Disney Acquires Rights To A Popular Children’s Book Series

Disney is no stranger to creating big-budget content!

They recently announced that Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour documentary will be debuting on Disney+, and they are working on a new animated film, which will be released in Fall 2026. Now, they’re working on bringing a popular children’s book series to life! 

The Impossible Creatures book series is going to be made into movies thanks to a seven-figure deal with Disney! According to Deadline, the movie studio is working on adapting the books by author Katherine Rundell. She will also be adapting the first two books in the series into screenplays.

The children’s books have skyrocketed in popularity, with many people comparing their success to the likes of Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and the Twilight Saga. There are 5 planned books in the series, and only 2 of them have been published at the time of writing. The first, Impossible Creatures, was published in 2023, with the second one hitting shelves in September 2025. Katherine Rundell also recently became the first UK children’s author since J.K. Rowling to reach the number one position on the children’s book charts in both the UK and the U.S.

There have been more than 4 million copies sold worldwide, and she won the Author of the Year and Children’s Book of the Year at The British Book Awards in 2024. She signed 2 seven-figure publishing deals and plans to expand the series with spinoffs and prequels. After the release of her second book, Rundell was open about turning the books into films. Deadline shares that the final studios were Disney, Warner Bros, and Netflix.

The deal includes a “first look” with Disney that includes all of her current and upcoming “lit properties.” In a statement, Disney CEO Bob Iger said, “When I read Impossible Creatures, I knew it belonged here at Disney. I was immediately drawn into the vibrant world Katherine imagined and the possibilities of what we could do together with this story.  Written by Katherine herself, these movies are in the best of hands with our Walt Disney Studios team, and I can’t wait to see this tale brought to the screen.”

The author said, “I’m absolutely thrilled to be linking arms with Disney.” She continued in her statement, “It’s a privilege to be writing these screenplays and developing these first movies in the franchise together with Charles, my team at Impossible Films, and with the exceptional team at Disney. I’m especially grateful to Bob Iger, whose enthusiasm after reading the book helped set this collaboration in motion, and to Alan Bergman and David Greenbaum for being incredible partners throughout this process. Our ambition is to build Glimouria and Impossible Creatures into a spectacular series of films, so that we can entertain and inspire family audiences across the world.”

The book series follows Christopher is a human boy who stumbles into the hidden entrance to Gilmouria Archipelago, a magical world. He meets Mal, a girl from this hidden world of magical creatures, and together they try to save the creatures that are suffering from a decline in the magical force that keeps them alive and vibrant.  As always, be sure to keep following AllEars for more Disney news and updates.

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Have you read this series? Tell us in the comments!