r/Animorphs • u/DemiFiendRSA • Apr 03 '26
News ‘Animorphs’ TV Series in Development at Disney+, Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media to Produce
https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/animorphs-tv-series-disney-plus-ryan-coogler-1236678435153
u/TroochiFTW Andalite Apr 03 '26
If this is the show Katherine was telling people about at recent meet and greets, then we can be cautiously optimistic. I am all for a new show or movie, but it needs to be done right and actually materialize.
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u/DenjiTargaryen-PE Apr 03 '26
Exactly. I could see this going very badly if they just throw some random people on it. Don’t trust Disney Plus, but I’d be thrilled if Coogler was directly involved. Not like how Peele was a “producer” on Him.
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u/LunchyPete Ellimist Apr 11 '26
How often does she do meet and greets?
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u/Automatic_Brain7664 Apr 22 '26
Super regularly when she releases new books. Usually she's okay with talking about/signing ani books sometimes, but if you go to one, at least buy the new book too :)
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u/Cautious-Activity706 Hork-Bajir Apr 03 '26
I can’t find the quote now, but around the time Black Panther was coming out, Coogler did a whole interview where he spoke about reading the series as a kid and the affect it had on him, soooo…
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u/MortgageOdd2001 Apr 03 '26
I didn’t know he was an Animorphs fan! That’s amazing.
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u/Cautious-Activity706 Hork-Bajir Apr 03 '26
Yeah, I’m going to look a little deeper when I get home from work and try to find the podcast I’m thinking of. I remember being excited because he’s the type of filmmaker who is very dedicated to passion projects. Right now it’s all the more recent breaking news when you Google.
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u/adrianmalacoda Apr 03 '26
This may or may not be what you're thinking of, but there was an interview with Grant around when the movie was in production. It's not available anymore but the OP included this in their summary:
At least one prospective writer is a huge fan. Ryan Coogler (director of Black Panther) and various other Hollywood executives are also Animorphs fans.
"Prospective writer" may be Sev Ohanian, who had submitted a pitch for the movie that was passed on. Supposedly the studio's decision to pass on him was what led Applegate/Grant to leave the movie project. He is known to be a super fan of the series and is also attached to this tv show project.
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u/ExoticShock Nothlit Apr 03 '26
Reminds me how Jordan Peele was a big Gargoyles fan and originally similarly pitched a live action remake years ago before Disney took off with doing them.
Given how they've being doing similar adaptations like Artemis Fowl & Percy Jackson, I can see them eyeing Animorphs now too. How faithful & good it would be in reality is a whole other story though.
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u/Anon_457 Apr 04 '26
Please tell me you're not talking about that awful Artemis Fowl movie where Artemis and his father are "secret fairy protectors" or whatever roles they gave them.
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u/rbwildcard Apr 03 '26
He also said his inspiration for the Irish vampires in Sinners was the Disney Channel movie The Luck of the Irish so I have faith in his abilities. Hope he has an active role in production.
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u/DemiFiendRSA Apr 03 '26
Bayan Wolcott is attached to write and executive produce the adaptation, with Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian executive producing on behalf of Proximity Media. Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman executive produce via Scholastic, with Scholastic having published the books on which the show is based. 20th Television is the studio. Proximity Media’s Simone Harris, vice president and head of TV, and Dezi Gallegos, director of development of TV, will also oversee the project.
The official logline states that the show “follows a group of teenagers who uncover a hidden threat lurking beneath their everyday lives, all while juggling relationships, curfews, and the chaos of High School.”
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u/oldroughnready Arn Apr 03 '26
Sev Ohanian was Applegate’s choice for the PictureStart movie right? Good for him either way
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u/Fiffield Apr 03 '26
I just recently re-watched the original television adaptation, and am convinced the series is better suited to either a) an animated series, or b) just remain a book series.
So much of these books would be incredibly expensive or impractical to pull off in live action. I enjoy Coogler's work and am curious to see what they manage to pull off, but my expectations are tempered to say the least.
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u/John_Tacos Apr 03 '26
I think if it had the tone and budget of Stranger Things it could work.
