For a company that loves mining its own history and IP as much as Disney does, the Mouse House sure has a hard time finding anything to do with one of their coolest original titles. Gargoyles was Disney’s syndicated action-adventure series, meant as their answer to Fox and WB’s Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men. The series, about mystical creatures who are stone by day and warriors by night, ran for 78 episodes. It remains popular, but according to Variety, a proposed live-action remount for Disney+ is dead. Turned to stone, as it were.
The project, which we initially heard about nearly three years ago, was to come from Annabelle and It screenwriter Gary Dauberman and producer James Wan’s Atomic Robot production company. Variety cites the cartoon’s co-creator Greg Weisman in an interview with ComicsOnline.com saying “That’s dead.” He went on to say he doesn’t know about the future of any animated projects, but the live-action one is not happening. Weisman had no involvement in the project, but Variety confirmed the report via another source. It’s not like he wouldn’t know at all.
So, what is it about Gargoyles that makes it impossible to bring back? It’s not like big names haven’t had interest. After winning an Oscar for Get Out, Jordan Peele reportedly approached Disney about doing a Gargoyles movie and received a “no.” (WHAT?!) A few years later, we reported Kenneth Branagh of all people was attached to direct, but that ended up just being a rumor. Why would a show with as much potential for a comeback as Gargoyles have so much trouble?
I guess we’ll have to just go back and watch the original series again. At least the first two seasons.