The CW to Air Joss Whedon’s ‘Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’

Joss Whedon’s hit web series “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” will be making its television debut on the CW on October 9th, reports The Wrap.

But this doesn’t mean that there’s anything new from the quirky online franchise, at least not yet — the network’s editing the existing 2008 musical web series into a 42-minute television special. CW president Mark Pedowitz said “he hoped the CW would also have the inside track if Whedon opts at some point to continue the series.”

While the complete “Dr. Horrible” has been streaming on Netflix since February 2010, it’s no longer available for free on Hulu, where it first had its premiere. The DVD and Blu-ray releases feature “Commentary! The Musical,” a commentary track made up entirely of original songs performed by the cast and crew.

A three-part online musical, “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” was written by the “Avengers” director, his brothers Zack and Jed and actress Maurissa Tancharoen during the 2007–2008 writers’ strike — the low-budget effort became a huge online success. It stars Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, a would-be supervillain who pines for Penny, a girl he sees at the laundromat (Felicia Day) when not battling his nemesis, the superhero Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion).

There’s been talk of a sequel to the web series for years — in an interview with the LA Times last year, Jed Whedon said that “We have some songs, a rough outline, and no time. Though I have a feeling that when Joss is finished making his massive, expensive superhero movie, he will want nothing more than to make a tiny, cheap superhero movie. With songs.” In an interview with Wired at SXSW this year, Joss Whedon said that a sequel was mainly a question of scheduling: “We’re all sort of just waiting, but the waiting will stop.”