(Photo Credit: Pacific Animation Corporation)
Warner Bros. Pictures Animation made the most of its 2026 Annecy Showcase. While promoting its upcoming film slate and announcing several new projects, one that is likely dead on arrival is the new ThunderCats reboot.
Warner Bros. Animation’s ThunderCats announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time
The animated ThunderCats movie was one of several titles teased by the animation studio in a sizzle reel shared at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market. Since that was its only mention, there’s not a whole lot to go off of, including whether this is an evolution of the live-action ThunderCats movie announced in 2021 or a separate project.
However, what is clear is that Warner Bros. couldn’t have picked a worse time to tease a ThunderCats reboot. As a fantasy cartoon from the 1980s with an accompanying toy line, ThunderCats shares a few similarities with Masters of the Universe, which was recently rebooted for the big screen to disastrous results.
Released earlier this month, Masters of the Universe has already been labeled a box-office bomb, with the movie not expected to make back its reported $170 million budget. It also received mixed reviews from critics, with some wondering why Amazon invested so much money into an IP that has limited brand awareness in 2026.
If Masters of the Universe, which had two separate animated series on Netflix in the last decade, not including the critically acclaimed She-Ra reboot, is considered a franchise that a large part of the population doesn’t care about, then what hope does ThunderCats have as an even more obscure property?
A lot of people are looking at Masters of the Universe’s failure as proof that the ’80s nostalgia craze is finally coming to an end. So, for Warner Bros. to tease a ThunderCats movie less than a month after all this online discussion is quite the head-scratcher, especially since the franchise has tried and failed twice already to mount a comeback.
The first failed reboot came in 2011 with a darker and more mature animated series. Despite garnering early praise, viewership declined and it was canceled. The next and most recent reboot attempt was just six years ago. ThunderCats Roar was a Teen Titans Go!-esque cartoon that was quietly canceled after a single season in 2020.
Clearly, there is just not an appetite anymore for ThunderCats on the screen. It’s not a property like Transformers that has managed to stay ingrained in pop culture since its debut in the 1980s.
Warner Bros. would be better off focusing on its animated movies that have a chance at appealing to the current generation, such as Prehistoria, the original musical from the creator of Hazbin Hotel. As for ThunderCats, I think their nine lives are up.
