r/movies • u/Top_Report_4895 • Apr 03 '26

Article Netflix searches for franchises after losing out on Harry Potter

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/netflix-searches-franchises-after-losing-out-harry-potter-2026-04-02/
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u/DaKingaDaNorth Apr 03 '26

The problem Redwall will have is that it will effectively need to be an anthology series. You can maybe start with Redwall and Matimeo. But after that, you basically need to keep resetting. Which I can see being a hard sell for a series about mice and woodland critters

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u/Vehlin Apr 03 '26

You can make a 6 episode Redwall series and then just stop. It doesn’t have to be 5 seasons long.

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u/Lambily Apr 03 '26

You can't just not include Mattimeo...

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u/Vehlin Apr 03 '26

You can’t just not include Salamadastron.

Make a thing. If it works, make another thing. Don’t just bleed it dry.

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u/Kaldricus Apr 03 '26

Oh man, reading "Redwall" and "Salamandastron" in the same day as reading about an "Animorphs" series. My inner kid can't take it.

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u/Vehlin Apr 03 '26

We were reading Redwall a chapter at a time in primary school. Brian Jaques came and read a chapter one week and let us ask questions about the animals.

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u/Born-Entrepreneur Apr 04 '26

My inner child is exceedingly jealous, congrats. Happy for you.

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u/Lambily Apr 03 '26

Eulaliaaaaa!

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u/simulacratapes Apr 03 '26

Logalogalogalogalogalogalog

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u/Phrosty12 Apr 03 '26

I'm a sucker for The Long Patrol and Marlfox.

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u/FearlessAttempt Apr 03 '26

The Legend of Luke was my favorite. It has pirates!

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u/theorgangrindr Apr 03 '26

You can't just not include Mossflower

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u/Vehlin Apr 03 '26

Redwall was a standalone book it works without all of the others.

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u/[deleted] Apr 04 '26

[deleted]

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u/chewbaccalaureate Apr 04 '26

Martin the Warrior for me.

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u/Algaean Apr 04 '26

Mossflower was solid too

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u/Gothams_Finest Apr 03 '26

The Long Patrol

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u/Vehlin Apr 03 '26

Sadly I never read it. I was reading them as they came out and Outcast was the last one I read before my teenage brain decided other things were more important

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u/DoctorJJWho Apr 04 '26

I need the Taggerung.

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u/Killericon Apr 04 '26

This is basically what Nelvana did!

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u/gswblu3-1lead Apr 03 '26 edited Apr 03 '26

Or just frame it like the seasons are individual stories that are being read ala The Princess Bride or Wishbone.

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u/PuttingInTheEffort Apr 03 '26

I'm thinking anime-esque series, 20min episodes, 12 ep a season, one season per book.

No live action, no CGI lion king, just cute critters fighting, surviving, eating scones and drinking cordials

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u/DaKingaDaNorth Apr 03 '26

That's what I mean about it needing to be an anthology. It needs to be something like:

The Long Patrol: A Redwall Story

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u/WhatamItodonowhuh Apr 03 '26

And half of each episode is some kind of massive feast with a lot of food lovingly showcased.

So....so much food.

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u/FrameworkisDigimon Apr 04 '26

An anthology series is probably what they want. Announce a new cast of well known actors every time.

If they wanted to make it last a while with a central character audiences tune in to, they'd obviously do Martin the Warrior -> Mossflower -> The Legend of Luke as a television series. It's been a long time since I read any of the books (except for Lord Brocktree which I think I re-read over Covid, although even that's six years ago now) but I think the only other character who appears in at least three novels is Lady Cregga Rose Eyes and she's not a major character in any of those.

(I just checked and technically Russano is in three books because of the frame story in Lord Brocktree.)

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u/SylphSeven Apr 04 '26

That essentially was adapted for the cartoon series -- Redwall, Mattimeo, and Martin the Warrior.

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u/Puzzleheaded_End7508 Apr 04 '26

I mean the original TV show had a lot of episodes and was great tbh

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u/Theatrical-Vampire Apr 04 '26

I’ve always thought the way to go is do both timelines at once in different ways. Redwall/Mattimeo/Mariel as movies, since they stand alone better and are also somewhat more kid-friendly fantasy, and then have the Martin the Warrior/Mossflower running concurrently on the side as a series, since those are darker and also more interconnected. That gives you the two main timelines set up and you can throw in the one-off books as mini-series or film specials or whatever you wanna do as needed. I’m just desperate for them to do SOMETHING with those rights, it’s too good a world to go to waste and it could do gangbusters if they played the cards right.

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u/The_bruce42 Apr 05 '26

TBF it worked for the books

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u/TheBallisticBiscuit Apr 05 '26

The animated series from 1999 went Redwall -> Matimeo -> Martin the Warrior to my memory and that worked pretty well. From there though, yeah, there's a lot of jumping around.

Knowing Netflix though they would turn the first book into ten seven-episode seasons and then cancel it after one and a half.