‘MacGruber’ Series, Laverne Cox-Norman Lear Comedy in Development at Peacock

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “” and Laverne Cox are officially in business with Peacock.

NBCUniversal’s nascent streaming service is developing two comedy series — one based on the character Will Forte originated on “Saturday Night Live” and another starring Cox with the legendary Norman Lear attached to executive produce.

In “MacGruber,” after rotting in prison for over a decade, America’s ultimate hero and uber patriot MacGruber (played by Forte) is finally released. His mission: to take down a mysterious villain from his past—Brigadier Commander Enos Queeth. With the entire world in the crosshairs, MacGruber, Vicki, and Piper must race against time to defeat the forces of evil, only to find that evil may be lurking within.

Forte is a writer and executive producer on the project in addition to starring. Jorma Taccone and John Solomon are also writing and executive producing. Lorne Michaels, John Goldwyn, Andrew Singer, Erin David of Broadway Video will executive produce. The series hails from Universal Television.

The character started out on “SNL” before starring in his own movie in 2010. Along with Forte, it starred Kristen Wiig as Vicki and Ryan Phillippe as Piper. Val Kilmer starred as the villainous Dieter Von Cunth. The film ultimately grossed just over $9 million in theaters against a $10 million budget.

The Cox series is titled “Clean Slate.” It follows old school car wash owner Henry (George Wallace), who is thrilled that his estranged child is returning to Alabama after 17 years. However, Henry has a lot of soul searching to do when the child he thought was a son returns as the determined, proud, trans woman, Desiree (Cox).

Cox and Wallace are writers and executive producers as well, alongside fellow writer and executive producer Dan Ewen. Lear executive produces along with Brent Miller, with Paul Hilepo producing. Sony Pictures Television will produce.

News of the development comes just hours ahead of NBCU’s investor presentation for , where they will demonstrate the streaming service publicly for the first time. The streamer also announced a series order for a follow-up to “Punky Brewster” earlier on Thursday.