Buck Rogers Likely to Awaken From His Slumber in new Legendary Movie

Hollywood magic, courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, is leaning pretty close to waking up William “Buck” Rogers from another time traveling dream, only this jump will be slightly over 40 years forward instead of the 492 years that first took the comic strip hero from the roaring 20’s all the way to2419 and set up his futuristic adventures.

Philip Francis Nowlan’sBuck Rogerswas initially widely seen as the protagonist of his own comic strips series named “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D.” back in 1929, making appearances in the format all the way up to 1967, even if his origins can be traced to a short novel by the same author titledArmageddon 2419 A.D.He was the first sci-fi comic strip of the style that, along withPopeye,Conan The Barbarian,Dick TracyandFlash Gordonwould go on to heavily influence the comic book superheroes still known and loved today.

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As noted by The Hollywood Reporter, Legendary has secured the rights in an operation that would aim to produce not only the firstBuck Rogersfeature film, but also an animated series to go along with it. Production forBuck Rogers’foray into the 21st century would be handled by Don Murphy and Susan Monford from Angry Films, mostly known forTransformers.

This wouldn’t be the first timeBuck Rogersdipped his toes in other media; he was popular enough for ABC and NBC to start their own TV series based on the character in early 1950 and 1979, respectively, with the latter being the bigger hit among audiences. Suffice to say,Buck Rogers’space exploration adventureswere huge, with the hero getting his fair share of toys and actions figures at the time.

Buck Rogersremained as one of the few iconic pieces of comic-related intellectual property that hadn’t found its way onto the hands of a willing Hollywood company and while further details are still unclear, it’s an exciting prospect for sci-fi fans and the 2020’s look to be about as good a time as any for the hero’s new back to the future time jump.