Top Story: ‘The Wild Robot’ And ‘Arcane’ Lead 52nd Annie Award Nominations
Nimona Nimona

Netflix has released the official trailer for its upcoming animated feature Nimona, which will world premiere this evening at the Annecy Festival before releasing on the platform worldwide on June 30.

For those who can’t make it to the film’s debut, the new trailer will be the most detailed look at the world and characters of Nimona until the film releases later this month. Ahead of tonight’s premiere, Quain spoke with us about developing the world of Nimona:

Nimona is directed by Spies in Disguise duo Nick Bruno and Troy Quane. The screenplay was adapted by Robert L. Baird and Lloyd Taylor from ND Stevenson’s eponymous National Book Award-nominated NYT bestselling graphic novel. Stevenson also co-produced.

How do you visualize a medieval future? Turrets, cantilevered buildings, Tudor styling details, ramparts, and castle walls. For us, it was looking back at all those things, bringing them forward, and then mixing traditional building materials like stone and timber with modern glass and steel. All these design choices were made to support the metaphor and the story. It’s an idea of a medieval future, a society that had moved forward technologically in time but whose mindset was still locked in the past with outdated ways of thinking.

Nimona Nimona

With such strong source material that comes with an extremely dedicated fanbase, getting the characters right was key as well. Bruno told us how his character designers managed to create something that works in a film but is still recognizable to fans of the graphic novel.

It was really important for us as fans of the graphic novel to take what we loved about the book and do something new. We didn’t just want to be a carbon copy. We needed to make the world bigger and make the characters feel a bit more grounded while staying true to what ND had done. Really, what that came down to was giving Nimona eyes. Making sure she could turn around and really lean into all the fun, cartoony possibilities. We had so much fun with that.

Nimona Nimona Nimona

After attending tonight’s Nimona premiere, the film’s directors, Stevenson, and producers Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary will present an Annecy Making Of panel on Thursday.

Nimona Nimona Nimona

Directors: Nick Bruno & Troy Quane

Producers: Karen Ryan, p.g.a; Julie Zackary, p.g.a.; Roy Lee

Screenplay: Robert L. Baird and Lloyd Taylor

Story: Robert L. Baird, Lloyd Taylor, Pamela Ribon, Marc Haimes, Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Keith Bunin

Executive Producers: Megan Ellison, Robert L. Baird, Andrew Millstein, John Powers Middleton

Co-Producer: ND Stevenson

Music: Christophe Beck

Editors: Randy Trager, ACE; Erin Crackel

Head of Story: Jony Chandra

Production Designers: Aidan Sugano, Jeff Turley

Music Supervisor: Kier Lehman

Supervising Sound Designer: Ben Barker

Re-recording Mixers: Niv Adiri, Richard Spooner

Animation Director: Theodore A. Ty

Animation Supervisors: Matthew Doble, Ken Fountain, Jennifer E. Harlow, Chris Kirschbaum, Jackie Tarascio

Visual Effects Supervisors: Yancy Lindquist, Archie Donato

Casting by Kevin Reher, CSA; Natalie Lyon, CSA; Libby Thomas Dickey

Voice cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Riz Ahmed, Eugene Lee Yang, Frances Conroy, Lorraine Toussaint, Beck Bennett, Indya Moore, RuPaul Charles, Julio Torres, and Sarah Sherman.