Most Wanted: The Most Exciting Animation Projects In Production Now
Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse/Beyond The Spiderverse
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: Spider-man: Into The Spider-verse is generally accepted to be one of the best animated films of the past few years, some would say the best. As such, the sequel (which is actually two sequels) has an awful lot to live up to. Although the film has a fresh director trio at the helm with Phil Lord and Chris Miller still involved (along with much of the same creative team) we have faith they can pull it off. This time around Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy will be journeying across the multiverse and meeting even more spider-people including Spiderman 2099, Miguel O'Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaacs, as revealed in the first movie's post-credits scene).
ETA JUNE 2023/ 2024
Strange Planet
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: Apple TV+ and Dan Harmon's adaptation will bring cartoonist Nathan W Pyle's popular Instagram webcomic Strange Planet to life. The comics take place in an alien world where life is not entirely unlike our own. The comics are extremely well observed and perceptive and should translate nicely to an animated sitcom format.
ETA: TBA
Scott Pilgrim
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: Bryan Lee O'Malley's cult graphic novel series has been animated before, in the form of a promotional Adult Swim short made to accompany Edgar Wright's live-action film adaptation. This time though a full animated adaptation is coming from Netflix and Japanese studio Science Saru-which seems fitting, considering how heavily the comics are influenced by manga, anime and Japanese video games. Specific details are thin on the ground at the moment, but this has the potential to be very special. Expect a pretty spectacular soundtrack too.
ETA: TBA
My Father's Dragon
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: Nora Twomey follows up The Breadwinner with another adaptation of a beloved children's book. This should be a fair bit lighter than her previous feature, swapping the Taliban for dragons and fantasy worlds. Any project from Ireland's Cartoon Saloon instantly has our attention- and this is no different. Making it even more enticing this time Twomey has teamed up with Meg LeFauve, screenwriter on Pixar's Inside Out, which means we should be in for something special.
ETA: Late 2022
Star Wars Visions: Volume II
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: The first volume of Visions brought us some of the best Star Wars material not only of the Disney era, but arguably in the franchise's history full stop. Volume 2 will include filmmakers beyond Japan, and will also include studios in the US, the UK and Ireland. Their identities are being kept under wraps for now, but we have our suspicions. This could be quite the dream team!
ETA: TBA
How Do You Live?
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: We don't have any more information than the last time we included Hayao Miyazaki's next film in our most wanted list. But we're just as excited as ever. We don't even need to know anything else..we just can't wait to see a new film from Miyazaki. And we know we're not alone.
ETA: TBA
I, Chihuahua
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: Maya And The Three blew us away, so we are expecting great things from the next film from Jorge Guiterrez. It features a chihuahua named Chacho who becomes a luchador (a masked Mexican wrestler) and enters an international wrestling tournament to save his family. If it has even half the visual invention and emotional storytelling of Maya then it's going to be well worth watching.
ETA: TBA
Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: More than 20 years later, the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film in history finally gets a sequel. While the first movie was a prison break movie, this time the chickens have to break IN to an impenetrable fortress. The sequel will be directed by Sam Fell, director of ParaNorman and Flushed Away.
ETA: 2023
Spider-Man: Freshman Year
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: The second Spider-Man project in our list, but this time it's a TV series from Marvel Studios. The series winds back the clock and takes us back to Peter Parker's early days of being the webslinger. The twist is, this isn't quite the Peter we know, and in this universe, it's Norman Osborne (aka The Green Goblin) who becomes his mentor rather than Tony Stark/Iron Man. The series will feature 2D animation designed to pay tribute to classic Spidey comic art. Stay tuned true believers!
ETA: 2024
Suzume
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: Makoto Shinkai, the master of magical realism is back with another intriguing tale. The film has a pretty novel concept surrounding the appearance of magical doors appearing all over the world, that our teenage protagonist apparently has the ability to close. It looks like business as usual for Shinkai with teen romance against a fantasy background, all produced in gorgeous animation. We're sold.
ETA 2023
Nimona
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: We were gutted when Blue Sky's closure saw the cancellation of the original version of this film. But luckily, Netflix stepped in to save the day. Based on the graphic novel by ND Stevenson, the film follows the adventurers of a shape-shifting teen in a techno-medieval world "unlike anything animation has tackled before." Buzz around the original version made it sound very exciting indeed, so we hope that everything possible has survived the change in studios.
ETA: 2023
Wildwood/ The Night Gardener
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: For the first time in their history, LAIKA have revealed their next two films. Both are set to be directed by company CEO (and Kubo And The Two Strings director) Travis Knight. Wildwood sounds like ideal LAIKA material, with Missing Link writer-director Chris Butler penning the script based on the children's fantasy book by Carson Ellis. The Night Gardener is something entirely different- it's pitched as "a gritty neo-noir folktale". We can't wait.
ETA: TBC
Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: Another film that has been on this list before. GDT's first stop-motion feature has had a long road to the screen, but we're still as excited as ever. Set in Italy during the reign of fascist dictator Mussolini, this promises to be a version of the well-known story like you've never seen before. And we just can't wait to see the visionary director's imagination set loose in the animated realm. The film is getting a limited theatrical release before arriving on Netflix in December- and this definitely looks worth catching on the big screen if you can.
ETA: November
Futurama
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: Good News everyone! The crew of the Planet Express are back from the dead for the third time, this time on Hulu (in the US- presumably it will stream on Disney Plus elsewhere). We can't wait to see what the future holds...
ETA: TBC
Strange World
WHY WE'RE EXCITED: Not to be confused with Strange Planet, Strange World is the next film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. The film is inspired by 1950s and 1960s sci-fi, which is enough to make it stand out from the rest of the studio's films. Expect bizarre and fantastic (in the literal sense) landscapes and weird and wonderful creatures in this colourful science-fiction adventure.
ETA: November
