Meet 'Nimona,' Netflix's gender nonconforming hero and the star of this summer's boldest animated movie

Between the billion-dollar grossing Super Mario Bros. Movie and the box office tidal waves generated by The Little Mermaid and Across the Spider-Verse, family-friendly fare is shaping up to be 2023's most reliable commercial bet outside of horror. And Netflix is looking to capture those eyeballs outside of theaters. The streaming service recently unveiled an 18-month slate of animated features populated by titles like the Adam Sandler-starring Leo, a Chicken Run sequel and an all-new SpongeBob SquarePants movie.

But before all those movies arrive, Netflix is betting on the animated adventure Nimona to be its summertime Super Mario cartoon blockbuster. Based on the graphic novel by ND Stevenson and set in a world that's part Star Trek, part Medieval Times, the film stars Chloë Grace Moretz as the title character, a shapeshifting troublemaker who teams up with disgraced knight-turned-reluctant villain, Ballister Blackheart (Riz Ahmed), after he's framed for killing the queen of the realm. That straightforward story is embellished with lots of Monty Python-esque humor, fluid action sequences and resonant, timely depictions of gay love and gender nonconformity.

The tale behind Nimona's arrival on Netflix is almost as eventful as the movie itself. Originally set to be adapted by Blue Sky — the now-defunct animation company behind the Ice Age franchise — the film was canceled midway through production, reportedly out of concerns over its LGBTQ themes, and the creative team scrambled to find a new home willing to resurrect it. Netflix became that home, and Stevenson — who identifies as transmasculine and bigender and uses he/him pronouns — has credited the streaming service and the filmmakers with preserving the identity of his creation. (Stevenson also created and produced Netflix's popular She-Ra revival.)

"I knew that things were going to change, but it was always really important to me that Nimona herself remain the center of this story and that the things that made her were not removed or sanded down or simplified too much," the illustrator remarked in a virtual press conference attended by Yahoo Entertainment. "It was very emotional to be able to see her come to life and be like, 'That's her — that's Nimona.'"

Here's everything you need to know about Netflix's big bet on Nimona, and the movie's new kind of hero.

What's Nimona about?

Nimona made her first appearance in 2012 as a short-form web comic that Stevenson originally published on Tumblr. But the character's origin dates back much further in the artist's life. "Nimona was a character that actually [came] about when I was in high school," the artist remembered. "It was a time where I was having a lot of really big feelings... and being a shapeshifter was a big fantasy for me. I really wanted to be able to change my body and my presentation at will to be everything that people wanted me to be, but also aggressively be the opposite of that as well."

Looking back now, Stevenson recognizes that Nimona was his outlet for wrestling with his own gender identity. "The comic itself was something that I made before I was out in any way. It's very obvious now what feelings I was working through at the time, even the desire to shapeshift so badly is one that has so much meaning in my life now."

While that theme about identity underpins the early Nimona strips, the comic itself started out as a fractured fairy-tale version of a traditional good vs. evil tale. Once a celebrated knight for the all-powerful Institution, Ballister Blackheart has been banished to the fringes of his future-Medeival society after losing his arm in a duel with ex-friend, Ambrosius Goldenloin (voiced by Eugene Lee Yang in the film). Embracing his outside status, Ballister looks to take down Goldenloin and the Institution, but only if his revenge follows certain rules. Enter Nimona, who cares nothing for Blackheart's rules, but cares very much about teaching the ruling class a lesson — to the point where she seems even more of a villain than her partner-in-crime.

The film version of Nimona stays true to this basic outline, but mixes in additional complications and changes up certain character dynamics and relationships. It also adds a new backstory for Nimona that speaks directly to the movie's overarching theme about how prejudice against one person can poison society as a whole. "What we're trying to do is tell a story that has a message: Get to know people," said Nimona co-director Nick Bruno, who helmed the film with Troy Quane. "Don't let other people's opinions [of them] affect you. Just get to know them for who they truly are."

How is Nimona a queer narrative?

Since Nimona was published as a complete graphic novel in 2015, Stevenson's story has been regularly cited as a touchstone queer text in the contemporary comics space, with fans and academics alike analyzing the titular changeling's own ever-shifting appearance — from girl to boy to rhino to shark. "It's woven into the story," Stevenson explained. "Even when it's not explicit, it's a part of the story that informs how these characters interact with the world."

