An “Animorphs” TV series is in early development at Disney+, Variety has learned exclusively.
Bayan Wolcott is attached to write and executive produce the adaptation, with Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler, and Sev Ohanian executive producing on behalf of Proximity Media. Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman executive produce via Scholastic, with Scholastic having published the books on which the show is based. 20th Television is the studio. Proximity Media’s Simone Harris, vice president and head of TV, and Dezi Gallegos, director of development of TV, will also oversee the project.
The official logline states that the show “follows a group of teenagers who uncover a hidden threat lurking beneath their everyday lives, all while juggling relationships, curfews, and the chaos of High School.”
The book series, which was created by Katherine Applegate and her husband Michael Grant, followed a group of teenagers — Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias — who discover that the Earth is being secretly taken over by a parasitic alien race known as Yeerks.
The group meets a dying alien of the Andalite race, which has been fighting the Yeerks and their expansion across the galaxy. The Andalite gives them the ability to morph into any animal they touch by absorbing the animal’s DNA. They use this power to launch a secret resistance against the Yeerks and to save the world. They are later joined by Ax, a young Andalite stranded on Earth.
There were 54 main books in the “Animorphs” series, beginning with “The Invasion” in 1996 and concluding with “The Beginning” in 2001. Each book was told from the first-person perspective of one of the main characters. There were also several companion novels, like “The Hork-Bajir Chronicles,” “The Andalite Chronicles,” and “Visser.” They have sold more than 35 million copies worldwide.
Wolcott most recently worked as a supervising producer on Hulu’s “The Testaments” and wrote for the FX series “Class of ’09.” He has also worked on shows including “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “Impeachment: American Crime Story.” He is repped by UTA, Echo Lake Entertainment, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Bayan Wolcott
Sela Shiloni
Coogler and Proximity Media are currently under a TV overall deal with Disney. Under that deal, Coogler is working on a pilot for a reboot of “The X-Files” starring Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel. He is still fresh of his Oscar wins for the hit film “Sinners,” with the film winning four statuettes overall and Coogler taking home the award for best original screenplay. Coogler is repped by WME, M88, The Lede Company, and Cohen & Gardner.
Should it move forward, this would be the second “Animorphs” TV show to make it to air. A live-action series aired on Nickelodeon for two seasons between 1998 and 2000. The show starred Shawn Ashmore, Brooke Nevin, Boris Cabrera, Nadia Nascimento, Christopher Ralph, Paulo Costanzo, and Eugene Lipinski. There was also previously an attempt to develop an “Animorphs” film in 2020, though it never moved forward.
This would also be the latest YA book-to-series adaptation to find a home at Disney+. The streamer currently airs the “Percy Jackson” series, which is going into its third season, while they are currently prepping a live-action “Eragon” series.
