''Chrononauts'' is a British

comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...

series created by

Mark Millar Mark Millar (; born 24 December 1969) is a Scottish comic book writer who first came to prominence with a run on the superhero series ''The Authority (comics), The Authority'', published by DC Comics' Wildstorm imprint. Millar has written ext ...

and Sean Murphy, published by

Image Comics Image Comics is an independent American American comic book, comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share. Its best-known publications include ''Spawn (comics) ...

, and set in the

Millarworld Millarworld Limited is an imprint of comic books published by Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar as a creator-owned line, featuring characters created by him in a shared fictional universe, the Millarworld, or Millarverse. These characters ...

. Described as "''

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was abort ...

'' meets ''

The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels to the year 802,701. The work is generally credited with the popularizati ...

''", the title was announced near the end of 2014, with the first volume running for four issues from March to June 2015. Two sequels followed: the four-issue '' Chrononauts: Futureshock'' (2019; illustrated by Eric Canete) and the five-issue '' Big Game'' (2023; illustrated by Pepe Larraz), with a further series to be published by

Dark Horse Comics Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, manga and Artist's book, art book publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon, by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, O ...

. A one-shot, ''Chrononauts: Prom Night'', written by Shaun Brill and illustrated by Conor Hughes, was also published in 2017. A ''Chrononauts'' feature film has been in development since 2015, and

development hell Development hell, also known as development purgatory or development limbo, is media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in a stage of early development for a long time because of legal, technical, or artistic ...

since 2017.

Plot summary

''Chrononauts''

Corbin Quinn and Danny Reilly are two buddies and scientific geniuses who love to have fun. When their research leads them to the invention of time-travel, will they use their knowledge for the good of all mankind? Or use the space-time continuum for their own ends? This is the story of man's first, televised steps through the time-stream and how everything goes wrong in the process.

''Prom Night''

In 2017, ''Chrononauts: Prom Night'', written by Shaun Brill and illustrated by Conor Hughes, was published as part of the ''Millarworld New Talent Annual 2017'', an

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...

annual consisting of one-shot specials containing winning entries from the online contest for up-and-coming creators held by Millar in 2016. Set after the events of ''Chrononauts'', the story sees Danny Corbin using time travel to attempt to improve the quality of his prom night.

''Futureshock''

As time-traveling physicists Corbin Quinn and Danny Reilly attempt to conquer the future with their newest time machine—The Timehawk. A little older but none the wiser, the best friends return for their biggest mission yet, as their old Professor and classmate Bronwyn present them with an explosive new mission to prevent the end of all human civilisation—the boys returning to the past to protect the utopian future from collapse.

''Big Game''

Recruited by billionaire Dr. Edison Crane and "Bobbie Griffin", Corbin Quinn and Danny Reilly must face off against the Secret Lord of Earth and leader of the Fraternity of Super-Criminals Wesley Gibson, and save all the world's superhumans he wiped out, as his father had once done in 1986, in addition to facing off against the

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

Royal Empire, their fleet brought to the present by

Mindy McCready Malinda Gayle McCready (November 30, 1975 – February 17, 2013) was an American country music singer. Active from 1995 until her death in 2013, she recorded a total of five studio albums. Her debut album, 1996's '' Ten Thousand Angels'', w ...

Collected editions

Adaptation

In March 2015,

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

optioned ''Chrononauts'' for a feature film adaptation, to be produced by Chris Morgan under his Chris Morgan Productions banner, with

and Sean Murphy executive producing, with one actor attached to star by May, and Philip Gawthorne joining as screenwriter by April 2017. That same month, Millar revealed that prior to becoming a comic, ''Chrononauts'' had been intended as a

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

, before he was asked by a "pal at Universal" (who ultimately left the company) to develop it into a comic that could then be adapted into a film starring

Chris Pratt Christopher Michael Pratt (born June 21, 1979) is an American actor. His films as a leading actor have grossed over $14.1billion worldwide, making him the fifth-highest-grossing film star of all time. Pratt was named by ''Time'' as one of t ...

and

Chris Hemsworth Christopher Hemsworth (born 11 August 1983) is an Australian actor. Born and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, and Bulman, Northern Territory, he rose to prominence playing Kim Hyde in the Australian television series ''Home and Away'' (2004� ...

, but that the duo were not guaranteed to be cast as the titular characters, since no casting would take place "until a script is done and dusted". In August 2017,

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

acquired the

imprint of creator-owned titles, with the ''Chrononauts'' feature film consequently entering

References

External links

''Chrononauts''
at

''Chrononauts''
at Mr. Mark Millar {{Millarworld Image Comics titles Comics by Mark Millar 2014 comics debuts 2015 comics endings 2019 comics debuts 2019 comics endings 2023 comics debuts 2023 comics endings Comics about time travel NASA in fiction