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Peyo’s little blue villagers are having a busy year. Following a big splash at Annecy in early summer, the CG-animated The Smurfs series will be kicking off its third season on Nickelodeon. After being rebranded as Peyo Company (name change from IMPS), the franchise’s global license holder announced that it us expanding its world to Belgian creator Peyo’s other properties (Johan & Peewit and Benny Breakiron) as well. Meanwhile, Paramount and Nickelodeon Animation are also working on the feature The Smurf Movie, directed by Chris Miller, co-directed by Matt Landon, produced by Ryan Harris, Rihanna, Laurence ‘jay’ Brown and Tryan ‘ty-ty’ Smith, and starring Rihanna as the voice of Smurfette. The musical feature will be released on February 14, 2025.
We recently had the chance to catch up with Peyo Company’s CCO Nele De Wilde to find out more about the secrets of keeping this popular 65-year-old property fresh and relevant for today’s audiences.
This open-mindedness also led to three feature films, produced from 2011 to 2017 by Sony Pictures, while the fourth iteration helmed by Paramount is set to release next year. On Valentine’s Day, the Smurfs will again hit the big screen, this time under Paramount and Rihanna’s “umbrella.” But for De Wilde, going from live action to animation, from Sony to Paramount is no big issue for this adaptable IP.
“The advantage for us is that movies are really like a separate event, and that permits us to freewheel a bit more,” she notes. “Sony and Paramount received our guidelines, from basic values to characterization and detailed universe, but the rest is their movie. The Smurfs have already been to Paris, to New York, and now they’re going on some interdimensional adventure. Of course, this is all accepted by the audience because it’s a separate thing from what we’re doing in the series and in the comic books. That said, we’re very happy to work with Paramount’s teams on this project. They’re very respectful towards our opinion and they take us along the different steps.” This viewpoint was echoed in Chris Miller’s presentation at Annecy.
A long-term Smurfs fan, Miller said he was delighted to come on board the project. “From the very beginning, I wanted to maintain the look and feel of the original comic. Working with Montreal-based Cinesite, we’ve been doing some amazing work leaning towards the original designs while giving them a modern look. Backgrounds, bubbles and action lines will come alive in the movie, with plenty of visual fun. I love the idea of offering a different take on the Smurfs universe, while keeping with the nostalgia brought by those characters I grew up with. The scope of this movie is big, with different studios and different styles we are really excited to share with the world.”
Meanwhile, De Wilde and her team have kept busy, bringing forth a wave of new productions, spearheaded by the 2021 CG-animated CG-animated The Smurfs series, which debuted on Nickelodeon, and is also streamed on Netflix.
The Smurfs became a global phenomenon in the late 1980s, when the beloved 2D series produced by Hanna-Barbera first appeared on American national television. Nine seasons ensued, followed by the three Sony features. “But events such as those films are not sufficient to keep your brand top-of-mind, especially with all the children’s new ways of watching,” says De Wilde “After the movies, we really felt like now was the right time to reboot the series. Seeing the Smurfs created for The Lost Village helped us visualize what it could look like, and so we started from scratch with that look and feel in mind for our 3D Smurfs. But then of course, we still had to make it happen. We didn’t have the budget of a Sony movie, yet we still had to achieve very high quality both on the writing and on the visual side.”
Produced by Véronique Culliford, and directed by William Renaud, the first season of the show premiered in September 2021 on Nickelodeon. “We had to manage it as being both a modern and fast-paced comedy for 21st century kids, while still being funny for the adults who grew up with the characters. And I think we came up with the right balance with the help of our French, German and Belgian partners Dupuis Édition & Audiovisuel, Dargaud Media, KiKA, TF1, Ketnet and RTBF.”
The third season of the show will introduce yet new characters to audiences. “We all know Gargamel, but he’s not the only one who wants to catch the Smurfs,” says De Wilde. “ In this season, we will introduce Rowena and Dwayne, Gargamel’s niece and nephew, who come by every now and then for the weekend. And we will also have a pet dragon, Voltaire, introduced in this season”, mirroring one of the recurring characters of both comic books and classic series. “It’s another way of bringing trouble into the Smurfs’ quiet village. This ice-breathing dragon himself isn’t dangerous, but he’ll definitely create problems. Finally, along with the introduction of the Smurfies’ village, we’ll also have two new Smurfies, Bubble and Firefly, with each their own magical abilities and outstanding personalities. Bubble is capable of teleporting herself around, while Firefly can light up in the dark. This offers viewers a funny and special way of identifying them, without mimicking the Smurfs’ characterization.”
But for De Wilde, the biggest difference for this series and the upcoming Johan & Peewit and Benny Breakiron projects revolves more around ways of working than content. “I think that now we have experience as a producer. Before this, we worked mainly as a licensor, and those new CG Smurfs helped us establish our team, with the help of our co-producers and partners. Today, we see that platforms and especially channels are searching for those trusted IP’s, and it’s a good time for us to expand Peyo’s legacy on screen. Especially now that we can put ourselves out as a producer, developing a whole galaxy of spinoffs, specials, web series. We’re still a small family company, and we’re still going to work with external studios, but now it all starts from our own designs, our own ideas.”
As The Smurfs‘ third season will premiere on Nickelodeon next week, Season 4 is already in pre-development, while Peyo Company is already working on Johan & Peewit first proof of concept. Delivery for this tween-to-teen targeted TV series is expected in 2027, with co-production and broadcasting partners still to be confirmed. Benny Breakiron, which is set apart from the Smurfs’ cinematic universe, is also in pre-development. “Again, we’re lucky that Peyo was a great storyteller, and that he already wrote such timeless narratives and characters. Johan & Peewit will bring the viewers into a humorous and epic fantasy adventure, while Benny Breakiron is basically a super-strong boy who loses all his power when he catches a cold. It’s a fantastic pitch, and we’ll work on making both those shows a delight to modern audiences.”
