Netflix’s Nimona has been in the making for quite some time but it's finally coming to the streamer later this month. The story about a teenage shapeshifter with a dark past and inclination for villainy is a great premise for an animated feature film but has been in development hell for years. Nonetheless, the streamer is hyping up the movie which effortlessly blends the genres of sci-fi, adventure, and comedy. Empire Magazine released a new look at the feature and it's as cheeky as it gets.
The new image sees Nimona showing her big sharp teeth to a curious Ballister Blackheart – another benefit of shapeshifting. Given the previously released images seems like Nimona is going to show off her shapeshifting abilities a lot. The feature based on the graphic novels and comic of the same name by ND Stevenson sees the teenager targeted by Blackheart for assassination. But as fate would have it, he finds himself accused of a crime and learns that Nimona may be able to exonerate him.
The Long Journey to Bring Nimona to Screen
While Hollywood is quite proficient at adapting comic book material, Nimona has had a tremulous journey. The movie was first announced in 2015 by Blue Sky Studios, but after Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Blue Sky, the movie was canceled due to Blue Sky's closure in April 2021. However, Netflix and Annapurna Pictures revived the movie the next year with Nick Bruno and Troy Quane set to direct. “Remember when you were a kid and you would build a tower of blocks? Then your brother or sister would knock them over and you’d have to rebuild them?” said Bruno of the difficult period. “It felt a little like that.”
“Nimona is such a powerful little chaotic disruptor,” says Quane. The movie will capture her essence with a distinct animation style which Bruno described as “two-and-a-half D”, designed around the characters themselves. “The things that are really close to the camera are more detailed,” says Bruno. “It’s thematic in that the closer we get to people, the more we see them for who they really are.”
The movie casts Chloë Grace Moretz as Nimona, Riz Ahmed as Ballister Blackheart, Eugene Lee Yang as Ambrosius Goldenloi, Frances Conroy as The Director, Lorraine Toussaint as Queen Valerin, Beck Bennett as Sir Thoddeus Sureblade, RuPaul as Nate Knight, Indya Moore as Alamzapam Davis, Julio Torres as Diego the Squire, and Sarah Sherman as Coriander Cadaverish. The screenplay is written by Robert L. Baird and Lloyd Taylor from a story they co-wrote with Pamela Ribon, Marc Haimes, Bruno, Quane, and Keith Bunin.
Nimona drops on June 30 on Netflix, you can check out the trailer below: