Image credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
The long-gestating reboot of the iconic sci-fi adventure hero Buck Rogers just got a major update.
Who is making the Buck Rogers reboot movie?
Legendary, the company behind Denis Villeneuve’s Dune and the MonsterVerse, is developing the new big-screen adaptation of Buck Rogers. The reboot has been in the works since 2020, although there have been few updates since the initial report five years ago. However, TheWrap is now reporting that Zeb Wells has been tapped to write the latest draft of Legendary’s Buck Rogers reboot.
Wells is best known for his work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having written for multiple projects that are part of the franchise’s Multiverse Saga. After serving as an uncredited co-writer on the movies Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) and The Marvels (2023), Wells was part of the writing team on Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), working alongside Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Shawn Levy to bring the Merc with a Mouth into the MCU. He was also the head writer of the recent four-part adult animated miniseries Marvel Zombies.
Created by Philip Francis Nowlan, Buck Rogers first appeared in the 1928 novella Armageddon 2419 A.D., which focuses on a coal mine inspector who awakens from suspended animation after 500 years to find himself in the middle of a planetary war. A daily comic strip titled Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D. soon followed and ran in newspapers until 1967. The future world featured in Buck Rogers is known to have influenced Tomorrowland in Disneyland, while the character himself inspired numerous imitators, the most famous being Flash Gordon.
Buck Rogers has not been seen on the big or small screen in almost 45 years. The character’s first adaptation came in 1939 with a 12-part serial film produced by Universal and starring Buster Crabbe as Buck Rogers. A short-lived black and white television series debuted on ABC in the early 1950s, but has been largely lost to time, with only one episode surviving today.
The most famous adaptation arguably remains Universal’s 1979 movie, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, starring Gil Gerard in the lead role. Originally made as a feature-length television pilot, Universal opted to release it in theaters six months before the series premiered on NBC, where it made $21.7 million at the box office off a budget of just $3.5 million. The series lasted for two seasons and 37 episodes on NBC and remains the last screen adaptation of Buck Rogers.
(Source: TheWrap)
