Aaron & Guera’s ‘Scalped’ Optioned For Pilot By WGN America
Basic cable broadcaster WGN America has picked up the rights to Jason Aaron and R.M. Guéra's Vertigo series Scalped and placed a pilot order for a live action adaptation. Scalped takes place on and around a Native American reservation, and centers on Dashiell “Dash” Bad Horse, an Army veteran who returns home to confront the crime and corruption that has engulfed "the Rez."
Amid much controversy over whitewashing in films like Gods of Egypt and Whisky Tango Foxtrot, it's a relief to hear that WGN America plans to cast appropriately and with all due sensitivity for its Scalped adaptation, with The Hollywood Reporter noting that the production is planning on an entirely Native American cast. Hopefully Scalped can lead the charge in not only casting appropriately, but in providing more examples of indigenous representation in all media. Perhaps one day it will go without saying that a show about Native American people and culture should cast Native American actors.
Scalped began in 2007 and, alongside the miniseries The Other Side, is arguably what put Jason Aaron’s name on the map. The series finished after sixty issues in 2012, and Aaron and Guéra reunited this year to launch The Goddamned from Image Comics, a grimy and violent take on early Biblical stories, starring Noah before the flood.
With the pilot order already in place for Scalped, casting news should follow fairly swiftly. DC Comics’ chief creative officer Geoff Johns is attached to executive produce, alongside Banshee’s Doug Jung, who will also write the first episode.