Blue Demon Jr. Pulled From Disney Plus Series, Replaced By ‘The Black Scorpion’
Photo Credit: Disney/Brian Roedel
The Black Scorpion is stepping into the title role of the Disney Channel series formerly known as ‘Ultra Violet & Blue Demon.’
According to a new press release from Disney, a new character called the Black Scorpion is replacing Blue Demon Jr. in the lead role of the new series, now called Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion. The full announcement is below:
J.R. Villarreal (“Akeela and the Bee”) has been cast as Cruz de la Vega, a luchador wrestling coach with the secret superhero identity “Black Scorpion” in Disney Channel’s new live-action comedy series “Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion.” The series (formerly titled “Ultra Violet & Blue Demon”) stars Scarlett Estevez (“BUNK’D”) as Violet Rodriguez, a Latinx teenager who is chosen by a magical luchador mask to be a superhero, like her uncle, Black Scorpion.
The series also stars Marianna Burelli as Violet’s mother, Nina; Juan Alfonso as Violet’s father, Juan Carlos; Brandon Rossel as Violet’s brother, Santiago; Zelia Ankrum as Violet’s best friend, Maya Miller-Martinez; and Bryan Blanco as Violet’s classmate, Luis León.
Eric Garcia and Leo Chu will be executive producers and showrunners on “Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion.” Joe Nussbaum, Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit will also executive produce.
It’s unclear why Blue Demon Jr. was replaced on the series, which was first announced as being in development last year. In January, Disney issued a press release featuring cast photos and a synopsis of the show, touting Blue Demon Jr. as a “Mexican cultural icon” that would serve as co-executive producer of the series alongside the Moxie 88 production company.
A premiere date for the series has not been announced as of this time, but the show was already in production at the time of the casting change. Moxie 88’s Dan Carrillo Levy told Wrestling Inc‘s Nick Hausman that a pilot for the series had already been shot in October, featuring Blue Demon Jr. and some other surprise cameos.
“On the pilot, which is already shot, we did it in October, we had lucha, and we brought one of the famous names there is to fight against him. We’re not going to say who,” Levy teased, “but you most probably know him because he’s very famous. We’re going to start to play with those concepts of bringing cameos and different types of lucha into the show and wrestling, show the styles and all the things, so we can give that flavor for people that love wrestling and people that love lucha.”
Ultra Violet & Black Scorpion is not the only wrestling-based series in the works, as Starz is set to premiere Heels on August 15. The series takes a look at the world of independent pro wrestling and stars Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig as Jack & Ace Spade, two brothers at the center of the Duffy Wrestling League.
CM Punk also makes a guest appearance on the show as an independent wrestler named Ricky Rabies; you can take a behind-the-scenes look at the show at this link.