Today, Netflix got animated, previewing an exciting lineup of animated films and series coming in the next year during its jam-packed Next on Netflix: Animation presentation in Los Angeles. 

Netflix points out its rising profile as the destination for animation lovers with diverse tastes, collecting content for a variety of audiences (i.e. preschool/kids, teens/adults, anime fans and cinema buffs) which may otherwise require viewers to hop between multiple platforms.  Some of the key figures highlighted include:

• 130 million+ Netflix households watch animation every month.
• Anime generated 1 billion views across 190 countries in 2023.
• Netflix’s preschool hits CoComelon, CoComelon Lane and Gabby’s Dollhouse had more than 650M views in 2023 — and the latest, Hot Wheels Let’s Race, made Top 10 TV list in 69 countries.
• The streamer’s biggest animated movies — Leo and The Sea Beast — had 29M views in their first five days. [91D Views for Leo: 118M, The Sea Beast: 111M].

Now for the juicy part: What’s next! Highlights include hot project announcements, including the addition of Sony Pictures Animation’s K-Pop: Demon Hunters (working title) and the new Motel Transylvania, based on the studio’s hit Hotel Transylvania film franchise, to the lineup, as well as the next SpongeBob SquarePants feature from Nickelodeon, Plankton: The Movie,

We also got first-look materials for Aardman’s newly-titled Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Skydance Animation movie Spellbound and Pookoo, Zack Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods series, WWI-era steampunk anime feature Leviathan, the sci-fi outlaw MC anime series Tokyo Override and Wolf King, based on the Wereworld books by Curtis Jobling. Not to mention an absolute animated avalanche of cast announcements, premiere dates, series renewals, new images and clips for the streamer’s ever-expanding slate.

New Project Announcements

K-Pop: Demon Hunters (working title) – 2025

K-Pop: Demon Hunters is a musical action adventure that follows the story of a world-renowned K-Pop girl group, as they balance their lives in the spotlight with their secret identities as bad-ass demon hunters, set against a colorful backdrop of fashion, food, style and the most popular music movement of this generation.

• Directors: Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans
• Producer: Michelle Wong

Motel Transylvania  – 2025

Motel Transylvania is open for business, as Drac & Mavis take a break from their Transylvanian haunts to set up a brand new resort for humans and monsters in the California desert. Vampires and sunshine … what can go wrong!? 

Plankton: The Movie – 2025

Plankton’s world is flipped upside down when his plan for world domination is thwarted. 

• Director: Dave Needham
• Executive producers: Marc Ceccarelli, Vincent Waller
• Story by: Mr. Lawrence
• Screenplay by: Mr. Lawrence & Kaz and Mr. Lawrence & Chris Viscardi. Based on the series SpongeBob SquarePants created by Stephen Hillenburg.
•  Voice cast: Mr. Lawrence, Jill Talley, Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Carolyn Lawrence, Clancy Brown, Rodger Bumpass
• Music by: Mahuia Bridgman-Cooper
• Music supervisors: Karyn Rachtman, Otis Ratchman
• Original songs by: Bret McKenzie, Linda Perry, Mark Mothersbaugh & Bob Mothersbaugh

First-Looks

Leviathan – 2025

In 1914, on the eve of war, a fugitive prince and a girl in disguise meet aboard a bioengineered airship, the HMS Leviathan, and change the course of history. Based on the novel by Scott Westerfeld, illustrated by Keith Thompson.

• Director: Christophe Ferreira
• Executive producers: Justin Leach, Taiki Sakurai
• Music: Nobuko Toda & Kazuma Jinnouchi
• Original songs by: Joe Hisaishi
• Animation production: Orange

Pookoo – 2025

Pookoo is a buddy comedy about a small woodland creature and a majestic bird, two natural sworn enemies of The Valley, that must set off on an adventure of a lifetime.

• Director: Nathan Greno
• Producers: John Lasseter, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Mary Ellen Bauder Andrews for Skydance Animation
• Music by: Siddhartha Khosla

Tokyo Override – 2024

In AI-optimized Tokyo 100 years in the future, an orphan teenage hacker blends in until a favor for her only friend inadvertently draws her into a benevolent gang of outcast motorcyclists, uncovering the seemingly utopian city’s sinister underbelly through a murder investigation linked to a drug syndicate. 

• Directors: Yuske Fukada, Veerapatra Jinanavin
• Producers: Yuske Fukada, Sornperes Subsermsri, Kwunchanok Meesilpa
• Animation production: RiFF Studio
• In collaboration with: Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Twilight of the Gods – Fall 2024

See our interview with Zack and Deborah Snyder for all first-look images.

The animated series brings Zack Snyder’s daring and spectacular vision of ancient Norse mythology to life, and features the voices of Sylvia Hoeks, Stuart Martin, Pilou Asbaek, John Noble, Paterson Joseph, Rahul Kohli, Jamie Clayton, Kristopher Hivju, Peter Stormare, Jamie Chung, Lauren Cohan and Corey Stoll, among others. 

