Disney Acquires Impossible Creatures for Big-Budget Fantasy Franchise Adaptation

If you hear hoofbeats, you might just be hearing the stirrings of an epic new Disney fantasy franchise. Disney has officially secured the rights to Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures, a British fantasy series brimming with mythical beasts, hidden islands, and magic, and now it is set for big-screen adaptation. The deal? A hefty seven-figure sum. The ambition? To build something that could rival Harry Potter for a new generation.

Impossible Creatures takes place in the Glimouria Archipelago, a secret shrouded world where creatures of legend (griffins, sphinxes, krakens, unicorns) exist beyond human eyes. In these stories, magic is fragile, creatures are vanishing, and one boy must uncover what is going wrong. It’s the kind of high fantasy that invites cinematic spectacle: floating islands, creature chases, hidden realms, emotional stakes.

Disney is not just buying the IP. Rundell is coming along for the ride. She will adapt the first two books into screenplays and co-produce with Charles Collier. This signals Disney wants to keep the voice and heart of the books intact. On top of that, her production company Impossible Films now holds a first-look deal with Disney for her current and future literary projects, ensuring the collaboration may extend beyond this single franchise.

The timing is intriguing. Impossible Creatures was originally pitched as a trilogy, but the series was expanded to five books through major publishing deals this year. That expansion suggests confidence in the world’s potential to grow, and now Disney is banking on that growth translating to film. The second volume, The Poisoned King, soared to bestseller lists, making Rundell the first UK children’s author since J.K. Rowling to top both the UK and U.S. children’s charts at once.

Disney’s decision comes as it reevaluates its live-action remake ambitions. Some remakes succeeded; some underwhelmed. So placing a bet on fresh fantasy IP means taking risks, but also gaining creative freedom. With Impossible Creatures, Disney is doubling down on original world building.

The challenges are obvious. Fantasy adaptations live or die on visual effects, tone, pacing, casting, and fidelity to beloved source material. The beasts, the islands, the magic; if those feel cheap or hollow, the illusion collapses. But if Disney can match imagination with visual flair and emotional heart, this could become a marquee franchise.

Fans will be watching: who will play Christopher, the human boy drawn into Glimouria? Who will bring Mal or the beasts to life? Will Disney lean kid audiences or broaden to adults? And will the films preserve that sense of wonder, danger, and mystery that made the books intoxicating?

For Disney, this is a high stakes play. They are placing millions on a fantasy that few readers have yet experienced on screen. But the potential payoff is huge: a new canonical fantasy world, movies for kids and grownups alike, and a platform for further adaptations from Rundell’s stable of stories.

If it works, Impossible Creatures could become Disney’s next Star Wars or Harry Potter-level franchise. If it doesn’t, it might be remembered as one of those ambitious bets that didn’t land. Until then, fans of fantasy have reason to dream of griffins in the moonlight, islands hidden by fog, and beasts stirring in shadow. The journey to Glimouria has begun.