Jessica Hynes is writing a TV series about a female superhero… called Justine
The character was initially developed for Sky Atlantic but the Spaced, W1A and Up the Women star has not given up hope of bringing her martial arts heroine to the small screen
Jessica Hynes, writer and star of cult Channel 4 comedy Spaced and BBC suffragette sitcom Up the Women, has been working on a new series, about a female superhero named Justine.
The show about a martial arts-practising crusader for justice is thought to have been considered by Sky Atlantic a few years ago and then dropped. However, Hynes – who is currently starring in Sky 1’s adventure romp Hooten & The Lady – has high hopes that it will eventually be made into a series and expects to get back to work on it again this year.
“She’s called Justine because she fights for Justice and is a martial artist, a very skilled fighter” says Hynes, who also plays the jargon-spouting PR Siobhan Sharpe in BBC mockumentary W1A.
"Another important thing about her is the costume. She’ll be cool to cosplay for young girls.”
She added: “It’s something that happened, occurred as an idea, a long time ago. And then it was developed up to a point and then Up the Women came along and then there was a hiatus and actually during that time a lot of superhero stuff came out.
“The idea came from a particular moment when I was at Comic Con in 2008 and it was actually at the beginning of the cosplay revolution.
“I thought it would be lovely to think up a character which would be really cool to cosplay as a young girl, because it felt like at that time there didn’t seem to be a variety, where actually now there is.
“It got to a really quite fully developed stage as a script and as a vision document and as an idea, and then like all things in development, things change, people move on, you know. So it will probably continue until the next stage. It’s the sort of imaginative pursuit I enjoy. I like world building. I like building characters. And I just enjoy doing it."
While Hynes won’t be donning the costume, it sounds as if she may have someone in mind for the role – although she's remaining tight-lipped about it until she's spoken to the actress in question.
“I feel like I couldn’t say who I wanted to play her because I feel like I would need to check with her..."
