Adam Wingard, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire director has another MonsterVerse movie coming up, but he also has another project up his sleeve: a live-action feature of the beloved '80s cartoon classic ThunderCats, Comicbook.com reported.
Wingard has been working on the film since 2021 with his frequent collaborator Simon Barrett. In an interview with Gizmodo, the director said, “Simon and I are still actively working on the script.”
From dinosaurs and apes to… cats?
“We finished our last draft basically right when I was going into production on this movie and we just had to put everything on hold. [But] right now we're actively working on it again. So whether that means that's the next thing I do or [not], I'm not sure. But it's definitely one of the top priorities I have right now in terms of working on a script,” he added.
Both Wingard and Barrett have been vocal about their enthusiasm for the project.
“I will say this, our ThunderCats adaptation is going to be really, really cool. I don't think people are at all prepared for how long Adam Wingard has spent thinking about ThunderCats. They are not ready for Adam's ThunderCats movie. It is going to destroy,” Barrett previously told ComicBook.com.
Thunder, Thunder, Thunder… ThunderCats!
So how long exactly has Wingard been dreaming about a ThunderCats movie?
“ThunderCats is a dream project for me,” he told Deadline three years ago.
“When I was in high school, I was obsessed with it. You'd think at that point, I was a little too old, that my years of obsession with ThunderCats would be when I was six years old. My real obsession with ThunderCats came in high school, the pinnacle of me deciding I wanted to be a filmmaker, and pushing in that direction,” he added.
ThunderCats was an American cartoon but animated by a Japanese studio that became popular in the mid to late '80s. It had a revival in 2011 and again in 2020 as ThunderCats Roar. The ThunderCats consists of Lion-O, Panthro, Cheetara, Tygra and Snarf.
The original was released in 1985 and lasted until 1988 with four seasons. The 2011 Cartoon Network revival had one season with 26 episodes that ended the next year. Its most recent incarnation was also on the Cartoon Network with one season and 52 episodes, running from February 2020 to December the same year.
If you grew up in the '80s — like I did — you'll know the cartoon from their iconic opening, with Lion-O saying, “Thunder, Thunder, Thunder, ThunderCats! Ho!”
And while I'm excited for the revival, I wonder how this is going to work as a movie. Will it be a new story? A continuing one?
And since this is set to be a live-action movie, there's that all-important nagging question: is this going to be anything like 2019's Cats?
Hopefully not. Wingard seems to be enthusiastic about it. While he said he still had the script he wrote when he was in the 10th grade, hopefully he's made a few changes from the 272 pages he's written. Presumably, he's had decades to hone his script and give Lion-O and company life and soul… mostly I just want him not to turn it into whatever Cats was.
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