Adaptation tracker
The Impossible Creatures Films
Every confirmed development on the Disney adaptation, dated and sourced, with the rumours left out.
Last updated
Where it stands today
- In development
- Rights acquired, screenplays being written, no greenlight announced
- Studio
- Walt Disney Studios, under the Disney Live Action banner
- Format
- Theatrical live action, not streaming
- Screenwriter
- Katherine Rundell, adapting Books One and Two
- Producers
- Katherine Rundell and Charles Collier for Impossible Films
- Director
- None attached
- Cast
- None announced
- Release date
- None announced
The timeline
Newest first. Each entry links out to the source it came from.
The Neverfear published
Book three reaches shops. Bloomsbury publish in the UK on 27 August, with the Knopf edition following in the United States on 1 September. Two novels of the five book run remain unwritten.
No adaptation news accompanied publication. The screenplays in progress cover Books One and Two only, so a third book has no direct bearing on the current development slate.
Source: Penguin Random House
Logged at development stage
Industry production trackers list the film as having entered development. That status covers rights secured and a script being written, with financing and casting attachments still to be found before a studio will commit to a greenlight.
It is the earliest formal stage a film can occupy. Projects can sit in it for years, and some never leave it.
Source: Movie Insider
Disney acquires the film rights
The Walt Disney Studios announced it had taken theatrical film and ancillary rights to the Impossible Creatures series. Rundell adapts the first two books into feature screenplays under the Disney Live Action banner and produces alongside her creative partner Charles Collier. Trade coverage reported the deal in seven figures.
The agreement goes wider than the one series. Rundell’s production company, Impossible Films, enters a first look development relationship with Disney covering all of her current and future literary properties. Bob Iger said publicly that he had read the book himself and pushed for it.
Impossible Films stays based in London, led by Rundell with Collier, producer Alexandra Derbyshire, whose credits include Paddington 2 and Wonka, and Simon Bax, formerly chief financial officer at Pixar and president of studio operations at Fox. On the Disney side the deal was led by David Greenbaum, president of live action and 20th Century Studios, with Kal Walthers, Paige Olson and Bill Neuschaefer. Collier brokered it through Chalcot Square Arts and Media Management.
Source: The Walt Disney Company
Series extended from three books to five
Impossible Creatures was written and sold as a trilogy. During 2025 it was extended to five novels across two seven figure publishing deals, Bloomsbury holding print, ebook and audio in the UK, Europe and the Commonwealth, and Knopf holding the United States.
The extension happened before the Disney deal, not because of it, and it is the reason talk of a five film run began. Disney has commissioned screenplays for two books, not five.
Source: Bloomsbury via Investegate
The Poisoned King tops both charts
Book two entered the children’s charts at number one in the United Kingdom and the United States at the same time. Rundell became the first British children’s author since J.K. Rowling to manage it.
That double result is the commercial fact most often cited in the Disney coverage, and it is what moved the series from a well reviewed British hit to a studio proposition.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
British Book Awards double
Rundell took both Author of the Year and Children’s Book of the Year at the British Book Awards.
Source: Televisual
Impossible Creatures published
The first novel introduces the Glimouria Archipelago and goes on to be named Waterstones Book of the Year for 2023. Everything on this page follows from that book.
Source: Wikipedia
What this means if you collect the books
A film in development is not a film in production. There is no director, no cast and no date, and studios abandon projects at this stage regularly. Anyone treating a 2027 or 2028 cinema release as settled is guessing.
What is settled is that the first printings already exist in fixed quantities, and that the signed and retailer exclusive editions were printed in small runs that will not be repeated. Those numbers do not change whatever happens to the films.
If you want to know which printing you are holding, the first edition guide covers every UK and US edition across the three books, including the points that distinguish them. The reviews cover the books themselves.
Common questions
Short answers, current as of the date above.
Is Impossible Creatures being made into a movie?
Yes. The Walt Disney Studios acquired theatrical film and ancillary rights to the series in October 2025. Katherine Rundell is writing the screenplays for the first two books herself.
When is the Impossible Creatures movie coming out?
No release date has been announced. The project remains in development, which means the script is still being written and no production start has been set.
Who is directing the Impossible Creatures film?
No director is attached. A director would normally be found after the screenplay is delivered and before casting begins.
Who is in the cast?
Nobody has been cast. Casting is unlikely to be announced before a director is in place.
How many Impossible Creatures films will there be?
No number has been confirmed. Disney holds rights to the series and has commissioned screenplays for the first two books. The announcement described an ambition for a run of films rather than a fixed commitment, and the novels themselves run to five.
Will it be in cinemas or on Disney+?
Disney took theatrical rights and the films sit under the Disney Live Action banner, so these are intended as cinema releases rather than streaming originals.
Is Katherine Rundell involved?
Closely. She is writing the first two screenplays and producing through her own London company, Impossible Films, alongside Charles Collier. Disney also holds a first look arrangement on her other work.