Netflix will no longer be producing an adaptation of writer/artist Jeff Smith's comic book series Bone. According to The Wrap, Bone is one of the many projects that has recently been canceled by the streaming service.
According to Deadline, an animated series adaptation of Bone for Netflix was first announced in 2019. "I've waited a long time for this," Smith said when the project was first announced. "Netflix is the perfect home for Bone. Fans of the books know that the story develops chapter-by-chapter and book-by-book. An animated series is exactly the way to do this! The team at Netflix understands Bone and is committed to doing something special - this is good news for kids and cartoon lovers all over the world." Smith was one of the creators working on the adaptation. In 2021, Smith said that the production on the series had been delayed several months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, he also said that he had gotten the creative team he was hoping for to work on the series.
The Bone comic book series ran from 1991-2004. It follows three cousins: Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone. The three go on a journey through a desert that leads to many adventures. The series went on to win multiple Eisner and Harvey Awards. It was later included in Time Magazine's "10 best graphic novels of all-time" list. A film adaptation was in development with Warner Bros. for many years, which Kung Fu Panda co-director Mark Osborne was going to write and direct. After the project was canceled at Warner Bros., it then moved over to Netflix.
Bone isn't the only project under Netflix Animation's Kids & Family division to receive recent changes. An adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1980 book The Twits is now being developed as a film instead of a series. Netflix acquired the rights to produce adaptions of Dahl's work in November 2018. This deal also included the rights to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, and The BFG. Netflix will also be switching their plans for Lauren Faust's project Toil and Trouble, making it a movie instead of a series. Faust previously developed the series Kid Cosmic (which ran from 2021-2022 on Netflix), Cartoon Network's DC Super Hero Girls, and created My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (which ran from 2010-2019 on Discovery Family).