After being dumped by Disney, the animated film Nimona has been picked up by Annapurna Animation and is gearing up for a 2023 release on Netflix.

Annapurna Animation is actually a newly established production company from Annapurna Inc., which produces video games like the viral feline-follow-along hit game, Stray. Robert Baird and Andrew Millstein, two former Disney animation execs who worked on the movie at Blue Sky Studios, are leading the animation division and are proud of the new film. “We instantly felt at home at Annapurna,” said Robert Baird in a statement. “Their vision is extremely compelling and is a deep match with our values and the types of impactful stories we want to help bring to life.”

As PRIDEpreviously reported, Nimona "was slated for release" earlier this year "and featured a kiss between Ballister Blackheart and his boyfriend" but "Disney representatives expressed 'concern' over multiple queer elements in the story. There was then a half-hearted attempt to present a version of the film without the queer kiss included, with Blue Sky staff planning to then sneak the kiss into the final cut of the film." Blue Sky even showed a rough cut of the film, kiss included, to Disney. Nimona was about 75% done but, unexpectedly, the studio was shut down – and the hopes for the film with it. At the time, execs believed the queer content played a part in the decision.

We're glad Nimona has found a new home!

The story was created by Nate Stevenson, the transgender creator behind Netflix's animated series She-Ra and the Princess of Power. "A Knight (Riz Ahmed) is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and the only person who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), a shape-shifting teen who might also be a monster he’s sworn to kill," the official description reads. "Set in a techno-medieval world unlike anything animation has tackled before, this is a story about the labels we assign to people and the shapeshifter who refuses to be defined by anyone."

Nimona is expected to release in 2023 on Netflix, though no exact date has been announced just yet.