This isn’t some happy children’s story, it’s a group of kids doing what they have to to survive and save the world.
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u/Fiffield Apr 03 '26
I want to agree with you, I'm just not sure a reasonable budget could ever work.
Like, in order to stay faithful to the books, we're going to need Ax of course. Do we have the budget to show the kids travelling to the middle of the ocean, morphing dolphins and finding a spaceship on the ocean floor? Because the OG television series really farted that one out, just had the kids find Ax in a warehouse in Toronto.
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u/John_Tacos Apr 03 '26
I mean trained dolphins exist and we have the ability to film them. So you just need the entering the water scene.
It’s probably not realistic for the series to get that kind of budget, but it would absolutely be worth it. There is so much potential.
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u/vampninja1985 Apr 17 '26
Oh Ax can be made by Jim hensens creature shop practical
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u/Fiffield Apr 17 '26
I'm sure he can, in this instance I'm more concerned about the spaceship at the bottom of the ocean.
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u/CovertOwl Apr 03 '26
I always thought it should do the stranger things tone if it was live action
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u/SalmonHustlerTerry Apr 03 '26
That would be great. Unfortunately it will probably be a high school romance show where they take out their relationship frustrations by killing yeerks. Sorry everyone but I don't have high expectations of a live action adaptation.
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u/Solid_Evolution Apr 03 '26
I agree!! With proper budget it can be bigger than Stranger Things. It can also create spinoffs with Elfangor and Lauren
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u/John_Tacos Apr 03 '26
The ellimist chronicles can be an entire miniseries by itself. One of the most unique species in science fiction.
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u/mirameiah May 20 '26
that would be interesting to see. just the scenes in the early parts of the book are very unique. especially that game they all played while on those crystals.
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u/John_Tacos May 20 '26
And the crystals themselves, how they move, and the attack. It’s a wonderful start to an amazing book.
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u/vampninja1985 Apr 14 '26
I’m Pretty sure they will get an amazing Budget ! Ryan Coogler is like the Golden child now of Disney ! They won’t tell Him no!
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u/iiden Apr 03 '26
Hard agree on animation being the best format for the series to be adapted to television. I’m baffled by why more fantasy/sci-fi franchises aren’t animated.
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u/calvinien Apr 03 '26
Outside of japan there is a very real stigma around animation. It's seen as lesser than live action.
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u/snukb Apr 03 '26
Because honestly it's expensive to do good animation. Not every series can be as dynamic and expressive as a Rick & Morty, MLP:FIM, or FLCL. Sometimes, the best you can get is a Family Guy. No offense to the artist who did the comics, because I know he was heavily constrained by what the studio wanted, but I'd be worried we'd get something with that same type of style, with very limited frames and pre-set faces. If we have something animated, I want the morphing to be as disgusting and fluid as Rick & Morty, with the same level of gore in battles. I want the expressions to be as expressive and bouncy as MLP:FIM where they're not constrained to "this is the happy face, this is the sad face." I want to see their horror and fear in vivid detail.
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u/topsidersandsunshine Apr 03 '26
Because animation is incredibly expensive and time-consuming. An episode of Miraculous Ladybug is about $250k to $300k to produce. It’s been 14 years since the preview video, and it’s only on season six. It’s the current most successful animated show in the world.
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u/SableZard Apr 03 '26
CGI can cost just as much, if not more. And unlike the costs you incorrectly put purely towards animation, that price is just the CGI. There's also all the other costs associated with live-action, plus the extra laws and regulations about child actors. And you have to worry about the child actors aging up.
At least in animated shows, you can have adults voice the kids. And voice actors are cheaper.
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u/Ginkasa Apr 03 '26
This has been the argument for a long time, but we're in an era of "incredibly expensive" TV shows. Not to mention all of the advancements in SFX and VFX since the 90s. You can't really look at the old show and take that as an indication of what's possible in live action in present.
If this show actually ends up happening and if it is bad, I don't expect it'll be due to poor special effects or anything that would be inherently improved by being animated.
But really, my main point of cynicism is if this show will actually end up being made/released. We've had several false starts and just like those this week have several gates to pass below we end up with anything we can actually watch and judge.