• Created by:  Zack Snyder, Jay Oliva, Eric Carrasco
• Executive producers: Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, Wesley Coller, Jay Oliva
• Production company: Stone Quarry Animation
• Directors: Zack Snyder (101 & 108); Jay Oliva (102 & 107); Tim Divar/Andrew Tamandl (103 & 105); Dave Hartman/Andrew Tamandl (104 & 106)
• Animation studio: Xilam Animation

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl – Winter 2024 (on Netflix, exc.-U.K./Ireland)

TITLE ANNOUNCEMENT

Aardman’s four-time Academy Award-winning director Nick Park and Emmy Award-nominated Merlin Crossingham return with a brand new epic adventure, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. In this next installment, Gromit’s concern that Wallace is becoming too dependent on his inventions proves justified, when Wallace invents a “smart” gnome that seems to develop a mind of its own. When it emerges that a vengeful figure from the past might be masterminding things, it falls to Gromit to battle sinister forces and save his master … or Wallace may never be able to invent again!

VOICE CAST ANNOUNCEMENT:  Ben Whitehead, Peter Kay, Lauren Patel, Reece Shearsmith, Diane Morgan, Adjoa Andoh, Muzz Khan, Lenny Henry

• Creator: Nick Park
• Producer: Richard Beek
• Story: Nick Park & Mark Burton
• Screenplay: Mark Burton
• Voice cast: 

Wolf King – 2025 

Based on the Wereworld books by Curtis Jobling, Wolf King is an epic fantasy adventure series that follows Drew Ferran, as he comes of age and discovers he’s the last of a long line of Werewolves, and rightful (yet reluctant) ruler of a land governed by Werelords. Drew must fight to abolish the tyranny of the Lion lords and reclaim the throne.

The series is directed by Tom Brass for Jellyfish Pictures and produced by Angelo Abela, Tim Compton, Curtis Jobling and Barry Quinn for Lime Pictures.

New Images & Clips

The Imaginary – July 5, 2024

Studio Ponoc’s The Imaginary portrays the depths of humanity and creativity through the eyes of young Amanda and her imaginary companion, Rudger. Their fantastical adventures launched from her attic, lead them to discover a magical world of creatures and places never before seen until a sinister force threatens to destroy their imaginary world and the friendship within it.

Directed by renowned animator Yoshiyuki Momose (Modest Heroes, Tomorrow’s Leaves; animator, Spirited Away), The Imaginary is an unforgettable adventure of love, loss, and the healing power of imagination.

ENGLISH DUB CAST ANNOUNCEMENT: Louie Rudge-Buchanan, Evie Kiszel, Hayley Atwell, Sky Katz, Jeremy Swift, Kal Penn, LeVar  Burton, Jane Singer, Ruby Barnhill, Roger Craig Smith, Courtenay Taylor, Miles Nibbe

• Producer: Two-time Academy Award nominee Yoshiaki Nishimura (The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, When  Marnie Was There)
• Writer: Yoshiaki Nishimura

In Your Dreams – 2025

In Your Dreams is a comedy adventure about Stevie (12) and her little brother Elliot (eight) who journey into the absurd landscape of their own dreams. If the siblings can withstand a snarky stuffed giraffe, zombie breakfast foods, and the queen of nightmares, the Sandman will grant them their ultimate dream come true… the perfect family.

CASTING ANNOUNCEMENT: Simu Liu and Craig Robinson

• Director: Alex Woo
• Co-director: Erik Benson
• ProducersR: Timothy Hahn, p.g.a., Gregg Taylor, p.g.a.
• Screenplay by: Erik Benson and Alex Woo
• Story by: Alex Woo and Stanley Moore
• Music by: John Debney

Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld – 2024

The series follows Jentry Chau (voiced by Ali Wong), a Chinese-American teen living in a small Texas town, who finds out a demon king is hunting her for the supernatural powers she’s been working her whole life to repress. With the help of her weapons expert great-aunt and a millennia-old jiangshi (Chinese hopping vampire), Jentry must now fight an entire underworld’s worth of monsters while balancing the horrors of high school. 

• Creator/EP: Echo Wu
• Executive producers: Ali Wong, Aron Eli Coleite
• Voice cast: Ali Wong, Bowen Yang, Lori Tan Chinn, Lucy Liu, Jimmy O. Yang, Sheng Wang and Woosung Kim
• Animation studio: Titmouse with Chris Prynoski, Shannon Prynoski, Antonio Canobbio and Ben Kalina also acting  as executive producers

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Cosmos The Movie: Part 1 / Part 2 – August 22, 2024  

This film covers the Shadow Galactica arc, which is the final chapter of the Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon series. Sailor Moon must stand up and fight once again when a new enemy called Shadow Galactica, an organization bent on destroying everything and ruling the universe, begins eliminating her friends one by one. Her task requires her to persevere when solitude threatens to overwhelm her. Will she be able to protect those she loves? What awaits her beyond the battle? Sailor Moon fights on despite the pressure of her self-imposed mission as the final chapter of the beautiful and strong Sailor Guardians begins.

