A Gargoyles reboot is officially on the way. Months after a report suggested Kenneth Branagh could be helming a live-action reboot of the cult classic animated series, a new trade report says a live-action series is, in fact, in development at Disney+. While it doesn’t appear that Branagh is working on it, the series has a pair of monstrous names attached. Gary Dauberman has been hired to write, showrun, and executive produce the series alongside James Wan and his Atomic Monster banner.
Folks got no respect for animation anymore. Every shortcoming excused with how much money it costs for live action to achieve what animation does naturally. Assuming its a series, they wont have the budget for CG main characters, itll be a compromise of costume and practical effects played off as being ‘more realistic’ to excuse the more mundane character shapes.
I wish Arcane had inspired more high quality animation shows.
Oh look another franchise to resurrect from the dead to churn out soulless live action garbage to appease the shareholders thirst for more subscribers.
Go write an original fucking story already Hollywood ya hack.
OTOH, Gargoyles was cancelled prematurely and has a cult fanbase that wants a remake and an actual ending.
I just want a proper third season that wraps things up. Even the comics that continued it didn’t. We are getting more comics though.
Keith David is still a working voice actor.
Don’t fuck this up.
I don’t know how anyone but Frakes could be Xanatos
I will never not be just a little bit salty that they didn’t get Patrick Stewart to voice Oberon.
But Kate Mulgrew was his wife at least.
Why is Disney obsessed with remaking everything “live action” we love Disney for their animation, they’re good at animation! Is live action cheaper or something?
2d animation is regarded as a dead market nowadays, with few exceptions. Betting on it is a risk. Disney doesn’t like risks
Conceptually it looks like the right people have been hired. I do hope we can get our original voice actors back, specifically Keith David. I’d love to see Frakes and other humans, but if this is a full reboot you’ll probably need to recast (but a cameo or different character for sure.)
My concern would be Disney not giving this show time to grow. While a darker “kids” show, I expect the primary audience to be much older. We don’t need to be R rated, but they should lean into that darker tone. I also wouldn’t expect this show to be a big hit, this’ll be a slow roll. They’ve given shows like Andor that freedom, but as a “new” IP Disney may be more reserved.
One thing I’ve learned is the mouse can fucking hire. They just have way too much say on the creation of their properties.
They can lean, but if they jump headfirst into it, it’s just going to be another shitty grimdark edgelord wankfest. Have a bit of dark, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Lean into the fantasy element, have fun with it. Don’t make another “Depression: The TV Show”
I just canceled D+ after getting an email that my price is doubling next month.
They are going to have to pump out more than an few live action remakes to make it worth the cost
…fuck it, I’m down. Gargoyles was the shit growing up; worse case scenario, the new one sucks and we put something else on.
Edit - Maybe do a movie though? Kinda feel like stretching this out over an entire season is gonna give us like an hour of actual content, and a loooooooooot of filler.
I know what you mean. A lot of Disney+ shows have felt like they had two 90min movies worth of content that they padded so they could hit six 1 hour episodes. I’m totally on board with the idea of some lesser-tier stories from the MCU skipping a theatrical release and going straight to D+ but they’re obsessed with turning a movie’s worth of ideas into a tv series just so they can claim to have a bigger catalog of original shows. The end result is painfully boring shows that are a chore to get through.
Yeah I’m cautiously optimistic
You know what, I’m going to watch the original gargoyles. Through other means because I ain’t paying for plus.
Why not? It’s still one of the cheapest streaming services with a lot of quality content. Pay for one month and binge gargoyles.
oh no
I mean you don’t have to watch it
Hey, you’re right! I guess if I had said I did you’d have a point.
Sigh…alright, they can give it a shot. Personally, I see no reason to do a reboot of this series. Things ended quite well in Season 2 of the original, and I’m happy with what I got.
Hopefully its decent. Personally I would rather an animated reboot, but I imagine theyre going live action to target an older audience.
Lately Ive kind of taken a bit of an indifferent approach to the onslaught of remakes, sequels, and series coming back from cancellation years later. If it’s good it’s good and thats neat. If not meh, I dont have to watch or engage with it and hopefully it dies a quick death. I kinda wish that Hollywood would focus more on new and original ideas instead of their focus on sequels, IP, and reboots, but that’s not going to change anytime soon.
At least Gargoyles has been off the air for about 30 years so it’s not like theyre beating a dead horse here. If done well it could be interesting and would be very possible to provide a fresh take. That said it being live action doesnt leave me feeling optimistic.
Yeah, going the live action route is a bit of a head-scratcher. Between two seasons of “Marvel’s What If…?” with third on the way and the upcoming X-Men '97 revival Disney clearly hasn’t shied away from animated shows aimed at older audiences. So I’m not sure why Gargoyles, of all things, would be getting the live action treatment.
I wonder if perhaps it’s because it’s a purely Disney product and theyre a little apprehensive of making an older skewing disney cartoon.
but I imagine theyre going live action to target an older audience.
How old are we talking here? I was a youth when this show was airing (Disney afternoon) and still watch a ton of animation. I think the belief that animation is for kids is pretty dated and doesn’t hold true (not that you’re making that argument, but presuming that is what Disney execs believe)
Gargoyles was made to go head to head with batman tas and they both did a great job of going right to the end of the line of what a tv-y7 could get away with(and probably couldnt get away with today). That said like Batman they both were designed to target kids and for all the brilliance there were episodes that skewed a little younger, and little touches like how shows of that era had to dance around words like “kill”.
In addition to the usual stigmas surrounding animation I wonder if another factor in this is that it’s a pure Disney branded product. While they have plenty of edgier stuff in their back catalog that should let people know their cartoons arent just for small children, the rep is there and they may not be ready to put out a tv-14 or even tv-pg cartoon that targets young adults and teens. It was find when its some licensed anime on d+, or if it’s star wars or marvel, but this is a pure Disney badge.
Of course theres also the usual explanation of cost. Good animation costs a lot of money to produce and while lord knows disney has the cash it might be cheaper for them to just shoot this series in front of the giant tv. I feel like a show with characters like the gargoyales would be counter productive to be live action since they regularly fly, and would need expensive suits or full cgi anyway to work, but I suspect they do the math and no an effects guy is cheaper than a team of animators.
just leave it in the ground ffs
I vote Steven Segall as David Xanatos. Eddie Murphy as Goliath, and Fran Drescher of SAG-AFTRA fame for Demona. It could work.
Steven Segall doesn’t work though.
Oh he does, he just works faster than the eye can see.
So fast that it looks like he’s sitting down
Fuck! I hate Disney live action. But I really really want to see a live version of gargoyles. Fuck.
Mmmmm Content®. I sure do love Brand™. My favorite thing about Property© is all the Merchandise™ I can buy related to it.
Seriously, I loved Gargoyles as a kid. I loved the animation style and I loved the darker subject matter that I as a kid got to experience. As an adult, I have no use for another CGI filled paint-by-numbers show with milquetoast stories and hours of filler. And I sure as heck have no desire to give Disney any more money to support it.
Sorry for the grumpy pessimism.
