Earlier this month, ND Stevenson had an announcement. He is a writer best known for helming She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, which is an animated re-boot of the classic 1980s series She-Ra: Princess of Power, and for his webcomic (and later) graphic novel Nimona. He told interviewers from Comic Book Club that the animated adaptation of the acclaimed seventy-five issue action/comedy-drama/coming of age comic, Lumberjanes had ended. In his summation, to interviewers, the comic went through many adaptations. These had problems with “bad timing,” and involved no less than “three studios at various times…some kind of regime change or merger or something going on…just made it untenable.”
Stevenson added that while the animated adaptation is “sort of on ice,” it is, in his estimation, long from dead. He expressed his desire to adapt the comic into another format, whether a role-playing game, a stage musical, or something else entirely. He added that conversations about this are ongoing. However, there is “nothing solid at this point.” This news was not surprising, but dispiriting. In this post I’ll talk about the animated series that never happened, the implications of this news, and what’s next.
Lumberjanes follows the story of five girls: Mal, Ripley, Molly, April, and Jo. They happen to meet at the Camp for Hardcore Lady Types, hosted by Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thilstle Crumpet, one summer. Soon they learn, unsurprisingly, that there’s more to the camp than earning badges. They find the camp director is hiding something from them. All of them work together to fight off supernatural forces, deal with rivalries among them, and learn what it means to be true friends.
Back in May 2015, it was announced that a live-action film adaptation of the series was being produced by 20th Century Fox. The following year it was stated that the film would be directed by Emily Carmichael, known for various films since 2008. Cat Vasko was presumably brought on as a writer, a woman known for writing stories with strong female characters. Three years later, disaster struck. There were reports that when Disney expanded into a bigger mega-conglomerate, and acquired 21st Century Fox, it cancelled the film.
This is possible since Disney did the same to Nimona in February 2021. That was when they bought out Blue Sky Studios and shuttered it. Luckily for Nimona, it was saved by Annapurna Pictures and Netflix. It was released as an animated film in June 2023 to great fanfare.
At the time, Lumberjanes seemed like it was saved and that there would be no problems on the horizon. It was reported, in October 2020, that HBO Max had won out against Apple and Peacock, It would produce an animated adaptation of the comic. Furthermore, ND Stevenson was described as writing and executive producing a one-hour animated special. That would introduce the story and its characters. Boom! Studios, the publisher which produced the original comic, confirmed this development. They said that HBO Max had given the adaptation a “script-to-series order.” Stevenson would, according to reports, write and direct episodes, and serve as executive producer.
Later reporting stated that Stephen Christy and Ross Ritchie, from Boom! Studios, would be executive producers. They would be joined by Mette Norkjaer, Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, and Gus A. Allen. The latter three were writers on the original comic. As the years past, news articles confirmed that the series was still in development. Stevenson expressed his interest in telling “central queer stories” and confirmed the series development. Stevenson was said to be “steering” the adaption itself. Interviews Stevenson had with Out magazine in February 2021, ITV the same month, and Polygon in October 2021 said the same.
Such confirmations continued as the years past. For instance, in February 2022, it was reported that Stevenson was “currently shepherding” the adaptation. This was also noted in another publication in June the same year. However, there was no official news about the adaptation, as some noted at the time. Its continuation only became re-confirmed in news reporting. This included an interview Stevenson had with Deadline Hollywood, in June 2023, and a New York Times profile on him the same month.
In February of this year, a writer for ComicsBeat, Christopher Chiu-Tabet, noted that there’d been no news on the adaptation for years. Chiu-Tabet wondered if the show was canned due to the Warner Bros. Discovery merger in April 2022. The merger already claimed one animated series as a casualty: Final Space. The latter was confirmed by series creator Olan Rogers.
More recently, in April of this year, a writer for Comic Book, Liz Wyatt, talked about the adaptation. She stated that the project wasn’t dead. She said it was possible that Stevenson was still working on the script, opining that Netflix could acquire it if Max dumped the series. At another point, she wrote that fans were eagerly awaiting news about the adaption itself. All those worries were dashed with Stevenson’s recent words. A lot has been lost since this animated adaptation has not come to pass.
If an animated series had been created, it could have, as one writer once put it, boosted the yuri genre (if it became an anime). At the same time, the series itself had at least three queer characters. One of those was a trans woman named Jo. She came out in trans in issue #17. She would have been the first trans female protagonist in an all-ages animated series. The other two characters are Molly and Mal. Both either identify as lesbian or bisexual, and have crushes on one another. In an increasingly hostile environment for queer people, particularly trans people, the non-development of this animated series is a blow. Sadly, this aligns with recent set-backs for trans, and otherwise queer, representation.
