The animated film comes from the now-defunct Blue Sky Studios and will star Chloë Grace Moretz.
Netflix released a new image for the Nimona filming, with Chloe Grace Moretz set to star. It features the eponymous character alongside Ballister Blackheart. In the original ND Stevenson comic, Blackheart was a former knight turned supervillain who was convinced to take on Nimona as a sidekick after the girl revealed herself to be a powerful shape-shifter with an affinity for sharks.
Blackheart’s nemesis is the knight Ambrosius Gulden Loin. It was explained early on that they were two best friends until Goldenloin crippled Blackheart in response to losing a joust competing to become the town’s champion. No longer able to be a hero, Blackheart became the villain instead, replacing his now-missing arm with a mechanical one.
It is heavily implied later in the story that Blackheart and Goldenloin’s feelings for each other went beyond mere friendship. Something the film adaptation by Blue Sky Studios would be more explicit about. After the Fox merger, Disney began to argue against such elements before finally canceling the project. At least that was the allegation against the Mouse House by three former Blue Sky staffers.
With Blue Sky shutting down and Disney not interested in continuing, it seemed like the Nimona movie adaptation was dead in the water until Netflix stepped in and said they would finish the movie. Stevenson revealed the news via Twitter, writing that the film would not only be finished, but “coming your way from Annapurna and Netflix in 2023”. The new image can be found below, released courtesy of What’s on Netflix.
What else we know
Here’s the official synopsis for the Nimona film adaptation:
“A knight is accused of a crime he didn’t commit and the only person who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona, a shape-shifting teenager who may also be a monster he’s sworn to slay. Set in a techno-medieval world unlike anything animation has tackled before, this is a story about the labels we assign to humans and the shapeshifter who refuses to be defined by anyone.”
Moretz will star in the film as the title character. Her most famous role would be as Hit-Girl/Mindy McCready in Super awesome, a brave young girl with an affinity for bloodshed, just like Nimona. Most recently, Moretz starred The peripheralsairing on Prime Video from October 21, 2022 to December 2, 2022.
Riz Ahmed will play Blackheart. Previously, Ahmed played supervillain Carlton Drake/Riot venom, opposite Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom. In Sound of metalhe also played a man, drummer Ruben Stone, who has to learn to live with a mechanical prosthesis. But in that case, of course, it was for his ears, not his arm.
Eugene Lee Yang plays Goldenloin. Yang is best known for his work with The Try Boys, an online show about a group of guys trying out a slew of different activities ranging from Fifty Shades of greystyle BDSM to a labor simulation. Yang also appeared in the Brooklyn nine-nine episode “Four Movements” as Theo Lorql.
An official release date for Nimona has yet to be announced.