Former Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb has one regret: not making Kevin Smith's "extraordinary" Howard the Duck show

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The era of Marvel shows on Netflix might have come to an end, but that doesn’t mean that every story they wanted to tell has been told. Despite creating some of the most memorable Marvel TV shows ever, Jeph Loeb, who was head of Marvel Television up until just five years ago, has at least one regret and it is for the Kevin Smith project that wasn’t to be.

“I can tell you that Kevin Smith’s Howard the Duck was extraordinary,” Loeb revealed during his panel at MCM London Comic Con in May 2024. The fact that Smith was bringing his offbeat sense of humor to one of Marvel’s most offbeat characters isn’t a secret, but hearing Jeph Loeb speak so highly of it is a new development. The comment came in response to a fan asking if there were any shows that he didn’t get to make while he was in charge of Marvel Television from 2010 to 2019.

Smith has previously spoken about his plans for the show, revealing that he'd planned to have Howard search for the Darkhold as a way for him to return home to his own dimension. "Now that I've seen WandaVision," he said back in 2021, "that would have been a reason to kill Howard the Duck right there and then." (The Darkhold was glimpsed in that series, and then became a primary plot point of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.)

However, there was something that Jeph Loeb had no regrets about and that was the casting in many of the Marvel Netflix shows. “Laray Mayfield, who was my casting director on all of the Netflix shows… I don’t think there is a bad piece of casting in any of those shows.” Considering that so many of those actors – from Charlie Cox to Vincent D’Onofrio – are reprising their roles even after Marvel canceled those series, we’re inclined to agree with Loeb on this one.

Still, it is hard not to be disappointed with not getting t a chance to see for ourselves what Kevin Smith’s Howard the Duck could have brought to Marvel Television that still makes it stick out to the man in charge at the time.

Be there from anywhere, with Popverse coverage of London's MCM Comic Con from May 2024. From our gallery of amazing cosplay from the event, to our MCM May 2024 panel video guide.