Warner Bros. 41-Year-Old Fantasy Classic Reboot is Officially Happening

Adam Wingard, director of Godzilla vs. Kong, has confirmed that Warner Bros.' long-awaited live-action ThunderCats film is still in development, despite years of limited updates. Wingard told Polygon the project remains on his slate but has been deprioritized due to commitments to other films like Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Onslaught. He noted a new draft of the script was completed earlier this year, though progress has since stalled.

Wingard first announced the ThunderCats film in 2021, describing it as a big-scale feature based on the 1980s animated series. He collaborated with writer Simon Barrett, known for Godzilla vs. Kong and The Guest, to expand the ThunderCats universe. Wingard has long expressed deep personal investment in the project, having written a 272-page screenplay for it during high school.

The director has emphasized his intention to preserve the retro aesthetic of the original ThunderCats, aiming for a hybrid CGI film that blends cartoon and live-action styles without resembling a traditional live-action adaptation. He described the goal as creating a new type of fantasy sci-fi spectacle that remains faithful to the source material's visual identity.

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation separately announced a new animated ThunderCats project at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, though details about its development team or release timeline remain undisclosed. This follows the cancellation of Amazon MGM Studios' Masters of the Universe film, which may have influenced the studio's cautious approach to big-budget '80s cartoon adaptations.