American film and entertainment studio, Walt Disney, took to their social media account on Twitter to announce a first-of-its-kind collaboration, between Disney Animation and Pan-African entertainment company, Kugali founded by Tolu Olowofoyeku, Hamid Ibrahim, and Fikayo Adeola, three friends from Nigeria and Uganda.
The collaboration will lead up to the launch of a new sci-fi series titled Iwájú in 2022 on the Disney+ streaming platform. Iwájú is a Yoruba word meaning “The Future” from Nigeria with production at its visual development stage and set to kick off in 2021.
Filming and production plans are set to take place in Lagos, Nigeria with a storyline adapted from its comic book published in 2019 and crowdfunding of £25,000 from investors around the world.
Jennifer Lee, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ chief creative officer, speaking of the partners, “three talented comic book artists. Their dream was to bring African stories created by African artists to the world, highlighting the diversity of cultures, histories, and voices across the continent.
Their talents as storytellers blew us away.”