Nimona is coming to Netflix after years of development and production halts.
The streaming service will release a full animation adaptation of ND Stevenson’s best-selling comic novel in 2023, with production beginning earlier this year. The film, directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane (Spies in Disguise), stars Chloe Grace Moretz and Riz Ahmed, and is produced by Netflix and Annapurna Pictures.
“A Knight gets accused for a crime he didn’t commit, and the only person who can help him establish his innocence is Nimona, a shape-shifting youngster who could possibly be a monster he’s vowed to kill,” according to the animation’s synopsis. This is a story about the labels we assign to people and the shapeshifter who refuses to be defined by anyone.” “Set in a techno-medieval world unlike anything animation has tackled before, this is a story about the labels we assign to people and the shapeshifter who refuses to be defined by anyone.”
Blue Sky Studios, a branch of then-20th Century Fox’s animation studio, was in charge of the project at the time. When Disney bought Fox, production had already begun, and it was revealed in February 2021 that Blue Sky, which already had Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, would close. Patrick Osborne was set to helm the Blue Sky-based Nimona adaption, which was set to premiere on January 14, 2022, when the animation studio closed its doors. Shortly after, it was announced that Nimona’s production would be suspended and that the film would not be released.
Former Blue-Sky employees were reported in a March 2022 Business Insider piece as saying that Disney leadership objected to Nimona getting a same-gender kiss. It was recently revealed that during the creative production process for the next Pixar film Lightyear, a same-gender kiss was eliminated. After internal reaction at The Walt Disney Company, including a letter from Pixar workers alleging censorship and pointing out Disney’s earlier public quiet on Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” statute, it was reinstated.
