They’re awake! They’re alive! They’re together again! Yes, children of the '90s and fans of cult animated TV, our time has come - Gargoyles is returning. And, per THR’s reporting, this time the gang, stone by day and warriors by night, will be getting the live-action treatment, with The Conjuring Universe’s Gary Dauberman and James Wan at the helm.
Both veteran names in the creature-feature game, Dauberman and Wan are developing the series with Wan’s Atomic Monster, the production company behind M3GAN and Malignant among other recent years’ genre favourites. Dauberman - writer of the Annabelle films, The Nun, and co-writer on Andy Muschietti's IT duology - is set to take the reins as writer, executive producer, and showrunner on the Disney+ bound series, whilst Wan will serve as executive producer.
Having first aired almost 30 years ago, Disney’s animated series about a band of statues awoken from a thousand-year curse to protect New York ran between 1994 and 1997. Releasing in the same era as acclaimed animated fare like Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men, Gargoyles gained a reputation and cult following for its dark tone, rich lore, and literary allusions - as well as its stacked voice cast, which features Keith David, Jonathan Frakes, Ed Asner, and Frank Welker. In recent years, the show’s addition to the Disney+ catalogue has introduced the adventures of Goliath, Hudson, Brooklyn and co to a whole new generation.
With Disney having unsuccessfully tried to get a new Gargoyles off the ground in the early 2010s, the last we heard of any plans to resurrect the series were some errant rumours earlier this year that Kenneth Branagh was attached to direct a live-action feature outing for the stony squad. But now the whispers have subsided and we can finally say, in our finest Goliath baritone, THEY LIVE AGAIN! No word on a release date for this one just yet, but fingers crossed this reboot doesn’t leave fans… *ahem*… stone-faced.