With a new version of The X-Files in the works, Ryan Coogler is working on reviving another beloved property of the 1990s. The recent Oscar-winner is tackling a series of YA science fiction novels that ruled the bookstores of America (and traumatized its preteens) long before The Hunger Games was a twinkle in Suzanne Collins‘ eye.

According to reports, Coogler is executive producing a new adaptation of K.A. Applegate‘s Animorphs novels for Disney+. The series will be showrun and written by Bayan Wolcott, who has previously written for American Crime Story, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and the Hulu science fiction drama Class of ’09; he is also writing for the new The Handmaid’s Tale spin-off The Testaments. The novel series ran from 1996 to 2001, and included 54 books and 10 spin-offs and specials. The books are well-remembered for their intense action, visceral body horror, and unflinching look at the realities of violence, as well as their distinctive David B. Mattingly cover art, which depicted one of the book’s characters morphing into an animal via a combination of traditional art and morphing software.

What Is ‘Animorphs’ About?

The series follows a group of teenagers who find a dying alien while walking home from school; the alien, a centaur-like Andalite, warns them of a global conspiracy by the parasitic, slug-like Yeerk aliens to infiltrate and conquer humanity by invading human brains and controlling them. To battle the Yeerks, the Andalite gives them the ability to morph into any animal they touch, allowing them to infiltrate Yeerk bases and battle them and their monstrous alien thralls. However, this ability comes with one major drawback: if they don’t morph back after two hours, they’re stuck as that animal permanently. One of their number discovers this early on: loner Tobias is trapped as a red-tailed hawk in the first book. Isolated and aware that any of their friends or loved ones could be alien infiltrators, the Animorphs secretly plan to stop the Yeerks once and for all. Their deadliest foe is the Yeerk commander, Visser-3; an Andalite himself, he can morph into a veritable menagerie of alien horrors.

The series was a smash hit, and was previously adapted into a Nickelodeon TV series that ran for two seasons from 1998 to 2000; it was an early role for Shawn Ashmore. It also had its own line of toys from Hasbro, as part of their Transformers line.

A new TV adaptation of Animorphs is in development at Disney+.

via Collider