Way back in 2020, it was announced that HBO Max was developing an animated series version of the BOOM! Box series Lumberjanes, written and executive produced by ND Stevenson, who created the comic book series with Shannon Watters, Grace Ellis, and Gus Allen. Cut to 2025, and, well, a lot has changed in the world of animation and streaming. And as Stevenson revealed to Comic Book Club during a longer conversation about his new novel, Scarlet Morning, is that Lumberjanes is no longer happening. Maybe. Sort of.
When asked specifically whether the Lumberjanes animated series was “still alive in development somewhere,” Stevenson simply said, “It is… Not.”
That is, as Stevenson continued, “the easy answer,” though. The book, about a group of girls at scout camp investigating supernatural mysteries, ran for 75-plus issues and has been a critical and commercial hit. In fact, BOOM! recently launched a successful Kickstarter for library editions, for the 10th anniversary of the series, which ended with over $330,000 pledged on a $25,000 goal. So there’s clearly a hunger for Lumberjanes, but the path to screen has been a little rockier.
“It went through so many iterations,” Stevenson continued. Turning to one of his other comics, Nimona, which was adapted into an animated movie for Netflix, he added, “Something like Nimona was, even though it seemed like really bad timing — you can’t get much worse timing than an entire studio shutting down and killing your movie — but at the same time, it was also the right timing it turned out for it getting made. Whereas, Lumberjanes, it was at, I think no less than three studios at various times, and then there was always some kind of regime change or merger or something going on that just made it untenable.”
That includes a live-action adaptation that was announced in 2015, but canceled when Disney bought Fox in 2019. Then there’s the animated version mentioned above, which survived through several iterations of the streamer now known once again as HBO Max, but likely fell prey to the massive changes that happened through Warner Bros. Discovery’s excision of animated content from the streaming platform, and general realignment of what constitutes an HBO Max original series.
And in fact, as Stevenson noted, it seems like before the current iteration of the project was halted, it wasn’t even animated anymore — so likely back to live action.
“So the most recent version of it is no longer animated, but that also is sort of on ice at the moment,” Stevenson said. “Everything, not just animation, everything’s pretty up in the air over here. But again, I’m gonna say, I don’t think it’s dead. I think it’s a long way from dead… Everybody is waiting to see what our new reality is going to be out here in the world of entertainment… That’s the hard truth… I’m definitely down to keep playing with different iterations of it. We’ve even talked about other things, like: could this be like a stage musical? Could this be an RPG? And I think the answer is: all of that. So those conversations are happening. It’s just there’s nothing solid at this point.”
Scarlet Morning is on sale on September 23 from Quill Tree Books. You can watch the full interview with ND Stevenson below:
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