Apr 11, 2022

Netflix Sets Release Date for Highly Anticipated Sci-Fi Epic "Nimona"

Seven years after Fox Animation first announced the sci-fi/fantasy epic "Nimona," the long-delayed animated feature will be released in 2023 with Netflix, a new production company, and a new director.

Early last year, Netflix partnered with prestige production company Annapurna Pictures ("The Missing Link," "Sausage Party The Missing Link,"). Prior to that, the film was being produced at Blue Sky Studios.

Today, DNEG (Ron's Gone Wrong) is producing the animation at its studio, under the direction of Blue Sky veterans and "Spies in Disguise" directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quayne. Roy Lee, Karen Ryan, and Julie Zachary will serve as producers, with Robert L. Baird, Megan Ellison, and Andrew Milstein as executive producers.

Netflix's official synopsis reads:

When Knight is accused of a crime he didn't commit, the only person who can prove his innocence is Nimona, a shape-shifting teen who may be the monster he swore to kill. Set in a techno-medieval world that animation has never tackled before, the film is about the labels we give people and the shapeshifters who refuse to be defined by anyone.

The film stars Chloe Grace Moretz as the titular character Nimona, Riz Ahmed as Barrister Boldhart, and Eugene Lee Yang as Ambrosius Goldenroin.

Today's announcement is not the first time "Nimona" has received a definite release date, although it is the first time such a guarantee has come from Netflix; in 2017, Fox Animation It had stated that it would be ready. The first postponement pushed the film's release to March 2021, before several other Fox productions such as "Bob's Burgers Movie," "Lon's Gone Wrong," and "Nimona" were delayed. At the time, "Nimona" was Blue Sky's last title and was scheduled to be released in January 2022.

Blue Sky's future was quickly filled with gray clouds of uncertainty about the company following Disney's purchase of the studio's parent company, 20th Century Fox. Last February, Disney announced that it would close Blue Sky Studios and halt production on "Nimona." Blue Sky then closed on April 10, ending an era that had made it the largest animation studio on the East Coast of the United States, supported by franchises such as "Ice Age" and "Rio"