Photo Credit: Walt Disney Pictures
Disney has found its next big fantasy franchise.
Walt Disney Studios already has a number of major sci-fi fantasy franchises under its umbrella, including the MCU, Star Wars, and the Avatar movies. Now, the company has acquired another property in a seven-figure deal.
What is Disney’s new fantasy movie franchise?
Per Deadline, Disney has won an auction for the rights to Impossible Creatures, a fantasy series by author Katherine Rundell. Rundell is now working on adapting the first two books in the series into screenplays.
There are five Impossible Creatures novels planned in total, with the first one having been published in 2023. The second installment, titled The Poisoned King, was just recently released last month.
“Rundell just became the first U.K. children’s author since J.K. Rowling to simultaneously reach the No. 1 position on the children’s book charts in both the U.K. and the U.S. Her books so far have sold more than four million copies worldwide, and in 2024 she was awarded both Author of The Year and Children’s Book of The Year at The British Book Awards,” Deadline’s article notes. “Rundell signed two 7-figure publishing deals with Bloomsbury and Knopf. What she originally planned as a trilogy has become a five-novel saga and Rundell plans to broaden the franchise with spinoffs and prequel books.”
Warner Bros. and Netflix were the other two finalists looking to acquire the rights to Impossible Creatures.
“When I read Impossible Creatures, I knew it belonged here at Disney,” Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger said in a statement. “I was immediately drawn into the vibrant world Katherine imagined and the possibilities of what we could do together with this story. Written by Katherine herself, these movies are in the best of hands with our Walt Disney Studios team, and I can’t wait to see this tale brought to the screen.”
Walt Disney Pictures‘ Alan Bergman and David Greenbaum added, “Katherine Rundell has masterfully crafted a spectacular and immersive world with Impossible Creatures , and her vision is a perfect match for the Disney storytelling tradition. We are thrilled to collaborate with Katherine and Charles to bring this epic saga to life for audiences worldwide—it’s going to be an extraordinary adventure.”
