All ’90s kids harbor massive nostalgic feelings for the “Disney Afternoon,” the weekday afternoon programming block featuring a rotating variety of Disney animated TV series. Most of the Disney Afternoon’s biggest shows were spinoffs or updates of existing Disney properties, like DuckTales featuring Scrooge McDuck (and its later spinoff Darkwing Duck), or TaleSpin featuring characters from The Jungle Book.
Maybe the most enduringly popular show from the Disney Afternoon that wasn’t based on something from Disney’s existing intellectual property library was Gargoyles, a fairly dark and moody show for something ostensibly designed to entertain children in the hours between coming home from school and dinner.The series was about stone gargoyles that turn out to be ancient monsters who’d been encased in stone for centuries. They reawaken in present day New York City, and become unlikely heroes.
The show ran for 78 episodes across three seasons, and drew loyal fans for its elaborate character and story arcs. Those hardcore Gargoyle fans have clamored for some sort of update or revival for years and now they may finally get one — in the form of a live-action Gargoyles TV series intended for Disney+.
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Per The Hollywood Reporter, James Wan and Gary Dauberman’s Atomic Monster is working on this update; Dauberman “will write, executive produce and showrun the series.” Their piece also notes that “while Disney hasn’t overtly tried to adapt the series into other formats, it did try to develop a gargoyles-in-modern-times feature in 2010 around the same time it made The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The latter disappointed at the box office, and the project stalled out not too long afterwards.” Dauberman is the writer behind the Annabelle movie franchise, which was produced by Wan, spinning out of his Conjuring films.
In other words, they’ve got the right sorts of people involved to make the brooding, gritty Gargoyles TV series that fans want. Now it’s up to them to actually make it.
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Gallery Credit: Claire Epting