Last year, fantasy author Neil Gaiman was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women. Since then, more details about the cases have come out. Although Gaiman has denied any wrongdoing, it's stomach-turning stuff, and we've seen studios either cancel or cut back on planned adaptations of his work. Netflix canceled Dead Boy Detectives, which is based on a story that originally appeared in Gaiman's The Sandman comic series. Good Omens, based on the 1990 book Gaiman wrote with Terry Pratchett, will finish with one final, 90-minute episode instead of a whole third season as planned. Disney has paused an adaptation of Gaiman's novel The Graveyard Book.
And now, Dark Horse Comics has announced that they have dropped Neil Gaiman, and that a comic book adaptation of Gaiman's 2005 novel Anansi Boys has been canceled. "Dark Horse takes seriously the allegations against Neil Gaiman and we are no longer publishing his works," the company wrote in a statement. "Confirming that the Anansi Boys comic series and collected volume have been cancelled."
There's also a six-episode Anansi Boys TV show possibly still headed to Prime Video. Per Uproxx, that series started filmed way back in 2021, but it had issues behind the scenes, with co-showrunner Douglas Mackinnon abruptly leaving during post-production. So there were already issues with that show even before the sexual misconduct allegations against Gaiman came into the spotlight. I wouldn't be surprised if Prime Video opted never to let that show see the light of day.
The allegations against Gaiman came to light during a period when his work was being widely adapted, and at least one big project is still going forward: Netflix will release the second season of The Sandman sometime this year, although we haven't seen much in the way of marketing and we've heard that this may be the show's final season, even though there's a lot more comic to cover.
It remains to be seen whether DC, which is still publishing a continuation of The Sandman in comic form, will do anything; so far they haven't commented publicly on the matter.
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h/t The A.V. Club