Huge news on the feature film front concerning new King Kong and Tomb Raider projects has been immediately followed up by the surprise announcement of Skull Island and Tomb Raider, two corresponding animated shows commissioned by Netflix, as reported by Deadline. The news first became public knowledge via pair of posts from the @NXOnNetflix Twitter account.
Skull Island reportedly borrows the conceit of the 2017 blockbuster Kong: Skull Island, where group of human characters trapped on the titular landmass plan an escape as they fend off attacks from megalithic monsters like the giant ape King Kong, Deadline reports. The trailer for Kong: Skull Island‘s feature-length follow-up Godzilla vs. Kong dropped on January 24.
The upcoming Skull Island anime sees Netflix re-teaming with Texas-based animation studio Powerhouse, who previously took the reins on the streamer’s other animated successes, such as Castlevania and Blood of Zeus, according to the Twitter post. Brian Duffield (Jane Got Gun), screenwriter for the Netflix original film The Babysitter, has been attached as Skull Island‘s principal writer and executive producer, Collider reports.
King Kong has been the subject of a handful of animated programs through the years, including another Netflix original series, Kong: King of the Apes. However, in the case of Tomb Raider, the streaming giant’s proposed anime would be the inaugural animated television series to be considered part of the best-selling action-adventure game franchise, according to Deadline. The show would allegedly align with the chronology of the trilogy of titles that Square Enix published in the 2010’s as means of rebooting Tomb Raider for a next-gen console generation, Deadline reports.
The script for the Tomb Raider anime will be authored by Tasha Huo (Child of Light), as reported by Collider. Huo’s television writing career has become seemingly inseparable from her passion for interactive fiction. “As gamer, I understand why millions of people are drawn to playing video games. I can’t wait to explore that feeling and translate it to TV,” she stated, via The Hollywood Reporter. She was one of two recipients of a female filmmakers’ fellowship from game developer Ubisoft’s scripted media production branch in 2017, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Huo is also member of the writer’s room for Netflix’s upcoming Witcher prequel series Blood Origin, Comic Book reports.
Jacob Robinson (Each Moment is the Universe) is an executive producer for both series, according to Deadline. Robinson presides over the animation production company Tractor Pants, which presently has an overall deal with Legendary Television, Animation World Network reports.