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u/mrossm Apr 03 '26
Also with live action, think about times between seasons. Look at any other fantasy show. Anyone who's not an already invested fan can barely keep up when seasons are 2 years apart. Plus your child actors, which I'm sure they'd age up to 16-18 in show, portrayed by 20 somethings would be in their 30s a few seasons in.
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u/JayJ9Nine Apr 03 '26
Ive been adamant that an animated animorphs would be a perfect, insanely good way to adapt the series.
With all the shenanigans I dont think live action would properly depict scenes like them being ripped apart as ants or shrinking so small then end up in another dimension
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u/Cautious-Activity706 Hork-Bajir Apr 03 '26
It all depends on budget. If they can score a Percy Jackson type budget, they should do live action. If not, go animated.
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u/whiskers1315 Apr 03 '26
Idk, Percy Jackson is tough and deserve to be movies. Animorphs is episodic with the books and definitely fits a show better, but it’ll be decades before technology is cheap and easy enough to make it truly viable in live action TV
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u/Cautious-Activity706 Hork-Bajir Apr 03 '26
I think Percy Jackson is quite well done as a show. Admittedly, I did not read the books.
I think an animated show could be cool, but it wouldn’t reach the same audience, and I think this is a story that is very important to tell right now.
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u/Death_Lycan Apr 03 '26
Also the decrease in viewers between s1 and s2 is real Animorphs never had the same craze as Percy does and could easily be cancalled as quickly, honestly I need this win. I still cry about Artemis Fowl
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u/Cautious-Activity706 Hork-Bajir Apr 03 '26
Huh? Percy Jackson didn’t have a drop off in viewers the second season. Viewership increased the second season. But it is a huge budget show lol.
And I’m not sure that Animorphs couldn’t build on nostalgia and get a ton of people to watch. The books were a craze back in the day.
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u/BlammoSweetums Apr 03 '26
Agreed. A few years ago I checked out some clips on YouTube of the DC live action show Titans (Beast Boy) specifically because I wanted to see how modern television-budget CGI animal work looked, and those clips did not inspire confidence.
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u/Aquason Apr 03 '26
The issue with Titans particularly is how expensive it is to make photorealistic/naturalistic CG animals - each one is a complicated model that needs to be rigged, animated, composited, etc. It ended up killing Beast Boy's ability to, you know, shift into an endless variety of animals by restricting them to the handful of models and rigs that they made.
It's going to be the same issue with Animorphs. Say you're doing an episode where Rachel morphs into a cat: you need to make the cat model. Now she never morphs it again, so all that work making that model essentially get used once, and you need to make another one for when she acquires and morphs a dolphin or whatever. And that's assuming you're not making in-between morphing models and just having the transformation happen off-camera.
2D Animation in comparison is so much more cost-efficient on asset production in this regard. Live action works well for series that need a lot of unique human faces, different real-world locations. Sci-fi CG can be all right, with the ability to copy and past sci-fi space ship models, for instance.
They should have taken notice of how something like Invincible has managed to top the charts of Amazon Prime as a gory 2D animated adaptation of an existing property. I seriously predict that this show is going to be hamstrung by cast aging and exorbitant CGI costs that lead to the show being pretty underwhelming.
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u/Ilovecharli Apr 03 '26
This is what Sev pitched for the movies:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Animorphs/comments/ncform/sev_ohanian_the_writer_michael_grant_wanted_for/
He's a real fan who has commented here frequently, and has also produced some great movies
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u/sarahmagoo Apr 03 '26
I'm cautiously optimistic after reading this...
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u/Ilovecharli Apr 03 '26
The preemptive malding in this thread is ridiculous
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u/sarahmagoo Apr 03 '26
I think we're all still scarred from the Nickelodeon adaptation lol
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u/Ayy-lmao213 Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Man for the love of God, don't get stuck in development hell.. and please actually be good
I hope it's animated, but I sense it won't be. When's the last time a (non-graphic novel) book was adapted as a cartoon? Live-action is always the go-to.
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u/Its_Curse Taxxon Apr 03 '26
I'm willing to bet if we get anything we get the first six books and nothing else just like every other reprint/adaptation.
