Netflix today announced that thanks to a rights deal with Penguin Random House Children’s UK, an adaptation of Redwall, the series of books by author Brian Jacques, is in the works for the streaming platform by Over the Garden Wall creator Patrick McHale. The adaptation will first be an animated feature based on the eponymous first book in Jacques’ Redwall series which follows a young mouse named Matthias in Redwall Abbey who dreams of adventure and looks up to the abbey’s founder, Martin the Warrior. An event series based on Martin is also in the works.
As Netflix notes in its press release announcing the adaptation, while this is not the first time the Redwall books have been adapted, it is the first time that the rights to the entire series have been with a single company in addition to the first time a Redwall feature film will be made. An animated television series covered the events of the first three books in the late ’90s, but as there are over 20 novels in the series, there is plenty of material that has been left unadapted at all.
Big news! The creator of Over The Garden Wall is working on a Redwall adaptation for Netflix! I’m already preparing myself for the feast scenes. pic.twitter.com/6bie3CwpqI
— NX (@NXOnNetflix) February 10, 2021
“Brian often travelled the globe to tell his Redwall stories to young audiences, more often than not at their schools,” said Alan Ingram, representative of The Redwall Abbey Company which owns the IP. “Brian would have been very happy to see that Netflix shares his joy and desire to bring his stories to life as a new universe of films, series and potentially much more for audiences of all ages to enjoy. We are very excited to embark on this new endeavour with Netflix and Penguin Random House UK.”
At this point, the above is essentially all we know about the upcoming Redwall feature and Martin the Warrior series. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Netflix right here.
What do you think about what we’ve heard of the upcoming Redwall adaptation for Netflix so far? Are you excited to see what comes of this? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things animation!