Donald Glover has a pretty amazing career. After writing for the critically acclaimed sitcom 30 Rock, he went to star in the critically acclaimed sitcom Community. Then he left that show to create and star in his own critically acclaimed sitcom, Atlanta, which just won two Emmy Awards.
In addition, he has a successful music career, performing under the name Childish Gambino. Over the years his music has evolved from comical, confessional rap to psychedelic soul-funk. In 2017, you couldn't escape his infectious single "Redbone," which won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance.
And in case that's not enough, Donald is also acting in movies! In Spider-Man: Homecoming, he played a small part as a petty criminal who helps Peter Parker. Now he's booked the lead role in two huge films. In Solo: A Star Wars Story, he plays Lando Calrissian (and looks perfect in character). What's more, in the live-action version of The Lion King, he'll be voicing Simba. For anyone wanting to work in the creative arts, Donald's career is a source of inspiration.
In May 2017, FX Productions announced that they were working with Donald and his brother to create an animated television series based on Deadpool. The raunchy, wisecracking Marvel antihero is a huge hit on the big screen, so it makes sense to translate the comic book to TV. The series was picked up for a ten episode order, set to debut in 2018, with the Glovers serving as writers, executive producers and showrunners.
However, over the weekend, FX announced that they decided to cancel Deadpool: The Animated Series due to "creative differences." In Hollywood, this type of thing happens all the time. Out of the countless shows pitched to television networks, very few get picked up for pilot orders, and very few of those get picked for a series order, and very few of those survive cancellation after the first season. But still, the news was surprising, given how popular Donald Glover right now. It seemed like his take on Deadpool would have been a huge hit.
Fans - and some journalists - assumed that the show was really cancelled because of Donald's busy schedule. But on Twitter, the actor-writer-singer said that was not the case, writing, "for the record: i wasnt too busy to work on deadpool." Then he went on to tweet a 15-page script, but it's not a typical pilot script. It's a freshly written mock script that satirizes the series' cancellation, previewing the show and giving fans a hint at what might have happened behind the scenes. It's also extremely topical, including references to bitcoin, Ben Carson. yesterday's Beyoncé-biting incident. Here's the first three pages:
In the script, titled "FINALE," Deadpool is assigned to protect Sudan, the last male northern white rhino who died last week. "I don't know why I'm here either!" cries Deadpool. "I think the writer's just mad. Or bored." Later on, he uses the character to explore reasons for the show's cancellation. The passionate, seemingly improvised monologue makes sense, Deadpool's famous for his fourth-wall-breaking meta-commentary:
"You know, I'm not mad about this whole 'cancelled' thing. I actually think it's a good thing. I mean, is it even a good time to have a violent, gun loving white man ranting on TV? Other than the PRESIDENT!"
"It just feels like everyone wants something different, but no one wants to do anything different to get it.
"Do you think they cancelled the show...cause of racism?
"Yeah, but all the writers were black. And the references were pretty black, too. I heard they went over the lunch budget ordering Jamaican food at least once a week."
Well, Donald doesn't seem happy about the cancellation, but at least he's still got Atlanta, Star Wars, The Lion King and Childish Gambino.