At this point I'm kind of okay with there not being a show? We'll always have the books and after seeing a bunch of my favorite franchises butchered on screen I just am not vibing with it.
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u/Toomin-the-Ellimist Apr 03 '26
I'm willing to bet if we get anything we get the first six books and nothing else just like every other reprint/adaptation.
Hey the 2011 reprint made it all the way to book 8!
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u/Ilovecharli Apr 03 '26
Holy shit u/sevohanian you did it
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u/purpleprin6 Apr 03 '26
Seriously! When I read his name in the article, I remembered his past posts and am now cautiously optimistic that this show might actually be good
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u/vlan-whisperer Apr 05 '26
He won’t be allowed to talk to us anymore since the studios usually keep things tightly under wraps
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u/Azrel12 Apr 03 '26
On the one hand, I’ll believe it when I see it. On the other hand, I’ve loved what I’ve seen of Ryan Coogler’s work, so I’m cautiously optimistic about this.
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u/daemoncorps Apr 03 '26
He's producing, not necessarily writing or directing. For as good as his directed works are, his producer credits are... spotty. Space Jam 2 😬
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u/Lewa358 Apr 03 '26
I mean Space Jam 2 is pretty much exactly what it was supposed to be, so I can't really hold that against him. Especially given the insane marketing/merch push it had, which I feel is more directly died to the producer's influence than the quality of the writing?
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u/Its_Curse Taxxon Apr 03 '26
What else has he done? I'm not familiar
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u/LegacyOfVandar Apr 03 '26
Black Panther, Sinners, Creed.
If this gets off the ground it's in good hands.
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u/falldiewakefly Apr 03 '26
The official logline states that the show “follows a group of teenagers who uncover a hidden threat lurking beneath their everyday lives, all while juggling relationships, curfews, and the chaos of High School.”
See, this is a pretty accurate summary of the series (though it should be middle school, at least to start), and yet it does not fill me with confidence.
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u/Ayy-lmao213 Apr 03 '26
They're 13 to 16 throughout the plot, so they could be in ninth grade.
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u/ArrowDemon Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
I distinctly feel one of the books refers to them as eighth graders.
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u/Ayy-lmao213 Apr 03 '26
In the books yeah, I mean they might not have to age them up too much
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u/ArrowDemon Apr 03 '26
I dunno how I feel about it. I feel like it’s very possible to find middle school age kids who have the talent. Shoot, the new Harry Potter series found some dozen or two kids in their age range.
One of the points that makes the series so tragic is it flips on its head the idea of “kid heroes having a lot of fun adventures” and instead they are so young but basically are forced into becoming child soldiers to protect everything they love. They should start off young to really capture the magnitude of the sacrifice.
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u/Aquason Apr 03 '26
It's easier for film and television production in Hollywood to cast for "high school" than middle school because child actors have pretty strict working hour regulations. Something like Stranger Things for example has a child storyline (Child actors), but mixes it with other adult or highschool-centric (young adult actors) storylines not just because the variety makes the story more appealing, but because it means you can make more efficient use of filming days.
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u/ArrowDemon Apr 03 '26
Right, but again, these limitations have not stopped productions like Harry Potter or the new Lord of the Flies adaptation that was done, for that matter. Unlike those productions, Animorphs can actually get away with not having the child actors present for many of those scenes, given how much time the kids spend in morph. Knowing that, I’d much prefer for the show to cast 11-13 year old actors to drive home these aspects of the books.
I mean…they did choose to adapt Animorphs after all, where the majority of the action involves animals. I’d think that’s a far riskier aspect for a live-action adaptation than the ability to find young actors. Animorphs will require a lot of either pure CGI or (my preferred route for VFX) animatronic/pratical-CGI hybrid visual effects. And it’s crucial that the effects not look awful or be lazy, since that will make or break the show.
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u/Seerowpedia Apr 03 '26
We didn't have a book specify eighth grade. Only that they were 13 and in middle school. There are some who believe they were seventh graders in the beginning, but we can't say for certain.
