The last time Warner Bros. announced the long-gestating ThunderCats movie was five years ago, with Godzilla vs. Kong’s Adam Wingard attached to direct. Sounds promising, but the project has since gained little traction. Thankfully, the ThunderCats movie is still alive, thanks to Wingard’s recent interview with Polygon.
According to the director, who has his new A24 action thriller Onslaught starring Adria Arjona and Dan Stevens out this Friday, he admits that his “career’s kind of bouncing around”, resulting in “different things have taken precedence.” But the good news is that ThunderCats remains on the card, stating, “it’s just a matter of finding time to really re-concentrate and re-engage with it.” Wingard also confirms that he and frequent co-writer Simon Barrett, who worked with him on several projects from A Horrible Way to Die to The Guest, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and Onslaught, did a new draft “at the beginning of this year.”
The Original ThunderCats Animated Series: How Lion-O and the Sword of Omens Became an ‘80s Icon
Based on the popular animated series of the same name, which first aired between 1985 and 1989, the Tobin Wolf-created ThunderCats were notable for introducing distinct catlike humanoid aliens. Led by Lion-O (Larry Kenney originally voiced the character during the ‘80s), he famously wields the Sword of Omens as his trusted weapon. Originally in dagger form, the blade grew into a full-size sword at Lion-O’s “Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, ThunderCats, Ho!” command, drawing its source of power from the mystical Eye of Thundera ruby in the hilt.
Together with his close-knit team, namely Cheetara and Panthro, they fight against the evil sorcerer Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living, who is hell-bent on obtaining the Eye of Thundera to rule the universe. The animated series ran for four seasons, totalling 130 episodes. ThunderCats returned with a 2011 reboot, but it only lasted one season before it was cancelled. Then came the third animated series titled ThunderCats Roar in 2020, but like the reboot, it suffered a similar single-season fate.
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Why Warner Bros.’ ThunderCats Movie Took Nearly 20 Years to Reach Adam Wingard
The ‘80s era saw Warner Bros. compile multiple episodes into feature-length versions such as ThunderCats Ho! The Movie in 1986, consisting of five episodes released on VHS in the UK. It was originally planned as an epic theatrical release, only for the studio to switch strategy following the box-office fiasco seen in the likes of The Transformers: The Movie.
It would take Warner Bros. over twenty years to revive the feature-length ThunderCats project in the form of a computer-generated movie to be spearheaded by Gears of War video game art director Jerry O’Flaherty. Targeted for a summer 2010 release, the movie would focus on the origin story of ThunderCats, but the project failed to materialize, apart from leaked CGI test footage of the young Lion-O.
Enter Adam Wingard, who pitched his ThunderCats movie to the studio and insisted that it would be a hyper-real CGI hybrid rather than the traditional live-action style. A lifelong fan of the original ThunderCats animated series, who used to handwrite a mammoth 272-page script in the 10th grade (!), he aims to honor not only the story but also the look and feel of the Rankin/Bass era.
While Wingard’s ThunderCats movie is still in the works, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation had its own version in active development following the announcement at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June. It may have been a while to get the ThunderCats movie going, but at least Wingard’s latest update shed some positive light on the project.
Here’s hoping that Wingard’s self-professed love for the beloved franchise would translate into a ThunderCats movie, for which eagerly awaited fans around the world have been waiting.
RELATED: Live-Action ThunderCats Movie: Hollywood’s Next Big Flop or Surprise Hit?
