'Skylanders' TV series snags key 'Futurama' writer, top voice talent

Image: Activision Blizzard

Breathe easy, parents. There's a new Skylanders headed your way that won't require you to buy 37 different action figures alongside a $60 video game.

Skylanders Academy is one of the first projects for Activision Blizzard Studios, the video game mega-publisher's newly launched film/TV arms. There's no premiere date to share just yet, nor are there details on the story or delivery mechanisms. We don't know if this is going to be a standard network series, a Netflix/Hulu/Amazon play or something else entirely. But it's being driven by an impressive set of talents.


The fictional location called "Skylanders Academy" debuted in the series' 2014 game release, Skylanders: Trap Team. It served as a hub location where players could retire between levels, and in the series' fiction it's where Sidekicks go to train before they can become full-fledged Skylanders, protectors of the Skylands.


Activision Blizzard Studios marks a new direction for the video game publisher. Some of the most successful entertainment properties of the modern age are full-blown transmedia productions that build out a larger universe designed to immerse fans. Studios co-president Nick Van Dyk brings almost a decade's worth of experience from Disney, where he worked on (among other things) the company's acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm.

Activision Blizzard owns some of the most popular video game franchises in the world today, including Call of Duty, DestinySkylandersWorld of WarcraftHearthstone and Guitar Hero, in addition to Skylanders. The new "Studios" division gives the publisher more direct control over how those franchises will translate into other entertainment mediums.