Should you’re something like me, you bear in mind precisely what it felt wish to go to the library as a child and at last get your fingers on the following installment in your new favourite chapter ebook collection. And for many people millennials, one such series was Animorphs by Katherine Applegate. So think about my delight when information broke that there’s a model new Animorphs TV collection in growth. Whereas the announcement is contemporary and particulars are nonetheless slim, right here’s every little thing we all know proper now.
The Animorphs TV collection “is in early growth at Disney+,” in response to a Selection unique. Bayan Wolcott (The Testaments, The Summer season I Turned Fairly) will write and executive-produce the variation, whereas Ryan and Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian of Sinners fame will executive-produce on behalf of Proximity Media. The books’ writer, Scholastic, will even be closely concerned in manufacturing, which is encouraging for followers of the supply materials.
Neither Katherine Applegate nor her writing accomplice and husband, Michael Grant, is listed within the article, and based mostly on a post to Bluesky, it appears the pair isn’t concerned with the display screen adaptation:
“Michael Grant and I’ve considerations that the undertaking is under-resourced. However one of many producers, Sev Ohanian, is a buddy, in addition to a real Animorphs fan. If anybody could make it work, he can. Fingers crossed,” the writer wrote.
Selection additionally reported that the brand new adaptation’s official logline states it’ll “comply with a bunch of youngsters who uncover a hidden menace lurking beneath their on a regular basis lives, all whereas juggling relationships, curfews, and the chaos of highschool.”
Should you don’t bear in mind the main points or by no means learn the collection, that description is generally in keeping with what’s within the books. Animorphs follows 5 human youngsters — Jake, Cassie, Marco, Tobias, and Rachel — together with alien buddy Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill (Ax for brief), as they battle in opposition to the Yeerks, a parasitic alien race secretly infiltrating Earth. Yeerks can use anybody’s physique as a bunch by slithering their slug-like our bodies into the host’s ear, however the teenagers have their very own superpower — they’ll flip into any animal they contact. The collection is a whopping 54 books lengthy, all of which have been revealed by Scholastic between 1996 and 2001.
This gained’t be the primary time Animorphs has been tailored for the display screen — Nickelodeon initially aired a TV collection based mostly on the books from 1998 to 2000, and you may nonetheless discover these nostalgia bombs on YouTube. (Sure, that’s a younger Shawn Ashmore enjoying Jake.)
One vital change the brand new adaptation might make from the books, nonetheless, is that the buddies are all 13 years outdated when the primary Animorphs ebook opens. Beginning them off in highschool could imply they’re aged up by one 12 months, or maybe they’ll be older. Some later books within the collection take care of darkish themes — Laura Hurley for Yahoo! recalls there being scenes about torture, conflict crimes, suicide, and organic warfare. So, possibly the showrunners needed the characters concerned to be no less than a bit bit older, a la Stranger Issues. We’ll have to attend and see.
This 12 months truly marks 30 years because the first Animorphs installment was revealed, bearing what would grow to be a number of the most iconic cowl artwork in youngsters’s literature created by the gifted David Mattingly. In honor of the collection’ anniversary, Scholastic is re-releasing the primary three books (The Invasion, The Customer, and The Encounter) in Might 2026 with model new cowl artwork by artist Zoe Van Dijk.
Whereas we probably gained’t get the TV collection model throughout this thirtieth 12 months celebration, the information that we’ll lastly get to see Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, Tobias, and Ax remodel into animals with our personal eyes may be very, very thrilling. Give us all of the Andalites and Yeerks now, please.
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