Biography
Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling comic-book writer of JUPITER’S LEGACY, KICK-ASS, KINGSMAN, THE MAGIC ORDER, WANTED, OLD MAN LOGAN, MARVEL CIVIL WAR and SUPERMAN: RED SON.
He is also President of Netflix’s Millarworld Division in Los Angeles since he and his wife sold their company to Netflix in 2017. The eight-part superhero blockbuster series Jupiter’s Legacy is their first project from the streamer and debuts in 2021.
Marvel and DC
In Summer 2000, Marvel brought Millar in as part of a new team to revitalise their comic-book line. He worked with the best artists in the industry and launched his X-Men revamp at number one with Ultimate X-Men, re-thinking The Avengers next and shattering his own sales numbers with The Ultimates before creating the Marvel Civil War storyline in 2006, remaining Marvel’s most financially successful event of the 21st century and their best-selling graphic novel of all time.
Screen-writer Zak Penn credits The Ultimates as his template for the 2012 Avengers movie and both Civil War and his classic Wolverine: Old Man Logan provided the inspiration for two massive-grossing movies of the same name.
His Superman book, Red Son, is the highest-selling Superman graphic novel in history and was adapted by Warner Bros as an animated movie in 2020.
Millarworld
On the advice of Stan Lee, Mark decided to branch out from Marvel and create his own franchises while still working at the company.
Wanted was his first comic-book under the Millarworld banner, a huge hit that spawned the 2008 movie starring Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy. Wanted grossed $342 million on a $70 million budget and paved the way for the successful adaptation of his Kick-Ass comic in 2010, starring Nicolas Cage.
Quitting Marvel soon after, Millar focused all his attention on Millarworld and co-created properties which include Jupiter’s Legacy, The Magic Order, American Jesus, Supercrooks, Sharkey The Bounty Hunter, Empress, Superior, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Chrononauts, Starlight, Nemesis, Space Bandits, MPH and Huck.
Kingsman was released as a movie in 2015 and, like Kick-Ass has spawned at least one sequel. The most recent Kingsman movie, The King’s Man, is released in 2021.
Netflix
Netflix bought Millarworld in August, 2017 and now owns the full rights to all 17 properties purchased, later hiring Mark and his wife Lucy to act as President and CEO of their Millarworld line and help develop these comic-books into big-budget movies, shows and animated series. He has also been hard at work creating new franchises in-house, some of which have also been adapted into new comic-books like The Magic Order.
The first material to be streamed is Jupiter’s Legacy in 2021. Supercrooks, Huck, Sharkey The Bounty Hunter, Space Bandits, The Magic Order, Prodigy and more are all either in production now or in active development.
The only franchises excluded from the company sale to Netflix were Kick-Ass and Kingsman, which Mark still co-owns independently.
Awards and honours
Mark has received or been nominated for numerous industry honours over the years including Eagles, Eisners, UKCAC, Speakeasy and Wizard awards.
Outside of comics, he has won the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland award for writing, the Scottish Press Awards Hall of Fame, the SFX Award for Best Comic, Time Magazine’s Comic-Book of the Decade (for The Ultimates) and two GLAAD awards for excellence.
He was awarded and honorary doctorate for literature from Glasgow Caledonia University in 2012 and in 2013 received an MBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace for services to Film and Literature.
Personal life
Mark was born in Coatbridge, Scotland, on December 24th 1969. He is the youngest of six children and married to Lucy Millar, CEO of Netflix’s Millarworld Division. He has three daughters.