Bruno and Quane ensured that Nimona's underlying queerness would we woven into the story of the film as well. In fact, they even take it a step further by incorporating a romantic relationship between Ballister and Ambrosious that's only hinted at in the graphic novel. "We wanted to normalize those kinds of relationships," said Quane. "It's a story about two characters who love each other [that we use] as a motivation for Ballister to keep fighting. We didn't want to deny it or undersell it."

"We knew the audience needed to believe in a relationship that felt real enough and true enough," Quane noted, crediting Yang — a popular internet personality who is openly gay and frequently performs in drag as Cheyenne Pepper — with bringing new emotional depths to the character. "Casting Eugene to helps us bring that to life was so important. He is charismatic and funny, but he brings such a sweetness and emotional fragility to the character."

Nimona arrives on Netflix on the heels of Disney's 2022 box office disappointment Strange World, which introduced the first out gay teenager ever featured in a Mouse House animated feature. It's a significant example of LGBTQ representation for the streaming service, which was heavily criticized in 2021 for airing Dave Chappelle's comedy special The Closer, which angered the transgender community — and many Netflix employees — with the controversial comedian's remarks about trans people. Chapelle wasn't directly referenced during the press conference, but Stevenson addressed that larger conversation.

"There might not be any homophobia or transphobia in the movie, but there are metaphors that stand in for the lack of acceptance or the fear that can be drummed up around other human beings," he said. "That's always been a major part of what's at the heart of the story. And I think the movie absolutely embraces that."

Why was Nimona canceled?

20th Century Fox Animation picked up the film rights to Nimona just as the graphic novel hit shelves, and assigned it to its subsidiary, Blue Sky Studios. Bruno and Quane were also working as animators at the company during that time and eventually landed the Nimona job after they teamed up to direct 2019's Spies in Disguise — which also proved to be Blue Sky's final movie. When the Walt Disney Company acquired Fox in 2019, Nimona was initially delayed and then scrapped outright when Disney shut down Blue Sky in 2021 despite the fact that the film was rumored to be roughly 75% complete.

Speaking with BuzzFeed, a former Blue Sky employee specifically disclosed the romantic relationship between Ballister and Ambrosius, which would have made them Disney's first openly gay couple. "It was a first for our studio in a lot of respects and what would have been a first for Disney, I believe," the source noted. "It featured two male leads kissing, [and] it featured a gender-nonconforming lead heroine." [The kiss remains in the Netflix version of the film.]

At the time, Disney executives pointed to coronavirus pandemic-caused economic setbacks as the reason for Blue Sky's closure. But some staffers suggested to Insider that the studio was also skittish about the film's LGBTQ content, especially after it became embroiled in a public battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the state's controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill.

Disney's reasons for canceling Nimona weren't mentioned during the virtual press conference, although Stevenson did mention that earlier iterations of the project altered the personality of his hero. "Certain versions of it that existed at certain studios [were] like 'Is she going to become this perfect princess character?' That's not what happened, and that's really cool."

For their part, the directors cite "certain business decisions" as the reason why Blue Sky's version of Nimona went away, but they stuck with the movie as producers — including Annapurna founder Megan Ellison — shopped it around to other outlets, eventually finding creative partners at DNEG Animation and a platform with Netflix.

"Netflix [has] been just phenomenal in letting us tell the story of Nimona: the story that these characters needed to express, the story that it needs to be," said Quane. "To give us the creative space and the courage to do that has been one of the most incredible experiences, and it's why the film is as great as we feel that it is."

Will there be sequels?

Stevenson hasn't revisited Nimona since publishing the graphic novel, and the film tells a complete story. But the film's closing moments notably leave a door open to more adventures should Nimona become your child's new favorite hero. Certainly, Netflix and Stevenson have had a fruitful collaboration before, with the artist overseeing the She-Ra revival that ran for four successful seasons. And the creator is clearly delighted to see Nimona find new fans, even if he's not directly involved.

"There are a lot people who relate to her and see themselves in her," he said. "I couldn't be happier with how her character comes across in this movie. I'm really glad she's getting to live a new chapter of her life. The story is going beyond the comic and into the future."

Nimona premieres Friday, June 30 on Netflix.