Disney’s New Sci-Fi TV Reboot Of Popular ’90s Book Series Gets Honest Response From Author

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Disney is creating a TV show based on a well-loved book series, but surprisingly, not everyone involved immediately supported the idea.

Disney+ is developing a new TV series based on the popular book series Animorphs. While still in the early stages of production, the show will center around a group of teenagers who discover a secret danger hidden in their normal lives, all while dealing with the typical challenges of high school – relationships, curfews, and everything in between. The original Animorphs books were written by K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant, and they’ve recently shared their excitement about the adaptation.

On Bluesky, actress Debby Ryan initially voiced worries that the new Animorphs project didn’t have enough funding. However, she and her husband felt better knowing that producer Sev Ohanian, a friend and a true fan of the original series, was involved. They’re hopeful he can make the reboot a success.

Ryan Coogler, the director of Sinners, is working as an executive producer alongside Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian from Proximity Media. Bayan Wolcott will write the screenplay, and Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman will also executive produce through Scholastic, the publisher of the original novels that were released between 1996 and 2001.

As a big fan of the books, I totally get why K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant were hesitant about a live-action Animorphs adaptation. There had been talk of a movie since 2015, but it wasn’t until 2020 that things started to feel real with Scholastic and Picturestart officially announcing a project. Sadly, the authors, Grant and his wife, ended up bowing out in October of that year. They just weren’t seeing eye-to-eye with the direction things were going creatively, and I can respect that – you want to protect a story you care about!

Following his initial post, he explained that decisions about the project were made without his team’s input, which was within the other party’s rights. He emphasized their principle of not taking credit for work they didn’t contribute to. Because they weren’t involved in the actual creation or development, they withdrew from the project. Six years later, the movie still hasn’t been made.

Although a movie hasn’t been made yet, the popular book series Animorphs was previously a TV show on Nickelodeon, running from September 1998 to March 2000. The show starred Shawn Ashmore, Brooke Nevin, Boris Cabrera, Nadia Nascimento, and Christopher Ralph. However, the original TV series didn’t satisfy the authors of the books.

I was really surprised to read a recent interview with Christina Applegate where she admitted she and the creators weren’t thrilled with how the TV series turned out. She explained they’d originally envisioned it as an animated show, mostly because juggling child actors, animals, and special effects was incredibly costly. They knew the budget just wasn’t there to do it right. It really highlighted how tricky it can be to adapt a story for the screen, and it seems like she and the team haven’t always had positive experiences with those adaptations.

Disney has had a fairly good history adapting young adult books into TV series. Rick Riordan, the author of Percy Jackson, didn’t like the original movies, but is very pleased with the new TV series, which is already planning a third season. A live-action Eragon series is also in development. While the Goosebumps series was cancelled after two seasons, the upcoming Animorphs adaptation looks promising, particularly given the talented team working on it.

I’m really excited about what Ryan Coogler is up to! Even though it’s still early days, he’s already deep into developing a pilot for a new take on The X-Files, and the cast sounds amazing with Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel. Meanwhile, it’s cool to see that Jeff Wolcott has some solid experience with shows like The Testaments on Hulu and The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Beyond the original books, Animorphs has been adapted into several video games, such as Animorphs: Know the Secret and Animorphs: Shattered Reality. There have also been six graphic novel adaptations of the series released so far.

The series includes 54 books plus 10 additional stories, though the later books weren’t written by the original author. The story centers around five teenagers who gain the ability to shapeshift into any animal they touch. They develop this power to fight a dangerous alien invasion by creatures called Yeerks, and were aided by a dying alien race called the Andalites who had previous experience battling the Yeerks.

As of writing, there is no release set for the new Animorphs adaptation.

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2026-04-05 05:28