Creators Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond share details about their animated sequel, set in ‘The Dragon Prince’ universe, which picks up 7 years after the original show, with many key characters returning as adults; supporting Kickstarter campaign starts September 16.
When its Season 7 finale streamed this past December, , Netflix’s epic Daytime Emmy Award-winning animated series from Wonderstorm, wrapped up its epic story.Well, some of it.
But Wonderstorm isn’t leaving fans hanging.The sequel, , is on its way. To bring you up to speed, when we were last in Xadia, mage Callum reconciled with his brother, prince Ezran of Katolis, and reunited with his beloved moonshadow elf Rayla as the trio successfully destroyed the vengeful startouch elf archmage Aaravos and forced the dark mage Claudia to retreat into hiding.But though Callum, Ezran, Rayla, and their young storm dragon friend Azymondias (“Zym”) work to rebuild the world of Xadia following the many devastating battles, Wonderstorm left many questions unanswered.
Where is Claudia? Will Aaravos follow through on his threat to return after seven years? Can Ezran locate his father whose spirit now rests in the body of a bird? Will Callum and Rayla actually have 10 babies? Luckily for fans, Wonderstorm plans a return to Xadia; their Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the new animated series launches tomorrow, September 16. “We always planned to tell this story, but what happened was, on the original production, we found ourselves compressing Aaravos’ story so we could tell ’s story in ’s seventh season,” shares Aaron Ehasz, who co-created the series with Justin Richmond.“But we quickly realized we didn’t have enough space to dive into the characters and have the resolution we wanted.We didn’t want to rush the story that way.
So, we chose to let Aaravos’ story breathe and build the story of outside of those original seven orders.Some fans feel like we should have finished it all in Season 7.And I get that.
But we took some chances and hope fans trust us to tell the story right.” At this year’s San Diego Comic Con, Ehasz, Richmond, Kickstarter’s director of product Andrew Marks, as well as voice actors Jack De Sena (Callum) and Dante Basco (Zym) announced their plans and shared first-look images and videos of , which takes place seven years (and 19 days) after the events of and features the return of many key characters, now advancing into adulthood, and a “no-holds-barred” payoff to the mysteries of Arcs One and Two.On the cusp of vanishing into legend, the last of the Archdragons — the young Dragon King, Zym — wields his great power to forge a fragile peace in Xadia.But when a forsaken and forgotten Dragon Prince returns from the shadows of exile, Zym uncovers a truth long buried: the throne he inherited may not have been his to claim.
And the true heir has come to take it back. Who is this “forgotten Dragon Prince”? SDCC audiences got a clue when Richmond and Ehasz shared a surprise cast reveal–’s Liam O’Brien – along with a video from the actor where he not only reveals, “I am the Dragon King,” but also that fans are in store for some “Boddice-ripping romance shit.” Following the video, Richmond, looking at Ehasz, asked, “Did he say, ‘Boddice-ripping romance?’” But the description is warranted as the two creatives confirmed with AWN in an interview following the panel. “It’s definitely aged-up and Liam’s character, in particular, is very indicative of that,” shares Richmond. Ehasz interjects.“There’s a reason he got that idea.” Richmond continues, “You’ll find out more in the coming months.That was Liam’s first reaction to the script we’d given him.
But, yes, as the characters have gotten older, and as our audience has gotten older, we’re keeping pace with them, and we’re excited about the kinds of relationships we get to see.We’re trying to be really respectful with it, but also do some new, fun, more mature stuff.” From the crying infant sounds shared in the panel’s first-look teaser video, fans also speculate that certain characters may have become parents over the course of the seven-year story gap.Of course, all Richmond and Ehasz are willing to share about the crying baby is that it is, in fact, a crying baby. However, they’ve also revealed some aged-up character concept art for Soren, Claudia's older brother, and a loyal member of the Katolian Crownguard.
The creators also shared that fans would see new creatures, monsters, and magic in Xadia they’ve never seen before. “We have more big, exciting, action-heavy moments and set pieces that are a lot more harrowing for our characters,” notes Richmond.“And now we are more explicit about the things that are happening to the characters.” And, by going through Kickstarter, Wonderstorm is creating opportunities for fans to be involved in ’s production, even at some pretty high levels. “We want to acknowledge that fan devotion and them making noise about the show played a big role in getting made,” says Ehasz.“People rallied around us and gave us a saga.
So, we want there to be rewards for people who are participating in helping get made and offer some credit to those participating.For example, we need to find and cast the adult King Ezran.There will be opportunities for fans to help us identify candidates.” He adds, “We’re also inviting our backers to be part of our digital crew.
There will be a lot of access and transparency in this process as things develop, and we want fans to be a part of this.We want them to tell us how they feel about certain themes, early reveals of the music, things like that.We want that feedback because it’s a powerful creative tool for us.” It’s also a way to make the dreams of fans come true after ’s loyal audience turned Ehasz and Richmond’s dream into a reality. “I never thought about it that way before, but that’s awesome, right?” says Richmond.
“And I’ll tell you a secret.When it comes to world-building, you often have specific ideas about where a story is going or how it’s going to end up.But we don’t necessarily know every single beat between now and then.
And you have to be willing to change things as you go.Ezran’s whole plot arc in the first part of the series was different than we anticipated.” And, even with , Richmond and Ehasz were always listening to fans and their feedback.It’s a method they believe will benefit as well as fans. “Enabling people to do awesome work and helping them be part of something that’s bigger than any of us, any one person, is amazing,” says Richmond.
“And it feels exactly like what Kickstarter is about.” When was first greenlit, Netflix gave Ehasz and Richmond two options.The first was Netflix would own the property, but fund the entire cost of the show, and then some.The second was the creators would keep the rights but find ways to do on a much tighter budget.
Ehasz and Richmond chose to keep the rights, which meant they were “scraping by,” as Ehasz puts it, on most of .But it gave them the freedom to greenlight themselves by taking it to Kickstarter. “We all saw what happened with , where began this Kickstarter and it just took off,” says Ehasz.“And with , we have a convergence of three amazing fandoms.
We’ve got Liam from , Dante, and Jack from , and our team from .So, we’re hoping people will give this saga and this world a chance.” Marks, who joined Kickstarter in January of 2024 and was a senior producer at Riot Games for two years prior, says Kickstarter has, in recent years, become a more highly regarded route to seeing series and film projects to fruition. “It’s become professionalized and a lot of the backer expectations of the fidelity of the projects people bring to Kickstarter have never been higher,” says Marks.“Whether it’s game projects, animation projects, or designer technology projects, Kickstarter exists to catalyze a community and bring them together.
And when you already have an existing audience or a fandom that’s naturally doing that, Kickstarter becomes this incredible means of acceleration and validation.” Ehasz adds, “started as a Kickstarter and the fans showed there was a demand.That’s when Amazon came in and said, ‘We’ll partner with you.’ Netflix is on the cusp with us.They haven’t passed on it, but they haven’t greenlit it.
That’s why we’re excited to get team back together, take the word to the fans, and see who else wants to partner with us.”
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime.She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment.Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
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