Marvel Launching Animated Property 'Marvel Rising' in 2018

The cross-platform franchise will focus on the younger members of the Marvel Universe.


Marvel is doubling down on its next generation of heroes with the announcement of Marvel Rising, a new multiplatform initiative focusing on younger characters, including Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl and members of the Inhumans.


The series will launch with six four-minute digital shorts introducing Gwen Stacy — the star of Marvel's Spider-Gwen comic book, renamed Ghost-Spider for this animated series — before the debut of Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors, a full-length animated movie scheduled for 2018. Marvel hasn't announced where the movie will appear, but it did share that future content, including material from Marvel's publishing arm, is intended to be announced in upcoming months.


Voice actors for the project include ABC's Agents of SHIELD's Ming-Na, Chloe Bennet and Dove Cameron, as well as Milana Vayntrub as Squirrel Girl, the role she was signed to play in the live-action New Warriors series currently being shopped to outlets after Disney's Freeform passed on the project.


Both the digital shorts and Secret Warriors movie were written by Mairghread Scott, and executive produced by Joe Quesada, Dan Buckley, Cort Lane and Eric Radomski. Stan Lee, Sana Amanat and Marsha Griffin are co-executive producers, with Kung-Fu Panda story artist Alfred Gimeno serving as supervising director.


In a statement from the company, Amanat, who is also Marvel's director of content and character development, said that the project is "unlike anything we've done before — from featuring the rising and fan-favorite stars of the Marvel Universe to a visually distinct animation style, this is a groundbreaking animated event. It's an action-packed adventure, full of comedy, heart and powerful messages for every kind of Marvel fan."