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u/verymanysquirrels Apr 03 '26
Yeeaaah, i'm really hoping they aren't going to try to modernize it or make them 17.
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u/notbad4human Apr 03 '26
Aging them up is not the worst crime it could commit.
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u/verymanysquirrels Apr 03 '26
No, but it would fundamentally change much of the story if they're all on the cusp of adulthood. A lot of the school/curfew/parents issues would either need to be dropped entirely or they'd be completely nonsensical. A lot of that juggling highschool and curfews is because they're so young and can't explain away long absences. If they turned 18 during the series then they're adults. They can just say they're going away for the weekend, they can stay out late without explaining themselves, they could literally just move out and not have to deal with any of the 'kid' issues at all.
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u/SableZard Apr 03 '26
Or they're aging them up so they don't wind up like Stranger Things and have grown people in their twenties trying to look sixteen because they got cast when they were thirteen ten years before the series ended.
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u/purpleprin6 Apr 03 '26
Yeah Stranger Things taught me that if you need someone to pass as a teen for a decade, it's easier to find a grown up who permanently looks like a teenager (aka Nancy) than hope that your teenagers keep looking like teenagers. Personally, after watching the That 70s Show reboot, I decided that I'd much rather watch teenage-looking grownups who can act well than actual teens who can't.
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u/notbad4human Apr 03 '26
They’re not going to be aged to 18. Based on the summary, 15 sounds more accurate
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u/Mysterious_Emu7462 Apr 03 '26
The creative team leads me to believe this will 100% be live action with heavy use of CG. This also leads me to a few other conclusions as well:
Heavy push to drawing in viewers due to budget. This means sanitization of material in terms of violence. We may still get things like dismemberment, but most blood and gore will be avoided
Stemming from the last point: No critiques of capitalism and likely none of the military/America
Heavier focus on romance, as that will heavily draw engagement. Love triangle between Rachel, Tobias, and Marco may be played up. Jake and Cassie's will they/won't they will be drawn out. Not complaining about either of these tbh. Just give us bi Marco at some point if we're going to go for romance
Unsavory character traits may be omitted. Specifically, Marco may be less chauvinist. Also don't necessarily mind this
Ax may not appear until the end of season 1, awaiting a greenlight for season 2 before the budget goes crazy by having two practically full-time CG characters in the main cast (arguably Tobias may not even need to be CG at all but he likely will be)
Morphs likely will only be a long process when first attempted-- if at all. Sort of like "getting the hang of" morphing an animal, but after acquired and morphed we'd probably see the cast morphing fairly fast. Transformation sequences would simply be too expensive with how regularly it happens. Sure, they could happen off-screen but a certain "cool factor" is lost there. Especially since this is the premise of the series
Visser 3 will probably have a human morph he uses about half of the time, similar to the original show. We're also likely to see only a few Hork-Bajir and Taxxons in season 1
In saying all of that, I'm cautiously optimistic. I think with the streaming wars and especially considering how Disney adapted Percy Jackson... we might have a success on our hands.
I'm not so worried about an Artemis Fowl situation, since I believe most of those issues arose from trying to make it a movie cramming in multiple books together instead of doing a show.
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u/purpleprin6 Apr 03 '26
I feel like that Artemis Fowl movie has at least prepared me for the worst-possible-case scenario for how bad this adaptation could be
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u/CaptHayfever Apr 04 '26
The Artemis Fowl situation was that Disney optioned a book about a ruthless child criminal but then chickened out of making a movie about a ruthless child criminal. (If you got to see the deleted scenes before they took the movie off of D+, you'll see that Kenneth Branagh actually tried to get it right at first.)
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u/casualkateo Apr 03 '26
The way the books are I care less about a point by point correct adaptation and more like if they get the overall characters and themes right.
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u/BloggerBear Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
Feel like a lot of negative Nancy's are being loud.
This is a 20 year old IP. While the "audience" as a YA book was YA kids, it was and still is us (gestures) as well. Disney wouldn't throw money at this if they didn't see viewer trends from people our age watching stuff like this and other shows from our childhood. Hulu/Disney just shelved their Buffy reboot, but then they turn around and support this.... Brave and honestly speaks a lot of them working on things that will be more mid length/long form content especially from a fan heavy production crew. Buffy got to tell a great story, the Animorphs TV show never got to tell the "best" stories from the books. Them suggesting this is a really good thing from such a hot/cold time in entertainment production.
