Skylanders Academy Series Coming to Netflix

One of the most popular game franchises is getting its own animated series on Netflix. Blizzard announced today that the “Skylanders” franchise will become the television series, “Skylanders Academy” –  the first production by Activision Blizzard Studios.

The series follows the heroic adventures of the Skylanders team, a group of heroes with unique elemental skills and personalities who travel the vast Skylands universe, protecting it from evil-doers and showing the next wave of Academy cadets how to do things the “Skylander way.”

“Skylanders Academy”  will premiere in Fall 2016 on Netflix.  Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard said,

“Over the last five years, millions of families around the world have welcomed Skylanders® characters into their homes. Now, they’ll be able to watch their favorite characters come to life on Netflix. We couldn’t have found a better home for ‘Skylanders Academy’ and look forward to sharing our extraordinary characters with Netflix audiences around the world.”

“Skylanders Academy” was created by Toys For Bob but the $3 billion Skylanders game franchise has sold through more than 250 million toys since pioneering the toys-to-life category in 2011, and earlier this month Activision revealed Skylanders Imaginators, the latest innovation in the franchise.

“‘Skylanders Academy’ gives us the opportunity to approach narrative storytelling with the same level of quality and excellence that millions of Skylanders fans have come to expect from the game,” said Activision Blizzard Studios Co-President Stacey Sher. “We’re inspired by our fans’ excitement for these characters and have worked hard to bring these characters to life with stories our fans will love.”

Produced under the supervision of showrunner Eric Rogers (Futurama), Skylanders Academy features the voices of Justin Long (Alvin and the Chipmunks, Ask Me Anything) as Spyro, Ashley Tisdale (Phineas and Ferb, High School Musical) as Stealth Elf, Jonathan Banks (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) as Eruptor and Norm MacDonald (Saturday Night Live) as Glumshanks. Additional voice talent includes The Diamond Minecart, Susan Sarandon, Daniel Wu, Parker Posey, James Hetfield, Catherine O’Hara, Bobcat Goldthwait, Chris Diamantopoulos, Jonny Rees, Harland Williams and Richard Horvitz.

Sher and van Dyk are joined by Sander Schwartz, the Emmy award-winning producer of animated hits including The Batman, The Aquabats! Super Show! and Justice League: The New Frontier, as the show’s executive producers. Skylanders Academy is animated by the internationally acclaimed TeamTO studio in France.