Q-Force with Sean Hayes, Parks and Rec creator brings LGBTQ super spies to Netflix
Netflix continues bringing that queer visibility to the world of animation.
Joining its roster of LGBTQ-friendly programming, which already includes a team of drag queen superheroes with Super Drags, is Q-Force, a new half-hour, adult animated comedy from Will & Grace star Sean Hayes, Parks and Recreation creator Mike Schur, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer Gabe Liedman.
Penned by Liedman, Q-Force tells of “a handsome secret agent and his team of fellow LGBTQ super spies.” Images of Sterling Archer’s undercover twink-on-rollerskates disguise immediately come to mind.
Liedman will showrun the 10-episode series and executive produce with Schur, Hayes, Todd Milliner, and David Miner. According to Deadline, Hayes is also a likely contender to voice the lead character.
“A spy TV series is so tough, because they’re so expensive,” Milliner told Deadline. “We were thinking how do we get to do gay spy and every week, and the only way to do that is animated, because we can do all of the fun parts of a James Bond film. We can travel, we can have big chase sequences; animation is allowing us that freedom.”
Hayes added, “Also, I don’t know that the studios would greenlight a feature with a leading character that’s gay in that genre. Hopefully they will, but that doesn’t seem like right now.”
Prominent LGBTQ representation is still a rarity in animated entertainment, though the adult comedy nature of Q-Force and the fact that Netflix is a streaming subscription service that can pretty much do whatever it wants offers a strong platform for these new characters. In terms of non-adult animated shows, Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princess of Power has proven to be a queer-friendly space.
Q-Force marks the first animated show and first streaming series to come out of Hazy Mills, the production company founded by Hayes and Milliner in 2004.
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