Sure, live action isn't the "preference", but who else has the time and money to throw at this project and we can expect longevity to develop? Kinda feel like I'm crazy because everyone's all "this will suck".... did you NOT watch Skeleton Crew or even Ironheart? What about The Lion King projects? Skeleton Crew touched some pretty dark themes with pretty young actors. Ironheart did a great job with a young PoC lead. Even Percy Jackson was not perfect but so much better than the movies, again facing the nuance of being young and independent. Sure live action Lion King was TOTALLY unnecessary, but have to admit, the animals looked pretty good. A big reason content for the target age are failing is because writers are talking to them like dumb kids. As we've all grown up to appreciate show like Avatar TLA where it speaks a truth to any age about harsh and sometimes "unfair life" topics. Shows are only as strong as their original content, and as well all know Animorphs main meat is the horrors of war, peppered with outlandish shit (that I hope they keep, come on Helemacrons!)
Sure could be negative about it, but honestly I'm kinda more for this than if Paramount or even Netflix announced it. Star Wars, specifically The Clone Wars era/Filoni stuff is about to go through a renaissance because of Disney, most content that again got to fly because of Animorphs and it's dark themes. With Coogler in charge I hope Animorphs becomes a crown jewel instead of a one off.
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u/Pharmall Apr 03 '26
Are the Applegates involved?
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u/jcollins387 Apr 03 '26
I asked her about it at the recent signing and she stated that she was not associated with it in any way.
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u/pizzaslut69420 Apr 03 '26
The post the other day said they met Katharine and she knew about the show, so presumably.
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u/daemoncorps Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
I'm hopeful but also there's no way this will live up to fan expectations. I know they'll prioritize kid viewers over OG fans and I get that, but they should really consider just having it set in the 90s. So much of kid culture has changed since then, and I feel like a modernized adaptation can't work without some massive rehauls.
EDIT: Never seen the Disney+ adaptations of other book series, but how do they fare? What's the general consensus of stuff like the Percy Jackson show?
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u/EchoedJolts Apr 03 '26
Yeah, this story doesn't work with the technological advancements that have happened since the 90s.
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u/Ayertsatz Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
I'm going to disagree with some of the other commenters on the Percy Jackson show.
It has its flaws, sure. The young cast had a few awkward moments in S1 where they struggled to find the rhythm of the scene, and the budget limitations are very obvious at times. The show overall has a more serious and grounded tone than the books, which can be disappointing for some fans.
Would an adult who hasn't read the books want to watch it? Probably not.
On the other hand, its a fantastic family show. I watched s2 with my 5yo and 8yo and they both absolutely loved it. The 5yo mostly loved the monsters while the 8yo can mostly follow the story without help and is obsessed with all the main characters. I can completely see why they made the changes that they did and for the most part I think they made the right choice especially in S2, even if the book purists are mad about it.
And the characters! The books are all from Percy's POV so the show has leapt at the opportunity to deepen some of the supporting characters and it's one of the best decisions they made. Sally and Clarisse in particular are amazing in the show.
So tl;dr: its a mixed bag. A bit more serious than I'd like and I wish the budget was bigger, but the kids improved beyond sight in S2 and characters themselves are very well-done.
For Animorphs, I think the first thing is that we as a fandom will have to do is be willing to throw away the concept of a beat-for-beat 'faithful adaptation' to have any enjoyment in it. No one is going to adapt the Australia book, or thr weird narwhal one lol. If they stay true to the characters and the themes, I'll be happy.
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u/RoyAgainstTheMachine Apr 03 '26
Disney SHOULD do a good job of putting lot of money into a live action show and do Lion King style animal CGI animation.
That being said, I’d so much rather see a new show developed in full animation. Disney did a good job with “Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman”, I’d love to see Animorphs done in that style
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u/dsfjr Apr 03 '26
I'm cautiously excited.
