Noelle Stevenson's 'Lumberjanes' Animated Adaptation Headed To HBO Max

With access to the vast libraries of Warner Bros Animation, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, DC, Hanna-Barbera  and more, streaming service HBO Max has a lot of animation pedigree. It's refreshing though that they aren't restricting themeselves only to properties already owned by WarnerMedia, but are still looking further afield to commision original animation. One of the latest of these is an animated adaptation of the comic series Lumberjanes, from She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power creator Noelle Stevenson.

Lumberjanes was the series that really made Stevenson's name when it was first published in 2014. It was created by Stevenson alongside Shannon Watters, Grace Elis and Brooklyn A. Allen and published by Boom Studios.  The synopsis from Boom describes the series:

At Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams.

Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together…and they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way!

 

Lumberjanes is an all-ages series, that attracted widespread acclaim for its varied female characters and positive LGBT+ representation.  Which can also be said of Stevenson's She-Ra reboot, the success of which probably paved the way for this adaptation. There was previously plans for a live-action film adaptation at Fox (prior to the Disney aquisition) but an animated series is a much better fit. Blue Sky are also producing a feature based on Stevenson's Nimona graphic novel, planned for release in 2022 (but who knows when we'll see it considering the ongoing release date shuffles).

Stevenson is on board to write, direct and excecutive produce the adaptation, which will consist of a series and a 'feature special'. It would be a safe bet that this will be in the form of an extended episode either to introduce or conclude the first season.

Other details are yet to come, but any adaptation will have more than 11 volumes of stories to draw from, so if successful this could be a long running series.

To get up to speeed and check out the series, you can read a free preview on Boom's website.

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