Live-Action Aeon Flux Series - What We Know So Far

The original "Æon Flux" series, which aired as part of MTV's "Liquid Television" cartoon block between 1991 and 1995, was nothing short of a game-changer for adult television animation. Hailing from the brilliant mind of Korean American animator Peter Chung, the dystopian sci-fi production melded together wildly varied art styles, cinematic inspirations, narrative formats, and philosophical concerns. This resulted in a product so utterly unlike anything else on American TV — either then or now — that its consolidation as a cult favorite was pretty much a given.

Set during a post-apocalyptic war between two border wall cities in the year 7698 AD, "Æon Flux" was primarily focused on the relationship between its secret agent titular character and her technocrat nemesis-slash-lover, but had a rich and roomy enough world to fit myriad different stories. That might explain why, in the years since, it has inspired such tie-ins as a graphic novel, a Hollywood film, and a video game, to varying degrees of fan approval. Now, bringing it all full circle, "Æon Flux" is returning to MTV as a live-action series. Here's everything we know so far about this intriguing project.

In its original run, "Æon Flux" only aired 21 "episodes," the first 11 of which were divided between a first season of six two-minute "Liquid Television" segments, and a second one of slightly longer five-minute ones. It wasn't until its third season, in 1995, that "Æon Flux" became a proper standalone series and began to take up whole half-hours on MTV.

Needless to say, the MTV landscape has changed wildly since then, including the launch of the Paramount+ streaming service on which "Æon Flux" will be released, and a drastic pivot away from animated content. Among "Flux" fans, this has resulted in some controversy; back when the reboot was originally announced in 2018, Collider argued that the original series' strengths were "things that are impossible to translate into live-action form." But this new "Æon Flux" could also boast untapped potential for denser, long-form storytelling, especially seeing as it's being spearheaded by Jeff Davis, who gave MTV a bona fide one-hour genre hit with "Teen Wolf"

The announcement of Davis' new multi-year deal with MTV Studios, which includes showrunning and directing the pilot of "Æon Flux," has sadly not been accompanied by a release date for the reboot. Considering how long ago it was announced, it could be some time into development at this point; then again, if Davis has only just signed on as its mastermind, there still ought to be some creative groundwork to lay. For now, we'd bet on 2023 or later as the probable window.

Peter Chung's "Æon Flux" predates the trend of live-action film and TV stars dipping their feet into cartoon voice acting. As such, it had a cast led by actors who worked primarily in voice acting. Æon Flux was voiced by Denise Poirier — who later had roles on another landmark adult animated series, HBO's "Spawn" — and her arch-nemesis, Trevor Goodchild, was voiced by prolific audiobook narrator John Rafter Lee. The 2005 live-action film, meanwhile, starred Charlize Theron as Æon and Marton Csokas as Trevor.

At this point, we don't actually know which characters aside from Æon herself will be featured on the new series. Even assuming that the Æon-Trevor dynamic will once again be central, though, we don't necessarily expect Paramount+ to spring for stars of Theron and Csokas' caliber. After all, most of the fresh-faced stars of Jeff Davis' "Teen Wolf," including Dylan O'Brien and Tyler Posey, were virtual unknowns at the time of their casting, and it goes without saying how well that turned out.

Every iteration of "Æon Flux" has focused on the conflict between the walled police city-state of Bregna, the last remaining stronghold of civilization following a mass environmental catastrophe, and the anarchist community of Monica, with Æon representing the Monicans' anti-authoritarian spirit in her constant effort to infiltrate and take down Bregna's dictatorial government.

The official, yet vague synopsis revealed by Deadline indicates that the reboot series will be following a similar path. "Set in a post-apocalyptic near future where countries no longer exist, reduced to Spartan-like city-states locked in perpetual war, where children are turned into lethal soldiers and every citizen carries a gun, one young woman rises up to rebel against her Orwellian government as she becomes the hero known as ÆON FLUX," the synopsis reads.

Intriguingly, that synopsis mentions "city-states" in plural form, which could mean that the show will be exploring other corners of post-apocalyptic society besides Bregna and Monica. It also refers to the state Æon is rebelling against as "her Orwellian government," which suggests the series' version of Monica might be closer to the underground rebel movement seen in the live-action film than the original series' rival border city. All in all, however, we naturally hope that Davis will be taking more cues from Peter Chung's brilliant creation than from the messy, studio-bungled, creator- and director-disavowed (via LiveJournal, DGA) 2005 film.