It was intended to be set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and acknowledge the continuity of the franchise's films and other television series.
The pilot stars Milana Vayntrub as Doreen Green / Squirrel Girl and Derek Theler as Craig Hollis / Mr. Immortal, who make up the New Warriors along with Jeremy Tardy, Calum Worthy, Matthew Moy, and Kate Comer.
By August 2016, Marvel Television had developed a series centered on the New Warriors and began offering it to cable networks and streaming outlets.
In April 2017, New Warriors received a series order of 10 episodes from Freeform, with Biegel joining as showrunner and writing the first script.
Six superpowered young people with offbeat powers different from the Avengers want to make a positive impact in the world, even if they are not quite ready to be heroes.
Kevin Biegel was nearing a deal to write a script and serve as showrunner for the series, after Marvel had attached him to the project before Freeform's involvement.
[8] Jeph Loeb, the head of Marvel Television, and Jim Chory were set to executive produce the series alongside Biegel.
Burke noted that actresses Anna Kendrick and Shannon Purser, who had both publicly expressed interest in portraying Squirrel Girl, had been discussed for that role.
Also announced were Jeremy Tardy as Dwayne Taylor / Night Thrasher, Calum Worthy as Robbie Baldwin / Speedball, Matthew Moy as Zach Smith / Microbe, and Kate Comer as Deborah Fields / Debrii.
The series was still considered to be likely to produce multiple spinoffs in a similar model to Marvel's Netflix shows.
[11] He stated that the pilot had strong LGBTQ themes and believed an executive had prevented it from being made due to it being "too gay".