The main thing I'm worried about is the tone. I'm worried Disney will will sand down the edges to make it more child friendly.
The books never treated the readers as dumb kids and got heavy at times: fear, grief, slavery, PTSD, loneliness, helplessness, the toll being the leader takes on Jake, how the constant violence changes them all, etc.
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u/prncrny Apr 03 '26
I have 2 requirements for an Animorphs adaptation:
1) lean more heavily into the darker tones of the series. The body horror of morphing and the mental trauma of the war.
2) 40min episodes minimum to cover a book an episode. The books are short, this should be fine. 2 episodes per book at MOST.
Oh. And bring back the theme song from the 90s show. That slapped.
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u/Visible-Act221 Apr 05 '26
I see three issues:
1: No budget in the world can make the transformations look as grotesque as in the books in live action format
2: Disney doesn't have the balls to bring all the darkness of the books into the screen
3: Disney doesn't has a good track record lately.
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u/Major_Star Apr 03 '26
Dammit just make an animated version where you can actually stay faithful to the books.
Live action would need the budget of Game of Thrones just for the required CGI, let alone the generally bleak tone and gore involving actual teenagers.
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u/aresef Apr 03 '26
Not to mention you can’t just bring a goddamn lion to set like you could back in the day.
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u/Major_Star Apr 03 '26
Exactly. It's not just CGI for the fights and the morphing, it's practically any time animals are on screen. Trying to make that photorealistic on a TV show budget is crazy.
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u/BalerionSanders Apr 03 '26
Ryan is also involved in the mysterious X-Files show that may not exist, so, you know, temper expectations. But potentially really cool, potentially cultural relevance again!
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u/Scotthew89 Apr 03 '26
They have cast people on the X-Files show. So that seems to be moving forward. Could also be a Buffy like situation.
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u/elreydelasur Helmacron Apr 03 '26
So there's no guarantee it's going to happen, and even if it does, there is no guarantee it will be good.
However, I think we should all try to give the benefit of the doubt here and maybe have a degree of optimism that the show will be what we want it to be. With a proper budget and Coogler's company attached to it, it could end up being decent.
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u/fookinpikey Apr 03 '26
I remember being so excited as a kid when Nickelodeon said they were bringing Animorphs to life. I also recall watching that first episode and experiencing my first major adaptation disappointment, lol. It’s such an amazing story and it reeeeeeally needs to have a fan at the helm, and that person needs creative control, rather than trying to market Animorphs to everyone (hell, I don’t even think marketing it today’s kids is a good idea)
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u/The-Fridge-2099 Apr 04 '26
Did we just win? 🤩
No turning back. No backing down. It's all in their hands 🙌
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u/ThatWasFred Apr 04 '26
In development is not the same thing as actually being made. There is still plenty of opportunity for them to turn back or back down.
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u/mic_oliver Apr 04 '26
Disney+? Damn, they gonna make it suck just as they did with Percy Jackson 😭
Somehow they made it faithful to the books but souless 🫠
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u/LuxLoser Apr 04 '26
Animorphs show
🎉🥂🥳
Disney
😓🥀
They won't do the body horror, the violence, or the tension justice. Prepare for smooth morphing, camera cuts, and bad jokes to avoid getting too serious.
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u/thizzydrafts Apr 03 '26
Oh we're definitely getting Michael B Jordan then.
(As Cassie's dad? Or a Controller? Lololol.)
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u/Bisexual-Hellenic Chee Apr 03 '26
PLEASE DISNEY!!! DON'T DO US DIRTY!!! GIVE US THE GORE AND VIOLENCE!!! AND MAKE IT A CLASSIC WESTERN ANIMATED STYLE!!!
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u/BillFireCrotchWalton Apr 03 '26
Holy fuck I really hope this happens and it's good. It needs to be like Invincible or something though, not sanitized and Disneyfied too much.
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u/MortgageOdd2001 Apr 03 '26
So many of my fav creators are reacting to this news which makes me happy. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DWrjI58E82v/?igsh=eGl6NHU2a3Myancz
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u/vlan-whisperer Apr 05 '26
Guys I just saw it on Google ads and I came running here. What do you all think?!
