A fan-favorite fantasy novel series is heading to television, with Marvel and Star Wars talent tapped to shepherd it. Notably, a deal to develop it was struck by Coolabi Productions and Tencent Video around two years ago.
Warrior Cats gets animated TV show from Marvel and Star Wars talents
Coolabi Group and Tencent Video have greenlit production on the animated series, Warrior Cats, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
A.C. Bradley, who worked on Marvel’s What If…? and Ms. Marvel, and Rodrigo Blaas, whose credits include Star Wars: Visions, have boarded the show as showrunner and director, respectively. Notably, the pair previously worked together on Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia. In it, the former assumed writing duties while the latter served as both supervising director and executive producer.
In addition, Blaas is producing the show through his banner, El Guiri Studios, based in Madrid. Set for 2028, it will debut on Tencent Video’s platforms across China and Southeast Asia.
Based on Erin Hunter’s novels about feral cat clans, it marks the first authorized animated adaptation of the books. It will follow the story of the first series, The Prophecies Begin, which was published between 2003 and 2004. Victoria Holmes created the books’ concept and wrote the stories until her retirement in 2017.
Including The Prophecies Begin, there are nine subseries or arcs, each containing six novels. The others are The New Prophecy, Power of Three, Omen of the Stars, Dawn of the Clans, A Vision of Shadows, The Broken Code, A Starless Clan, and Changing Skies. Apart from these, the franchise includes Super Edition novels, novella trilogies, volumes of original English manga, graphic novels, and a Roblox game.
The Warrior Cats books, reportedly translated into 38 languages, have sold over 90 million copies globally. Meanwhile, according to Coolabi, user-generated content has drawn over 50 million views on YouTube and approximately 3 billion on TikTok each month.
Previously, a feature film adaptation, combining live-action and CGI, from China’s Alibaba Pictures and Harry Potter producer David Heyman, was reportedly planned. However, it was later abandoned.
