Advanced Television

Patton Oswalt talks adapting Minor Threats for TV

May 26, 2025

Nik Roseveare @ MCM Comic Con

Hollywood royalty Patton Oswalt joined the fun and frivolities at ReedPop’s MCM Comic Con this May. The actor, comedian and writer – beholder of truly one of the longest lists of acting credits in the business – has starred in TV shows including Agents of SHIELD, Seinfeld, The King of Queens, Veep, Archer and Modern Family; and blockbuster movies such as Blade Trinity, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, 22 Jump Street, Zoolander, and many, many more – as well as being the voice of gifted chef (and rat) Remy in celebrated Pixar flick Ratatouille.

But, putting his showbiz career to one side, Oswalt was in the UK to promote a different venture: Minor Threats – a comic series created by Oswalt, alongside fellow write Jordan Blum and comic book artist Scott Hepburn.

Published by Dark Horse Comics, the graphic crime drama is about superheroes and, even more so, supervillains – although not the world conquerors or arch-nemeses, but rather the little guys: the career criminals, the henchmen and the costumed crooks. In the vein of Watchmen, and The Boys, the noir-ish caper focuses on a lower-class kind of criminal, but set in a high concept world of heroes and villains.

Netflix has optioned the show, and the trio behind the comic books explained they’re still in the process of writing the series – and ultimately presenting it to Netflix – and explained the problems that can arise when transforming comic book material into live action.

Speaking to Advanced-Television on how the adaptation is progressing, Oswalt said: Adaptation is adaptation, you’ve got to change what you wrote and make it evolve into a new medium, so we’re wrestling with that. But we’re having the same sort of fun we had when we first created the world – where we’re just letting our imagination run. It’s just in a different medium!”

“It’s really hard to adapt is what we’re learning. It’s a whole different skill set,” added Blum. “The changes are the most fun things because writing is discovery, getting to find new things and open up them up. We had to write one draft that was like very close to the comic to get it out of our system, and now we’re working on opening up the world.”

Elaborating on the Minor Threats writing process, Blum said: “It’s gotta be grounded by character first, and also we’re trying to show POVs that have never been seen before from superheroes. We have read millions of superhero comics and for us it’s like ‘what are the stories that have fallen through the cracks?’ […] and that’s the stuff that interests us.”

“We definitely try and do a comic book story, and that’s the challenge of now adapting it,” said Hepburn. “We’re doing things that can only specifically be done in comic books – because that’s what we love and that’s what the art, for me, is. But, for me – as the person just outside of the writers’ room – I know how big the world can be [for a TV series], so anytime I have an idea for a character or a designs or a location, I kinda feel like my job is to make it look, and set these scenes, the most interesting way possible, and give as much implied story to is as I can. So I feel like [with the TV adaptation] I have somewhere to put all my ideas now and I can feed [the writers] with the stuff I’ve come up with over the years, like the nonsensical, weird named characters – I can have a place for them now!”

“And our stories evolve based off of the art we get back,” continued Blum. “And then we’re like ‘what is this? We should go here!’ […] we keep it loose enough to do that.”

The trio said they were a long way off considering casting yet, but Blum quipped: “I’d love to play Barfly … with mo-cap. Like when Ang Lee did The Hulk.”

Keeping on the subject of comics books, rounding out his Main Stage panel at MCM Comic Con, Oswalt remarked that if Marvel produced a biopic, he would “absolutely love to play Jack Kirby.” 

 

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