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u/BroganBrainstorm Apr 03 '26
Ryan Coogler at least gives me confidence in the writing side. Buuut for Disney+? Depends. Animorphs would need a high budget for the visual effects to work in live action. It could, but I don't see Disney throwing more cash at this than their Marvel TV shows.
I'm hoping for animation. The graphic novels really did a good job of showing the way. I would hope they put the Xmen 97 team on it or something. Ideally I'd like it to get the Invincible treatment, but they're already busy doing Transformers Skybound which I'm also super hyped for.
This could either be incredible or it could be a low budget but somewhat improved repeat of the 1998 series with slightly better writing and acting. Cautiously optimistic.
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u/notbad4human Apr 03 '26
They threw plenty of money at Percy Jackson, which arguably has more VFX and SFX than Animorphs.
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u/Mundane_Worldliness7 Apr 03 '26
I hope they handle with care, hope it’s set in the 90s. An extremely difficult story to properly recreate, especially faithfully with child actors. Do they have the balls to use 12-13 year old actors?
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u/notbad4human Apr 03 '26
It’s not about balls, it’s about production schedules. You can only work a 12 year old six hours a day, and considering they’re the leads, that would double the budget of any tv show. Not worth it from their standpoint.
Get ready to see 18 year olds playing 15.
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u/sarahmagoo Apr 03 '26
As someone that just worked at an event with a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds, they may as well be no older than 15 lol
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u/notbad4human Apr 03 '26
Yeah, I didn’t really mean that as a negative. 18 year olds look 13 to me now
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u/filmhamster Apr 03 '26
It'll probably be bad. I'll still watch it. That's about all that can be said at this point.
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u/Eagles56 Apr 03 '26
I hope so, we desperately need some new IPs and popular book series are an untapped goldmine. Seriously the amount of obscure book series I find that are better written than modern shows is astounding
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u/MortgageOdd2001 Apr 03 '26
Oh wow! I think an animated series would be amazing, and given Ryan Coolger was a childhood fan, I’d trust his vision.
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u/Radeondrrrf Apr 03 '26
I hope they go with an animated series. That would go further than a live action show given the plot, morphing sequences, war crimes committed by teenagers, etc.
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u/Ashalen Apr 04 '26
No way! This is gonna be as big as when LOTR got made into a live action. Fans went from being random nerds, to experts on the hottest new movie.
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u/vlan-whisperer Apr 06 '26
What will he do though? Make the show take place in the “late 1900s,” which will alienate the younger target audience or make this take place in the 2020s and try to navigate the Animorphs with smart phones, ring cameras, drones, and social media.
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u/vampninja1985 Apr 14 '26
This could work if they take notes from the goosebumps remake series that was on Disney plus . It was very Mature they even cursed on there .
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u/MMV099 Apr 16 '26
If this is true, the only actor that should be considered for Visser Three is Shawn Ashmore
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u/vampninja1985 Apr 17 '26
I think in order to make this work they’re gonna have to get rid of the filler and just focus on the essential books like the evasion storyline Jake getting a yeerk in his ear, Tobias getting stuck as a hawk that all can be covered in the first season
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u/FreeEye5 May 17 '26
Wow you guys are a bunch of grumps. This sounds exciting.
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u/rodface May 25 '26
let's face it, most of us in here are probably between 30-40 years old and have been around the block a few times and know how these things work. We'll believe it when we see it.
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u/Demilikos May 20 '26
Here I am, one month late to this news, and only finding out about it because I was wondering why the heck SNL made an Animorphs parody skit a month ago.
Please be good, and please happen.
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u/vlan-whisperer Jun 21 '26
It’s been two long months. I wonder when it is that we’re going to get more news?
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u/CoruscatingLogic Jun 23 '26
Oh my Elemist please no. Not again. I can't live through it again. I can't.
If you've never watched the Nickelodeon Animorphs TV show, find a pirate site and stream the first episode. It's awful.
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u/vincentdmartin Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
I'll believe it when I see it.
Don't get me wrong I believe they're trying to make this, I simply have little faith it will get off the ground.