Michael Waldron

Michael Waldron is from Atlanta, Georgia, and was a lifelong pro-wrestling fan. He moved to Malibu, California, to enter the MFA screenwriting program at Pepperdine UniversityPepperdine UniversityPepperdine University is a Christian university based in Malibu, California, United States. It grew out of George Pepperdine College, founded in Los Angeles in 1937 by the businessman George Pepperdine, and has an undergraduate college and schools of business, education and psychology, law and public policy.Open the full entry. He has said: “I grew up a pro-wrestling guy, probably more of a Star WarsStar WarsStar Wars is a space-fantasy film and entertainment franchise created by George Lucas and now owned by Lucasfilm, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.Open the full entry guy, but my love of Marvel came from the movies.”⁠[1][2]

While still at Pepperdine, Waldron landed a job assisting writer Dan Harmon, stationed outside the Rick and Morty writers room; after the softball team he organized won its first game, Harmon offered him a writer’s assistant job on the fifth season of the NBCNBCNBC (National Broadcasting Company) is an American national commercial broadcast television network. It was founded by RCA in 1926, began as a radio network and later developed television. With ABC and CBS it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it passed to General Electric with RCA in 1986, merged with Universal to form NBCUniversal in 2004, has been controlled by Comcast since 2011, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry sitcom Community. His screenwriting career began under Harmon and Dino Stamatopoulos at Starburns Industries.⁠[2][1]

In February 2017 Heels, an hourlong drama Waldron wrote about the world of independent professional wrestling, was put on the fast track at Starz; the Paramount TV project, to be directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, follows two brothers fighting over their late father’s wrestling promotion in small-town Georgia. That year he served as creator and showrunner of the series’ writers room.⁠[3][1]

Waldron’s sci-fi romantic comedy spec script The Worst Guy of All Time (and the Girl Who Came to Kill Him) placed high on the 2018 Black List. That year Rick and Morty staffed its fourth season “blind” from anonymous submissions; Dan Harmon found that the two he judged best were both by Waldron, hired him to write for season four and offered him a showrunner position for season five.⁠[1][2]

In February 2019 Loki, one of the first series Marvel Studios was making for Disney+, landed Waldron as its point person; he would write the pilot, serve as creator and executive produce. At the time he was also writing and producing on the upcoming season of Cartoon NetworkCartoon NetworkCartoon Network is an American animation cable channel launched by Ted Turner on October 1, 1992, and based in Atlanta; it has aired Space Ghost Coast to Coast, the Toonami block and the adult animation block Adult Swim, belonged successively to WarnerMedia and Warner Bros. Discovery, and became part of Skydance with the latter in October 2026.Open the full entry’s Rick and Morty.⁠[1]

In February 2020 Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige called Waldron to take over writing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, after original director Scott Derrickson left the project over creative differences; Jade Bartlett had been the previous writer, and Sam Raimi came on to direct.⁠[4][2]

That year he shared the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program as a producer of the Rick and Morty episode “The Vat of Acid Episode.”⁠[5]

Loki premiered on Disney+ in 2021 with Waldron as executive producer and showrunner; it was one of the few Marvel series renewed for a second season. Kevin Feige also handpicked Waldron to work on his top secret Star Wars film project.⁠[6][2]

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was released in 2022 and grossed $955 million worldwide, Marvel’s top-grossing film of that year. In October 2022 Waldron was set to write Avengers: Secret Wars for Marvel Studios, with Kevin Feige producing.⁠[7][8][6]

In March 2023 Waldron launched the film and television production company Anomaly Pictures with producing partner Adam Fasullo, whom he had met while developing Heels. The launch followed the renewal of his overall deal with Disney and Marvel Studios.⁠[8]

The pair said every project at the company starts from the question: “What if this was good?”⁠[8]

In November 2023 Waldron was hired to write the screenplay for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which, with Avengers: Secret Wars, was to conclude the Multiverse Saga of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.⁠[7]

In August 2024 HuluHuluHulu is a U.S. subscription streaming service offering series, films and original programming from the major television networks and studios, along with Hulu + Live TV, which includes live channels. It was founded in 2007 as a joint venture between NBCUniversal and News Corporation and opened to the public in March 2008; after a series of ownership changes, The Walt Disney Company took operational control in 2019 and full ownership in 2025, and is integrating Hulu into Disney+ as Disney’s global general entertainment brand.Open the full entry released a first look at Chad Powers, a half-hour comedy co-created and executive produced by Waldron and Glen Powell. Based on Eli ManningEli ManningEli Manning (Elisha Manning, born 1981) is an American former professional football quarterback who played for the New York Giants from 2004 to 2019 and was twice named Super Bowl MVP. After retiring he took a business operations and fan engagement role with the Giants, became a partner at the private equity firm Brand Velocity Partners and co-hosts ESPN’s ManningCast.Open the full entry’s disguise sketch from the ESPN+ series Eli’s Places, it follows a quarterback whose bad behavior ends his college career and who walks onto a struggling Southern team in disguise as “Chad Powers”; Waldron co-wrote the pilot with Powell and produced through Anomaly Pictures.⁠[9]

In April 2026 Waldron, co-creator, executive producer and showrunner of Chad Powers, renewed his overall deal with 20th Television to keep writing, developing, directing and producing series for networks and streamers through Anomaly Pictures. Season 2 of Chad Powers had wrapped production, and he directed four of its six episodes.⁠[10]

In July 2026 Waldron was developing a feature film about the comics character Nova at Marvel Studios; the project was at an early stage, with Waldron writing the script and aiming to direct if it moved forward.⁠[11]

In August 2026 Disney+ gave a pilot order to Spaceship Earth, a series inspired by the EPCOT attraction, co-written by Jason Fuchs and Waldron, who executive produces through Anomaly Pictures. Waldron was also a co-writer of Avengers: Doomsday, due in theaters in December 2026.⁠[12]

X: Public account: https://x.com/michaelwaldron (opens in a new window).⁠[13]