Netflix has released a new image for the Nimona film adaptation, with Chloë Grace Moretz set to star. It depicts the eponymous character alongside Ballister Blackheart. In the original comic by ND Stevenson, Blackheart was a former knight turned supervillain convinced to take on Nimona as a sidekick after the girl revealed that she was a powerful shapeshifter with an affinity for sharks.
Blackheart’s arch-enemy is the knight Ambrosius Goldenloin. Early on, it’s explained that the two of them used to be best friends until Goldenloin crippled Blackheart in response to losing a joust competing to be the city’s champion. Since he could no longer be a hero, Blackheart became the villain instead, replacing his now missing arm with a mechanical one.
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Later in the story, it’s very heavily implied that Blackheart and Goldenloin feelings for one another went beyond mere friendship. Something that the film adaptation by Blue Sky Studios was going to be more explicit about. After the Fox merger, Disney started pushing back against elements like that before ultimately canceling the project. At least, that was the allegation leveled against the Mouse House by three former Blue Sky staffers.
With Blue Sky shutting down and Disney uninterested in moving forward, it seemed like the Nimona film adaption was dead in the water until Netflix stepped in and said they would finish the film. Stevenson revealed the news over Twitter, writing that the film would not only be finished but “coming at you in 2023 from Annapurna and Netflix.” The new image can be found below, released courtesy of What’s On Netflix.
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What Else We Know
Here’s the official synopsis for the Nimona film adaptation:
Moretz will star in the film as the title character. Her most famous role would be as Hit-Girl/Mindy McCready in Kick-Ass, a plucky young girl with an affinity for bloodshed, just like Nimona. Most recently, Moretz starred in The Peripheral, which aired on Prime Video from October 21, 2022, to December 2, 2022.
“A Knight is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and the only person who can help him prove his innocence is Nimona, a shape-shifting teen who might also be a monster he’s sworn to kill. Set in a techno-medieval world unlike anything animation has tackled before, this is a story about the labels we assign to people and the shapeshifter who refuses to be defined by anyone.”
Riz Ahmed will play Blackheart. Previously, Ahmed played the supervillain Carlton Drake/Riot in Venom, opposite Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom. In Sound of Metal, he also played a man, drummer Ruben Stone who has to learn to live with a mechanical prosthetic. But, of course, in that case, it was for his ears, not his arm.
Eugene Lee Yang will play Goldenloin. Yang is most known for his work with The Try Guys, an online show about a group of guys trying a whole host of different activities, ranging from Fifty Shades of Grey-style BDSM to a labor simulation. Yang also appeared in the Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode “Four Movements” as Theo Lorql.
An official release date for Nimona has yet to be announced.
