If you were a kid in the ’90s, chances are the iconic, unsettling covers of the Animorphs books served as your very first introduction to body horror. Now, a whole new generation is about to experience the trauma of mid-shift human-to-animal transformations. Variety reports that a brand-new live-action Animorphs TV series is officially in early development at Disney+.
The Heavy-Hitting Creative Team
Disney isn’t playing around with this adaptation. They have tapped an incredible roster of talent to bring the beloved YA science-fantasy series to the small screen. Bayan Wolcott (Class of’ 09) is both writing and executive producing the project. And get this: Ryan Coogler, the man behind Sinners, is producing alongside Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian for Proximity Media. Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman will oversee the project on behalf of the original book publishers.
Proximity Media is currently under a massive television overall deal with Disney, which is the same partnership spawning Coogler’s highly anticipated The X-Files reboot.
What is ‘Animorphs’ Actually About?
For the uninitiated, the story follows a group of everyday teenagers—Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias. They are juggling high school drama, strict curfews, and, oh yeah, a secret alien invasion.
The Earth is being covertly taken over by a parasitic alien race known as the Yeerks. They crawl into human brains to control them. The teens cross paths with a dying Andalite alien. To help them fight back, he grants them the power to morph into any animal they touch by absorbing its DNA. However, there is a catch: if they stay in animal form for more than two hours, they are trapped in that form forever.
A Massive Legacy
Created by authors Katherine Applegate and Michael Grant, the original run consisted of a staggering 54 novels released between 1996 and 2001. A previous TV adaptation ran for two seasons on Nickelodeon from 1998 to 2000, and while a feature film was briefly in development in 2020, it never got off the ground.
If you’re interested in introducing your kids to the original stories, you can find the books and more on Amazon.
