Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media will produce a television adaptation of the children’s fantasy book series “Animorphs” for Disney+.
“The Testaments” and “The Summer I Turned Pretty” writer Bayan Wolcott will write and executive produce the series for 20th Television. He also served as a co-producer in the development room for a 20th Television adaptation of BookTok favorite “A Court of Thorns and Roses.”
“Animorphs” will follow a group of high schoolers, who uncover a hidden threat lurking in their everyday lives, according to the series logline. The series will see the cast juggle their relationships, curfews and a superpower that binds them.
Coogler along with his wife Zinzi Coogler and Sev Ohanian will executive produce the reboot for Proximity Media. Iole Lucchese and Caitlin Friedman will executive produce for Scholastic.
Proximity Media’s Simone Harris, vice president and head of TV, and Dezi Gallegos, director of TV development, will also oversee the project.
The Disney+ drama series will be based on K. A. Applegate’s 54-book youth sci-fi series. The chapter books, initially published between 1996 and 2001, were turned into a live-action series that originally aired on Nickelodeon. “Animorphs” ran for two seasons from 1998 to 2000.
The book series follows five teenagers — Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel and Tobias — who discover that Earth is secretly being taken over by a parasitic alien species, the Yeerks. They meet a dying Andalite, who gives them the ability to morph into any animal they touch by absorbing the animal’s DNA. They use this power to fend off the Yeerks and save the world.
Wolcott most recently worked as a supervising producer on Hulu’s “The Testaments” and wrote for the FX series “Class of ’09.” His other writing credits include “The Summer I Turned Pretty” and “Impeachment: American Crime Story.” He is repped by UTA, Echo Lake Management and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
“Animorphs” falls under Coogler and Proximity Media’s TV overall deal with Disney. Coogler is currently working on a pilot for “The X Files” reboot, starring Danielle Deadwyler and Himesh Patel.
