The Wingard Project
On 29 March 2021 Warner Bros. announced a live-action / CGI hybrid ThunderCats feature with Adam Wingard set to direct. Screenwriter Simon Barrett came on alongside Wingard to rewrite an earlier script by David Coggeshall. Dan Lin and Roy Lee producing. As of May 2026 the project is still in active development. No release date. No casting. No greenlight.
Announced 29 March 2021 · 5+ years in development · Format: live action + CGI hybrid · Status: active
The Announcement (March 2021)
Deadline broke the news on 29 March 2021. Adam Wingard, fresh off Godzilla vs. Kong’s pandemic-era box-office overperformance, was set to direct a ThunderCats feature for Warner Bros. The project had been in development for some time under producers Dan Lin and Roy Lee with an earlier script by David Coggeshall in place. Wingard and his frequent collaborator Simon Barrett (the writer-director pair behind You’re Next, The Guest, and Blair Witch) were brought on to rewrite. Variety, Den of Geek, and ComingSoon all ran their own announcement pieces the same day.
Hybrid format was clear from day one. Wingard has been explicit in every interview since that he is not interested in putting actors in cat prosthetics or cat makeup, and that the cast itself should be CGI. The live-action component is everything else: environment, scale, human supporting cast where the story calls for it.
The Vision
Wingard’s pitch, paraphrased from interviews 2021 through 2024: the ‘80s cartoon brought to life, played as a serious adventure film rather than a kids-only animated feature. Not ironic, not winking, not deconstructive. Wingard pointed to his Godzilla vs. Kong work as the template for how he wants to handle the source material: take the property seriously, lean into the spectacle, deliver an action film that respects what the cartoon actually was. Den of Geek summarised his position as “the ‘80s cartoon brought to life.”
Wingard has also confirmed that he read the unproduced earlier scripts (including the 2007–2010 Paul Sopocy CGI script) and called them “not bad,” using them as a foundation for his own approach rather than starting completely fresh. There is no public draft of his and Barrett’s screenplay.
Status Updates
March 2021 to June 2023. Project goes quiet through the Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire production cycle. Wingard later confirmed the ThunderCats draft was a finished first pass before he stepped onto Godzilla x Kong, at which point the whole project went on hold.
March 2024. Wingard tells The Playlist that he and Barrett are “actively working on it again” and that ThunderCats is “one of the top priorities I have right now in terms of working on a script.” He stops short of confirming it as his next directorial project, leaving the next-up question genuinely open.
May 2025. YouTube creator @stryderHD posts a fan-made AI concept trailer fan-casting Henry Cavill as Lion-O. It goes viral. Within days Screen Rant, IMDb News, and MacMyths all publish explainer pieces: no, there is no 2025 release; no, Henry Cavill is not attached; no, this is not real. The trailer nevertheless drives a notable surge in public attention to the project. Warner Bros. has not commented.
May 2026. Project remains in active development. No release date has been set. No casting has been announced. The Wingard ThunderCats project has now spent longer in active development than the original 1985 series spent on the air.
Why Fans Have Reason to Hope. The Wingard CGI Pedigree
The two reasons to be optimistic about a Wingard ThunderCats are sitting on his shelf already. Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) both demonstrated that Wingard can run a feature-scale CGI character pipeline. He gets kaiju to read as characters and not effects shots: weight, rhythm, body language, a sense of the camera being inside the action rather than watching it. That is exactly the skill set that has to translate to Lion-O, Panthro, Cheetara, Tygra and Mumm-Ra as CG performers if a hybrid ThunderCats is going to work. If you have seen what Kong does with his eyes in those films, you already know the question the team will be answering on this property.
Stills: Warner Bros. Pictures / Legendary Entertainment, theatrical release of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024). Reproduced for editorial commentary.
Press Coverage
The trade-press paper trail on the project. Deadline broke the story on 29 March 2021. Variety ran their own announcement the same day. The Playlist has the most substantive on-record update since.
The 2007 Predecessor
The Wingard project is not the first studio ThunderCats feature Warner Bros. has tried to get off the ground. In 2007 the studio announced a fully CGI-animated ThunderCats feature with Jerry O’Flaherty attached to direct and Paul Sopocy writing. That project ran for about three years before quietly going dark. The Sopocy screenplay, the Charlie Wen Lion-O concept art, the Dave Bullock character designs and storyboards, and the leaked Lion-O-vs-Slithe CGI test footage are all preserved on the 2007 Movie page. Together they are the closest thing to a ThunderCats feature film that has ever existed in any form.
Quick Facts
- Announced
- 29 March 2021 (Deadline)
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Pictures
- Director
- Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, You’re Next, The Guest, Death Note)
- Screenwriters
- Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett (rewriting earlier draft by David Coggeshall)
- Producers
- Dan Lin and Roy Lee
- Format
- Live action with CGI ThunderCats characters (hybrid)
- Last meaningful update
- 22 March 2024 (The Playlist)
- Release date
- None set
- Casting
- None announced (Henry Cavill 2025 rumour was a fan-made AI trailer)
- Status
- In active development