The live-action Gargoyles series is dead at Disney+.
Variety confirms the project from It and Annabelle writer Gary Dauberman and James Wan’s Atomic Monster is no longer moving forward at the streamer, where it had been sitting in early development since 2023. Deadline matched the report with its own source close to the project.
The confirmations follow original series co-creator Greg Weisman, who was asked about the reboot in an August interview with ComicsOnline and answered flat out: “That’s dead.”
Weisman added he has no idea what’s happening on the animation side, and that nothing is currently in the works for live-action.
Weisman had no involvement in the reboot, so his comments sat in rumor territory for a few weeks, until the sources close to the project backed him up.
What Disney+ Had Planned
Disney+ announced the project back in October 2023, with Dauberman set to write, executive produce, and showrun, Wan and Michael Clear executive producing for Atomic Monster, and Disney Branded Television attached as the studio.
The reboot would have followed Goliath, the last of a race of gargoyle warriors, waking from a curse that held him in stone for centuries and digging into the mystery of his own past while guarding modern-day New York City alongside NYPD detective Elisa Maza.
That’s where it stayed for almost three years: early development, no greenlight, no casting, no dates.
Another Casualty Of Disney’s Cutbacks
The cancellation fits right in with the recent reports that Disney is scaling back on content and expensive projects.
Marvel just went through a round of reports that it’s cutting back on live-action Disney+ shows.
And this has been the direction for a while. Disney canceled Wonder Man after a second season had already been announced because the viewership didn’t justify the costs, killed Blade after seven years of development, and has made one-and-done the default for its live-action Marvel slate.
A live-action Gargoyles was never going to be cheap. A fantasy series where the heroes are stone monsters who transform at every sunrise and sunset is a VFX bill in every single episode. In an environment where Disney is killing shows it already renewed, a three-year-old development deal with nothing shot never stood a chance.
The Original Series Was Dark For Disney
Created by Greg Weisman (Young Justice), the animated Gargoyles ran 78 episodes across three seasons from 1994 to 1997, with the final season retitled Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles.
It was serialized, Shakespearean, and darker than anything else Disney was putting on TV at the time, led by Keith David’s Goliath with Star Trek‘s Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis voicing David Xanatos and Demona, plus Ed Asner and Salli Richardson.
The show has held its cult following for three decades, and fans have watched revival attempt after revival attempt die on the table — Weisman kept the story going in comics at Dynamite, but nothing has made it back to the screen. Add this one to the pile.
All three seasons are streaming on Disney+, which, for now, is all the Gargoyles anyone is getting.
