Shape-Shifting Nimona Approaches Netflix Release with First Trailer

Among the COVID-era causalities in the film industry, one of the more sad stories was the shuttering of Blue Sky Studios, the influential animation producers who were most famous for the Ice Age and Rio series over the years. Acquired by Disney in the 20th Century Fox merger, Blue Sky eventually got the axe from the House of Mouse, bringing its several decades of success to an end, and leaving many projects partially complete or outright canceled. Those paying attention at the time feared that we might never see any of those projects come to light, but a few have subsequently been saved by other studios. And that includes Netflix’s upcoming Nimona, which just dropped its first trailer today.

This is a film that has been through the wringer, beginning early production in the mid-2010s, and originally eyeing a 2020 release. Pandemic delays and the reticence of Disney leadership to embrace its LGBTQ themes reportedly set the production back, however, and Blue Sky was officially shuttered by Disney in the spring of 2021. Thankfully, Annapurna Pictures then stepped in to revive the project in last year, with directors Nick Bruno and Troy Quane–who directed one of the last Blue Sky films, Spies in Disguise–overseeing the project. Now, Nimona is finally here, starring Chloë Grace Moretz as the titular character, a shape-shifting girl who wants to be the sidekick to a great supervillain … although it would seem that the fellow may have been wrongly accused. The official synopsis, meanwhile, is the following:

Nimona, a teenager with the power to shapeshift, is targeted by a knight for assassination. The knight’s mission to kill Nimona becomes complicated when he is accused of a crime, and learns that Nimona may be able to exonerate him.

The trailer below is colorful and lively, showing off both Moretz’s cheeky charisma as Nimona and Riz Ahmed’s on-the-run character Ballister Blackheart. The story is adapted from the comics by ND Stevenson, which we were actually praising in the pages of Paste way back in 2013. Check out the trailer below as we wait a couple more weeks for Nimona to arrive on Netflix on June 30, 2023.