🎬 Wanted (2008)
Based on graphic novel
The 2008 action thriller Wanted takes its name and basic premise from Mark Millar and J. G. Jones's acclaimed comic book miniseries, but the two works are wildly different beasts. The original 2003–04 comic presents a world where supervillains have already won, having killed all superheroes and brainwashed humanity into forgetting they ever existed. Wesley Gibson is a pathetic cubicle drone who discovers he is the son of The Killer, a top enforcer for The Fraternity, and inherits superhuman abilities and a life of amoral villainy. The film, directed by Timur Bekmambetov, jettisons the supervillain mythology almost entirely, replacing it with a secret society of assassins who receive their targets from a mystical loom called the Loom of Fate.
The adaptation process was a long and winding road. Universal Pictures acquired the rights from Millar in 2004, well before the comic had even finished its run. The screenplay by Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, and Chris Morgan gradually drifted away from the source material's superhero deconstruction, transforming the Fraternity from cape-wearing supervillains into a guild of weavers who interpret binary code hidden in fabric to determine who must die. Millar, for his part, was reportedly content with the changes, pleased that the film retained the comic's darker, more subversive tone even as it abandoned its specific mythology. The iconic curved bullet technique, a visual flourish invented for the film, became its signature action gimmick.
Starring James McAvoy as Wesley, alongside Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, and Terence Stamp, Wanted was a box office hit, grossing $342 million worldwide. Critics praised its stylized, over-the-top action sequences and Bekmambetov's kinetic direction, which brought a distinct visual flair honed on the Russian Night Watch films. Danny Elfman provided a guitar-driven score that matched the film's aggressive energy. A sequel was announced shortly after release but languished in development hell for years, never materializing despite the first film's commercial success.
In the years since, the Wanted comic has continued to evolve within Millar's interconnected Millarworld universe. Wesley Gibson and the Fraternity have crossed over with other Millar creations in comics like Big Game, while the film remains a fascinating artifact of late-2000s action cinema — a movie that took a comic about supervillainy and turned it into something entirely its own, for better or worse.
Wanted is a comic book limited series created by writer Mark Millar and artist J. G. Jones, published by Top Cow Productions from 2003 to 2004. The story presents a dark alternate reality where supervillains have secretly conquered the world, erasing all memory of superheroes and reshaping society to their whims. The narrative follows Wesley Gibson, a downtrodden office worker who discovers he is the heir to a legacy of villainy and is recruited into The Fraternity, a clandestine organization of super-criminals who rule the planet from the shadows.
The series is notable for its amoral protagonist and its cynical, hyper-violent take on the superhero genre. Millar conceived the idea as a child, imagining a world where the villains had won and the heroes were gone. The comic is filled with thinly veiled analogues of famous DC Comics characters, implying that The Fraternity defeated and killed the world's greatest heroes before altering reality itself. The Sunday Times famously described it as "the Watchmen for super-villains," highlighting its deconstructionist approach to comic book tropes.
Wanted was a commercial and critical success upon release, helping to cement Mark Millar's reputation as a provocative voice in comics. It became part of his Millarworld imprint and has since spawned crossover sequels, including Savage Dragon: Wanted!, Nemesis: Reloaded, and Big Game, which connect the story to other Millarworld properties. In 2024, the series was republished by Dark Horse Comics in a collected edition titled Wanted & Big Game.