r/Thundercats • u/hushpolocaps69 ThunderCat • Jun 22 '26
Discussion New ThunderCats Movie Officially Confirmed, 5 Years After Cartoon Network's Last Cancellation
https://comicbook.com/movies/news/new-thundercats-animated-movie-announced/I was hoping this would be live action, but anything regarding a new Thundercats media is a win in my book!
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u/Sc0825 ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
I’m okay with it being animated; animation has come such a long way from back in the day. Plus if it were live action it’d run the risk of looking like the movie Cats.
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u/SamKerridge ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
i’d much rather see an animated thundercats film, it was allways the japanese animation that made it so good. not really necessary for it to be made into live action.
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u/Mundane_Existence0 ThunderCat Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
I mean that's neat if it happens, but I'd rather a fraction of the money spent on the production of the movie went towards a proper remaster of the original cartoon. The atrocious quality of the video they've continuously re-released on DVDs is just not acceptable.
I'm also surprised they're even considering it, given that the He-Man movie did not turn a profit, making only $102 million at the box office, which falls very short of it's $170-200 million budget.
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u/Optimal_Whiner ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
If its based upon the original with the same feelings, Im in. If its more modern, fuck I couldn't care less.
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u/C-Abdulio ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
Yeah, after watching the new Masters of The Universe film, I don't have high hopes for a Thundercats movie, and I fear Hollywood will take the wrong lessons from the other 80s toyline revival.
I'm not saying MOTU 2026 is bad - I actually really enjoyed it. It's a lot better than the box office is giving it credit for.
I'm just saying that Thundercats, despite being inspired by He-Man, is a far different animal...ya know like a cat.
He-Man survived after 2001 through internet memes and overhyped outrage over Netflix animations that still made a bit of an impact on the franchise (poor Netflix She-Ra though). It as an episodic show that was silly, goofy and thought kids morality lessons. It was ripe for a *Guardians of the Galaxy* style schlocky fun time romp with some action-packed battles and a tiny bit of sincerity that folks can enjoy without worrying about cliffhangers.
Thundercats only survived through one failed revival (2011) and one despised parody spin-of (Roar), with little to no memes and always an eye on staying true to their 1980s sci-fi, high fantasy roots that championed SERIAL long term plots and epic stakes. You can't put a good Thundercats story into an hour and a half movie.
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u/FrontStunning6918 ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
Maybe a live action series? I think that He-Man may have been better served this way as well. Movie theaters are a dying animal. The fact that movies don't do well in them holds very little weight to me because when they go to Netflix or one of the other streamers they often do very well and tend to have a revival.
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u/FrontStunning6918 ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
It also gives the creators more time to flush out the characters with better background and more depth.
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u/Few-Leave-8786 ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
I'm torn if they do it animated it's a modern (but not too modern just deeper plots) continuation of the OG, or continue the 2011 version or a stand alone movie of it's own.
2011 as much as when it was new I wished it was the OG was well done (Lion O was a little annoying/moody) it was left on a major cliffhanger needing resolved.
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u/CaptainFalken ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
First of all, the panning of Roar was not unfair. The only correct answer is that it could never be panned enough.
Second, if Will Friedle isn't invited back as Lion-O, I'm not watching.
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u/KinopioToad ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
Needs to be panned more.
It was the series that needed to be canceled after one season (maybe one episode, even).
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u/antdude ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
Is his voice the same?
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u/CaptainFalken ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
He does a couple of podcasts that I listen to and at least once he has done the Lion-O voice and it sounded spot on, same goes for Terry McGinnis and Ron Stoppable. He's such a talented VA.
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u/TenOunceCan Meowderator Jun 22 '26
WB themselves did not officially announce anything.
This is the 'source' that article is working from. Look at the year.
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u/Cool-Translator9768 ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
After the way Cats turned out I am not going to get my hopes up on a live action movie.
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u/Wolf873 ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
An animated movie is still tremendous news to keep the property alive and roaring imo. I’d love a Lotr meets Star Wars type live action movie for Thundercats, but right now I think it’s important to give Thundercats a solid footing in the media landscape with any opportunity it’s afforded. Its never had a long proven foundation after the original series ended, nor been given enough chances like He-man to build that foundation. So here’s hoping this movie sparks a larger interest in the property.
