In a surprising turn of events within the animated film industry, Apple TV+ and Skydance Animation have reached a mutual decision to terminate their ongoing partnership. This development entails Apple relinquishing its rights to the highly-anticipated animated movie project, ‘Spellbound.’
Skydance Animation, led by the former Pixar chief John Lasseter, has, thus far, delivered a single animated film to Apple TV+ during their collaborative venture, known as ‘Luck.’ It’s worth noting that ‘Luck’ was well underway in production before Lasseter’s involvement with the project.
Although Skydance and Apple are set to continue collaborating on various upcoming feature films and TV series, the consensus was that the animated feature, ‘Spellbound,’ did not seamlessly align with Apple Original Films’ expanding narrative film portfolio.
As Deadline reports, Skydance has an extensive catalog of films and TV series destined for distribution through Apple TV+. However, some speculations may arise from the decision, considering the reception of ‘Luck’ and the anticipated performance of ‘Spellbound,’ even though it has been emphasized that the choice to discontinue their partnership was a mutual one.
Update: It has been confirmed that both Skydance Animation and the ‘Spellbound’ project have found a new home with Netflix. Furthermore, ‘Skydance’s The Search for WondLa,’ an animated series based on the book series by Tony DiTerlizzi, is still set to make its debut on Apple TV+ as planned.
