The series was being produced by Marvel Television in association with FX Productions and ABC Signature Studios, with Donald and Stephen Glover serving as showrunners.
Early animation had been completed for the series that August, with the Glovers wanting a distinct voice and tone from previous incarnations of the character including the Deadpool films.
[2][3] FX approached Donald Glover, "a significant talent with increasing geek cred", and his brother Stephen to write, executive produce, and showrun the series.
[4] By the series' announcement, a writers room for the show had been established in London where Donald Glover was filming Solo: A Star Wars Story.
[5] With the announcement of the series and the involvement of Donald Glover, several outlets noted that his Atlanta co-star Zazie Beetz had just been cast as the comic character Domino in the film Deadpool 2.
[6] A brief clip from the series was available to be shown at FX's Television Critics Association press tour panel in August, and Landgraf stated that animation would begin in full for the show later in the year, simultaneously with the filming of the second season of Atlanta.
[7] Stefani Robinson, a member of the series' writers room, said that they chose to interpret the original comics from "an angle that was very true to us and made sense to us", rather than look to the films or general public's perception of the character.
[9] Donald Glover denied rumors that he was too busy to work on the series, and within a week of this announcement he wrote and released a 15-page script on his Twitter account titled "Finale".
In "Finale", Deadpool finds potential blame for the cancellation in comments written for the series about Marvel "trying to sell toys to 7-year-old boys and 50-year-old pedophiles"; notes the socio-political issues of depicting a "violent, gun-loving white man ranting on TV"; and suggests that Marvel and FX may have been racist in not wanting to make the series due to its all black writing staff and the black references they had been using in scripts.
The latter point echoed earlier comments made by Glover that he needed a "white translator" to trick FX into allowing him and his black writing staff to make Atlanta the way they wanted to.