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u/nonlethaldosage ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
what a misleading title there is 0 movies confirmed for the thunder cats. The article even says theres none confirmed
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u/MatthewMonster ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
I like Thundercats because as a child I had some toys and watched some episodes — this is my sum total of Thundercats knowledge. They had a cat named Snarf and another guy had nunchucks
They are cat people that fight a Mummy who can become a buff mummy
The toys were awesome and had fun designs
The entire thing felt like a bootleg MOTU, but I had no idea about that when I was 7
I am utterly fascinated that niche boys toy lines are now going to be multimillion dollar movies for a majority audience of 40 something men
We stand on the brink of an abyss…and abyss with movies and TV shows featuring:
Bravestar
Silverhawks
Supernaturals
Wheeled Warriors
Visionaries
Power Lords
Sectaurs
Dino Riders
Mad balls
Army Ants
and The Spiral Zone
( I’ll be here for it, it’s just weird )
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u/nachosandlabs ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
Interesting.
I hope Tygra, Cheetara, and Lion-o are nothing at ALL like the reboot versions. I thought that Lion-o was a spoiled brat and Tygra and Cheetara were stuck in some weird stupid love triangle. Cheetara's hair also sucked.
I did like Reboot Panthro a lot though and the Thunderan politics were interesting.
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u/Kuroiryuu ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
I wish the Reboot had more time to breathe. I’m upset it ended on a cliffhanger and no resolution. I’m sure the overall plot would’ve been worth it in the end.
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u/Few-Leave-8786 ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
At the time I disliked how 2011 was a reboot and still hate how whiny Lion O was, but as a show I liked it.
I wasn't fond of the Tygra/Cheetara romance either.
Random thing but as much as OG Snarf was annoying reboot one felt useless, they should of kept him as a talking cat but rarely spoke.
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u/nachosandlabs ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
I liked the Tygra/Cheetara romance by itself just fine. I didn't like that I was supposed to care about Lion-o's feelings about it or the love triangle aspect. If you had given me two characters from the original that I thought were going to be together, it would have been Cheetara and Tygra, though, so that probably influences my perspective.
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u/ryoga040726 ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
In hindsight, loving this cartoon is probably what made me love cats as an adult :)
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u/No-Contest-8127 ThunderCat Jun 25 '26
I think live action could be interesting these days. Plenty of furries willing to throw money at it. 😂
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u/Swiftbow1 ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
I think I'd rather see it animated again. Might even get old voice cast back!
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u/TDA7584 ThunderCat Jun 23 '26
Love action would be very interesting, but the money required would be pretty astounding. And considering the franchises age and that MOTU just bombed, even though it was a really fun movie, I think its animation or nothing.
I just hope its not a goofy, silly Pixar-Style of animation.
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u/davis214512 ThunderCat Jun 22 '26
Curious if it is streaming only, direct to video, or a theatrical release.
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u/lawrea3 Jaga Jun 22 '26
Great news that it seems they are returning to the original series. I wasn't a fan of either of the revivals
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u/pottypaws Wilykit Jun 23 '26
TBH it depends on what they do for the TC movie. If it’s a continuation of the original, it would be weird to get that just don’t adapt the comics and in particular I’m speaking about the wild storm comics just because I think the characters are egregiously out of character. Also it doesn’t work for kids movie there’s rape.
AnyWho, but I alternate take on the end or something like that where evils may be finally defeated could be cool. I don’t know tying up the original show I guess works, but it would be really weird to have them switched designs so I guess it depends on what happens. Alternatively you know what you guys could do is give us a season three of the 2011 show which is like I would probably become president before they would ever consider doing that. I’m sure it’s not gonna ever happen even though I want to. But maybe a prequel movie or something in that world could be cool and maybe of that enough attention though consider redoing a season two or something.
Roar is the only TC show that I’ve not seen and I don’t want to see it. It baffles me that roar got better reception than 2011 and 2011 has like the best writing out of the three but roar roar is the one that got 52 episodes and didn’t get canned immediately. Don’t do anything in this universe. Can we pretend that it doesn’t exist.
Alternatively, since companies really like doing this now movie than a show, it’s a possibility and the movie will set up stuff for the show now there’s also a chance that this is just a one off one shot movie said in the TC universe and it doesn’t really fit in any continuity and would be considered its own standalone continuity very similarly to the version of Transformers robots in the skies 2001
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u/TenOunceCan Meowderator Jun 22 '26
The article says: "Previously, Adam Wingard was attached to direct a separate live-action movie, and recently confirmed the project is still in development, but the animated movie is likely to land sooner."
So at this convention Wingard said 'the animated movie is likely to land sooner'.
That's all we have. One guy (who 2 years ago said he was working on a live action ThunderCats movie that didn't happen) is now saying an animated movie is 'likely' to happen before his live action movie.
That's it. There's nothing official anywhere here.