• Original work / chief supervisor: Naoko Takeuchi
• Director: Tomoya Takahashi
• Screenplay: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu

Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie – August 2, 2024 

When Bikini Bottom and all its denizens are suddenly scooped out of the ocean, Sandy Cheeks and SpongeBob SquarePants journey to Texas to save the town from a villainous plot.  

• Director: Liza Johnson
• Executive producers: Marc Ceccarelli, Vincent Waller
• Teleplay by: Kaz and Tom Stern
• Story by: Kaz. Based on the Series SpongeBob SquarePants by Stephen Hillenburg.
• Voice cast: Carolyn Lawrence, Tom Kenny, Wanda Sykes, Clancy Brown, Bill Fagerbakke, Mr. Lawrence, Rodger Bumpass, Johnny Knoxville, Craig Robinson, Grey Delisle, Ilia Isorelys Paulino, Matty Cardarople

Spellbound

DATE ANNOUNCEMENT: November 22, 2024

Spellbound follows the adventures of Ellian, the tenacious young daughter of the rulers of Lumbria who must go on a daring quest to save her family and kingdom after a mysterious spell transforms her parents into monsters.

Spellbound is directed by Vicky Jenson (Shrek) with original score from EGOT-winning composer Alan Menken (Beauty and the Beast) and lyrics by Glenn Slater (Tangled), written by Lauren Hynek & Elizabeth Martin and Julia Miranda and produced by John Lasseter, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Bruce Anderson and Linda Woolverton for Skydance Animation.

A Netflix Film from Skydance Animation, Spellbound boasts an all-star voice cast led by Rachel Zegler, Nicole Kidman, Javier Bardem, John Lithgow, Jenifer Lewis, Nathan Lane and Tituss Burgess.  

That Christmas – December 2024

Based on the charming trilogy of children’s books by beloved multi award-winning writer/director Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, Yesterday), That Christmas follows a series of entwined tales about family and friends, love and loneliness, and Santa Claus making a big mistake, not to mention an enormous number of turkeys!

This heartwarming comedy from Locksmith Animation marks Curtis’ first foray into animation, serving as the film’s writer and executive producer, and also the feature directorial debut of renowned animation veteran Simon Otto (Love, Death + Robots; How to Train Your Dragon films). Nicole P. Hearon (Moana, Frozen) and Adam Tandy (The Thick of It, Detectorists) are producers.

• Executive producers: Mary Coleman, Natalie Fischer, Julie Lockhart, Elisabeth Murdoch, Bonnie Arnold, Lara Breay,  Sarah Smith, Rebecca Cobb, Richard Curtis, Colin Hopkins
• Voice cast: Brian Cox, Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, Lolly Adefope, Alex Macqueen, Katherine Parkinson, Sindhu Vee, India Brown, Zazie Hayhurst, Sienna Sayer, Jack Wisniewski, Rosie Cavaliero, Paul Kaye, Guz Khan, Andy Nyman, Kuhu Agarwal, Bronte Smith, Freddie Spry, Ava Talbot, with Bill Nighy and Rhys Darby.
• Music by: John Powell

The Twits – 2025

Mr. and Mrs. Twit are the meanest, smelliest, nastiest people in the world who also happen to own and operate the most disgusting, most dangerous, most idiotic amusement park in the world, Twitlandia. But when the Twits rise to power in their town, two brave orphans and a family of magical animals are forced to become as tricky as the Twits in order to save the city.

A hysterically funny, wild ride of a film (chock-full of the Twits’ beloved tricks–from the Wormy Spaghetti to the Dreaded Shrinks), The Twits is also a story for our times, about the never-ending battle between cruelty and empathy.

VOICE CAST ANNOUNCEMENT: Margo Martindale, Johnny Vegas, with Natalie Portman and Emilia Clarke

• Director: Phil Johnston
• Co-directors: Katie Shanahan, Todd Kunjan Demong
• Producers: Phil Johnston, Maggie Malone, Daisy May West
• Writers: Phil Johnston, Meg Favreau

Ultraman: Rising – June 14, 2024

With Tokyo under siege from rising monster attacks, baseball star Ken Sato reluctantly returns home to take on the mantle of Ultraman. But the titanic superhero meets his match when he reluctantly adopts a 35-foot-tall, fire-breathing baby kaiju. Sato must rise above his ego to balance work and parenthood while protecting the baby from forces bent on exploiting her for their own dark plans.

In partnership with Netflix, Tsuburaya Productions, and Industrial Light & Magic, Ultraman: Rising is written by Shannon Tindle & Marc Haimes, directed by Shannon Tindle, and co-directed by John Aoshima.

• Producers: Tom Knott, p.g.a. and Lisa M. Poole, p.g.a.
• Executive producers: Takayuki Tsukagoshi, Masahiro Onda, Kei Minamitani
• Voice cast: Christopher Sean, Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita, Keone Young, Julia Harriman

ADDITIONAL UPDATES

• CoComelon Lane Upcoming Special
  • Premiere date: August 19, 2024
• Exploding Kittens
  • Premier date: July 12, 2024
• Jurassic World: Chaos Theory
  • Season 2 renewal
• Terminator Zero
  • Casting announcement: Timothy Olyphant as the Terminator