return.