‘Nimona’ Creator ND Stevenson Still Can’t Believe the Ex-Disney Movie Survived

Getting a movie made can be a nightmare. Just ask ND Stevenson, the creator of the beloved graphic novel Nimona, now an animated film on Netflix. “I can’t even imagine what it would be like if this movie went smoothly,” Stevenson said in an interview with The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, shortly before the film’s June 30 release.

In 2015, two years after the graphic novel hit shelves to wide acclaim, Fox Animation acquired the rights for Nimona; Fox-owned Blue Sky Studios (Ice Age) was set to produce a film adaptation. But in 2019, Disney took over Blue Sky when it acquired 21st Century Fox. In 2021, with the film 75-percent completed, Disney shut down Blue Sky, canceling Nimona in the process. Though Disney claimed this was because of ongoing issues with the pandemic, a number of Blue Sky employees claimed that Disney had issues with its queer themes, which are rarely seen in mainstream Western animation, including a same-sex kiss.

However, all hope was not lost—Netflix came to the rescue in 2022, officially reviving the project alongside Annapurna Pictures. Eight years after that first announcement, the Nimona movie is finally here. “The movie died and came back a couple times,” Stevenson said, a hopefulness in his voice. “If none of these outsized, dramatic events happened to it, I don’t know what this movie would be. I don’t think I’d recognize it.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.