One company emblematic of such backsliding is Disney. The mega-conglomerate refused to air an episode of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur entitled “The Gatekeeper.” The episode centers on the character, Brooklyn, a trans female character voiced by Indya Moore. She fights back against a transphobic coach and says she won’t play by her rules anymore. It even won a Velma Award, despite not airing. To make matters worse, Disney also ended/soft cancelled the series itself, about a Black girl named Lunella Lafayette, who becomes a superhero. The series centers on her, her friends, and her family, with a majority-Black cast. Disney did not renew it for a third season.
In terms of other queer representation, Disney cruelly removed a trans character from Win or Lose. If that wasn’t bad enough, that character, voiced by a young trans actress named Chanel Stewart, was replaced with a Christian “straight cis girl” character. A non-binary character named Hannah was also cut from the show. Disney cut down other diverse content recently, some of which are series with queer protagonists or supporting characters. This includes:
- Ending/soft cancelling Primos, which centers on a Mexican-American family
- Reportedly ending StuGo, which has a diverse cast
- Cancelling the Tiana series and turning it into an animated special instead
- Not authorizing a continuation of Iwájú, which is far too short to tell the full story
- Quietly cancelling Hailey’s On It! in May 2024
- Cancelling The Owl House in October 2021 because it did not fit the “Disney brand”
- Cancelling The Acolyte after one season, a series with undoubted queer representation
That isn’t even counting what Pixar execs did. They sanded down and removed anything which alluded to the queer sexuality of Elio. He is the protagonist of the July film of the same name. This comes on the heels of Disney Experiences teaming up with Miral in Abu Dhabi, to create a team park. They didn’t care that the country is known for its anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
To make matters worse, Disney cancelled Lee Knox Ostertag’s Neon Galaxy last year. That was after over four-and-half years of production work! Ostertag, who is the wife of ND Stevenson, speculated on the reason. She said that two cast members were openly trans could have been why it was cancelled. Last year, there were additional reports about changes to Inside Out 2, which came out that year. Pixar made a failed attempt to make Riley Anderson “less gay.” They even changed lighting during her scenes with Valentina “Val” Ortiz, but the subtext still remained. There were further reports, as I wrote about, that Pixar, a Disney subsidiary, downplayed Priya Mangal’s queer moments in Turning Red.
Representation of trans people in media is at its worst state ever. The U.S. government, and its sycophants, continue trying to demonize trans people. They even have planned to designate trans people as domestic terrorists! I noted the latter in my newsletter on September 26th. In that newsletter, I noted that only three of the series which trans characters appeared in the 2020s (they appeared in at least fourteen animated series) are continuing. They are Helluva Boss, Skip and Loafer, and One Piece.
This is a decline of eleven series, or about 80 percent. Of those series, none of them have trans protagonists. Instead, the trans characters are only in supporting roles. As I said in that newsletter, it is unlikely that will change in the future. Even if the tenth volume of RWBY brings back May Marigold, she will be a supporting character.
Luckily, there are some ongoing comics which have trans characters. This includes Claire Augustus in Questionable Content, Alain in Shutter, Braga in Rat Queens, Jak in Go Get a Roomie!, and Pril in Witchy. Other examples are Rosemaster in Cucumber Quest, Timothey and Stefan Sequidy in Unsounded, and Sula in O Human Star. Additional characters include Danielle Tozer in the Nemesis series, Diana Wrayburn in The Shadowhunter Chronicles, and Elminster Aumar in The Elminster Series. There’s also La Cienega in the play Bring It On the Musical.
There’s some comics by trans people themselves which feature trans characters, such as Up and Out, Trans Girl Next Door, and Assigned Male. These are by Julia Kaye (known for voicing Snapdragon in High Guardian Spice), Kylie Summer Wu, and Sophie Labelle. The latter publishes her comic on Webtoon Canvas with the name “Serious Trans Vibes“. She often comments on current issues related to trans people.
On the same site are additional comics by trans people. I want to be a cute anime girl by Azul Crescent has a protagonist who is an “egg”, i.e. a “trans person who has yet to come into themselves”. Transincidental is autobiographical and by a trans woman who with the username KoalaPhoenix. There’s multiple others. A quick search on Webtoons Canvas pulls up many comics, many likely by trans people themselves.
Despite these comics from trans people, and others, none of them are a replacement for an animated Lumberjanes series. It is hard to know what happens from here, apart from the recent news that it will soon be on Webtoon. There is a possibility that Stevenson’s recent middle-grade novel, Scarlet Morning, with a “calm place of queer belonging,” could be adapted into a live-action or animation. Anything is possible.
As for Lumberjanes, all options are on the table, as to say. Erica Friedman described it as “development limbo so no one can work on it.” The animation industry is in crisis, which is compounded by the reactionary administration. With that, its bleak. I am not confident that big companies would greenlight an animated Lumberjanes adaptation. I cautiously hope for the best, and wish the best for ND Stevenson and everyone else who worked on this series.
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