Netflix Orders Season of ‘Raising Dion’

Netflix has ordered 10 episodes of the one-hour sci-fi drama Raising Dion, which is based on a short film about an African-American single mother who discovers her son has constantly changing magical abilities (pictured).

Raising Dion the series comes from Dennis Liu, who directed the short film and created the comic book.

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Carol Barbee, executive producer on Lifetime series UnReal, will be the showrunner and executive producer. She wrote the script for the first episode. Besides Barbee and Liu, executive producers on the project are Michael B. Jordan, through his Outlier Society Productions, MACRO’s Charles D. King, Kim Roth and Poppy Hanks, and Kenny Goodman and Michael Green.

Jordan will also appear in the series, which follows Nicole, a woman who raises her son Dion after the death of her husband. Dion starts to show several superhero-like abilities. Nicole must now keep her son’s gifts secret and protect Dion from antagonists out to exploit him while figuring out the origin of his abilities.

Raising Dion is a Netflix production.

“We haven’t seen this type of superhero story before--an origin myth full of imagination, wonder and adventure, all grounded in the experiences of a modern single mother,” said Cindy Holland, VP, original content for Netflix. “Michael B. Jordan is an exciting and dynamic talent, and I’m excited to see him, MACRO, Carol and the team translate Dennis’ unique vision to television.”

Liu said he took on the project because he wanted to see more diversity in film and television. “I'm excited to partner with Netflix and MACRO, who I know shares that commitment,” he said. “More than ever, we need more stories told from different points of view and my hope with Raising Dion is to create a cinematic experience for all families that will lift your spirits and make you laugh and cry.”

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.