Raising Arizona. Raising Hope. Raising the Bar. Raising Helen … you get it. Hollywood has long had a thing for “raising” stuff, and according to Variety, that trend will continue. Netflix ordered 10 episodes of Raising Dion, a family drama about a single mother whose young son exhibits superpowers.
The series, based on a comic book and short film by writer Dennis Liu, is in the capable hands of veteran showrunner Carol Barbee (Jericho, Falling Skies), with Michael B. Jordan (Creed) on board as an executive producer. Jordan, 30, is a grizzled super-veteran at this point, having portrayed Johnny “The Human Torch” Storm in the most recent Fantastic Four film in addition to an upcoming heel turn where he will play the villainous Erik Killmonger in Black Panther, set for a February release.
In Raising Dion, recently widowed Nicole struggles to cope with varied abilities exhibited by 7-year-old Dion, including telekinesis, invisibility, and some kind of pyrokinesis. In the comics (and the short film, which you can view below), Nicole recruits the best friend of her late husband to help out with Dion, and to film his extraordinary exploits. As you might expect, some nefarious government agents squeeze their way into the picture, ostensibly looking to take advantage of Dion, or maybe to dissect him — for science!
We don’t yet know how close the series will stick to the source material and no casting decisions have been made as of yet (though we do know that Jordan will appear in a limited role as Nicole’s late husband). The show is a unique take on a superhero story and it should provide a respite from the color-by-numbers Marvel and DC projects with which we’ve become inundated.
Liu himself is Taiwanese-American, having graduated from the Taft School and New York Universtiy’s film program. His professional portfolio is varied including advertising work for big names — like Starbucks, Microsoft, Google, and Pepsi — in addition to having directed several music videos for artists like Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake and Mariah Carey. His career was jumpstarted with the 2008 release of his Apple Mac music video, which quickly went viral and has since amassed nearly 2 million views.
