Live-action Gargoyles from Saw co-creator and Annabelle writer coming to Disney+
The spell is broken, and so the defenders of the night live again.
'90s kids and teenagers have been clamoring for a return to the Gargoyles franchise for years, and it looks like they might finally get their wishes fulfilled. The Hollywood Reporter has exclusively learned Gargoyles is coming back as a live-action series to be released on Disney+ currently in development at Disney Branded Television.
Two huge names in the horror and creature feature business, Gary Dauberman and James Wan's production company Atomic Monster, have been selected to revitalize the IP. This isn't the first big collaboration between Atomic Monster and Disney Branded Television, as last year we learned a King Kong live-action series for Disney+ was in the early stages of development too. Dauberman, meanwhile, known for his work on the Annabelle movies as writer, will be writing, executive producing, and showrunning the new Gargoyles series.
Gargoyles' story starts when gargoyle statues are moved from a castle in Scotland to modern-day New York. Once in the Big Apple, the statues awaken from an ages-long spell and become protectors of the city during the night. The Greg Weisman-created animated series ran from 1994 to 1997 and had three seasons, riding the wave of animated shows that were presented with a darker tone and had more complex storylines. Batman: The Animated Series instantly comes to mind, but this era of more complicated, mature animation went on for a while and culminated with early 2000s hits like Batman Beyond and Samurai Jack, among others.
Gargoyles' jump to the live-action realm was arguably overdue; Disney hasn't spent much time and money trying to adapt the animated series into other formats, but a feature was kicked around in 2010. A handful of box office disappointments with fantasy movies around that time (Prince of Persia, The Sorcerer's Apprentice...) killed the chances of that project happening. Meanwhile, Weisman had been campaigning for a return to the original series for years, and one has to wonder whether that could happen later down the line on top of this live-action adaptation. After all, Disney and Marvel are bringing back the classic X-Men animated series as X-Men '97.
The Gargoyles live-action reboot is just one of the many upcoming TV shows we're looking forward to. Check out here all the TV series, both on streaming and broadcast TV, you should keep an eye on.
