Disney’s Best Animated Series of the 1990s Should Get a Live-Action Remake (And We Were Promised It)

During the 1990s, Walt Disney Television Animation achieved a staggering milestone in serialized storytelling with the premiere of Gargoyles, a gothic urban fantasy that stood in stark contrast to the studio’s traditional lighter fare. Originally running for two meticulously crafted seasons in syndication, the series followed a clan of Scottish gargoyles who awoke from a thousand-year petrification curse in modern-day Manhattan. Guided by their noble leader Goliath (voiced by Keith David) and billionaire antagonist David Xanatos (voiced by Jonathan Frakes), the narrative was unexpectedly sophisticated for afternoon programming, incorporating complex morality and genuine consequences for its characters, including a memorable arc dealing with the grim realities of gun violence. By weaving historical mythology into a contemporary setting, the initial run of Gargoyles captivated a massive audience, fundamentally raising the standard for what animated television could accomplish.

Despite the critical acclaim of those early episodes, the franchise suffered a severe disruption when the production shifted to ABC for its third season, rebranded as Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles. Series creator Greg Weisman was largely removed after that season premiere, and the new writers discarded the intricate overarching mythology in favor of simplistic, episodic plots, alienating the core viewership and effectively ending the television run in 1997. However, the Gargoyles lore remained so compelling that the franchise refused to vanish, surviving through dedicated fan conventions and extensive tie-in merchandise. Weisman eventually returned to author canonical comic book continuations for SLG Publishing and, later, Dynamite Entertainment, successfully ignoring the events of the third television season in favor of his original vision. However, despite its staggering number of fans, Gargoyles never got the live-action remake fans were promised.

Will We Ever Get a Live-Action Gargoyles?

The ambition to translate the winged protectors of New York City into a live-action setting has existed almost as long as the animated series itself. As early as 1995, one year after the animated series debuted, Disney cycled through writers and executives for the development of a feature film script that included creature designs by legendary makeup artist Rick Baker. The studio ultimately deemed the dark vision too expensive to produce, killing the project. In 2011, Disney brought in the screenwriting team behind G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra to take another pass at the material, with identical results. Academy Award winner Jordan Peele pitched his own cinematic take on the property in 2018, an offer Disney flatly declined. 

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Finally, in late 2023, Disney officially committed to a live-action Gargoyles streaming series for Disney+, produced by James Wan’s Atomic Monster and helmed by writer Gary Dauberman. Dauberman’s credits include the Annabelle franchise, both It adaptations, and the underrated 2019 Swamp Thing series, making him fit to tackle Gargoyles. During a 2025 update on the project, Dauberman also explicitly confirmed his intention to honor the mature and operatic nature of the original 1990s broadcast, a promise that, of course, generated massive enthusiasm from fans. By April 2025, scripts had been written, and the project remained active according to industry reports, although it’s been a while since we last heard from it.

The raw material for a successful live-action adaptation is already there. The core premise translates directly to prestige television: a displaced warrior culture navigating a world that fears them, led by a protagonist whose tragedy is that he protects a civilization that wants him dead. That is not a children’s cartoon pitch. That is the foundation of a serious drama. The serialized structure Weisman built into the original series maps onto modern streaming format without modification, since each season was already designed as a single extended narrative rather than a collection of standalone episodes. The villains are equally ready. Xanatos functions as a morally complex power broker whose goals are never simply evil, the kind of antagonist that streaming audiences now expect as a baseline. Demona carries a centuries-long arc of trauma and radicalization that would be more, not less, devastating in live-action. The Manhattan setting gives the production a visual identity that CGI in 2025 can fully support, placing photorealistic gargoyles against a recognizable skyline in a way that 1994 animation could only suggest. The franchise does not need reinvention. It needs execution.

The raw material for a successful live-action adaptation is already there. The serialized structure Weisman built into the original series maps onto modern streaming format without modification, since each season was already designed as a single extended narrative rather than a collection of standalone episodes. The villains are equally ready. Xanatos functions as a morally complex power broker whose goals are never simply evil, the kind of antagonist that streaming audiences now expect as a baseline. Finally, the Manhattan setting gives the production a visual identity that live-action can easily incorporate without an overreliance on CGI. The biggest challenge is the titular creatures, who need to blend into the environment. Still, from a storytelling perspective, adapting Gargoyles for a new generation should be simple enough.

The original animated run of Gargoyles, including the debated third season, is currently available to stream in its entirety on Disney+.

Do you think a live-action adaptation of Gargoyles can capture the magic of the animated classic? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!