The long-awaited Gargoyles live-action reboot is slowly but surely emerging from the stone. Showrunner Gary Dauberman gave an exciting update on the new series to ComicBook.com, which should please devotees of the cult-classic animated series. Says Dauberman, “I will say that if you are a fan of the show, you will be very happy with how I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel with that one.”

Dauberman does not intend to stray too far from the original series, which originally aired in syndication from 1994 to 1997. Says Dauberman, “I feel like we have the animated series already. The cartoon is so good. It’s so good. That’s what we fell in love with. I think it lends itself to a really cool live-action version.” He intends to hew to the tone of the series, which was at times extremely dark for a kid-aimed action cartoon: “We are still keeping that darkness to it. I’m excited to see the animated [series] come to life.” As the project is at Disney, who released the original cartoon, Dauberman can’t get into too many specifics as to what characters or storylines could make it into live-action: “I think Disney would kill me.” Dauberman is currently on a publicity tour for another high-profile live-action adaptation, the video-game-based horror film Until Dawn.

What Is ‘Gargoyles’ About?

Created by Greg Weisman, Gargoyles centers around a clan of the titular creatures, who served as the guardians of a Scottish castle in the 10th century. Frozen in stone by a magic spell for centuries, they were awakened in the 1990s when their castle was rebuilt atop a Manhattan skyscraper by unscrupulous billionaire David Xanatos (Jonathan Frakes). Allying themselves with NYPD detective Elisa Maza (Salli Richardson), the clan, led by the mighty Goliath (Keith David), battles evil in New York City. Unusually for cartoons of its era, Gargoyles had long-running storylines and elaborate backstories for its characters, making frequent allusions to classical mythology and the works of William Shakespeare. In a retrospective review, Collider‘s Tyler B. Searle called it Disney‘s best animated series, and praised it for defying “the boundaries of what children’s cartoons could get away with.”

Dauberman, who penned Annabelle and The Nun, will serve as showrunner, writer, and executive producer on Gargoyles. The series will be produced by Atomic Monster’s James Wan and Michael Clear.

Disney‘s live-action reboot of Gargoyles is in development.

via Collider