Long before the MCU came along and set the template for the modern cinematic universe, there was another interconnected, multimedia franchise driving the kids wild: The FWCU. Yes, folks, the Free Willy Cinematic Universe. Spanning three movies (who can forget — or indeed remember — Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home or Free Willy 3: The Rescue) , an animated TV series, two CD-ROM games, and a DTV reboot, the continuing adventures of orphaned boy Jesse and his orca pal won the hearts — and wet the eyes — of families the world over. Now, per THR‘s reporting, Free Willy is about to be unleashed upon a whole new generation.
Warner Bros. and The Russo Brothers’ AGBO production company are teaming up to reimagine Free Willy for a modern audience, with Miller’s Girl producer-writer duo Mary-Margaret Kunze and Jade Halley Bartlett aboard to write the screenplay. Whether the new Free Willy will exist in the same world as Simon Wincer’s cult classic — or follow the same foundational orphaned-kid-befriends-captive-orca narrative — very much remains to be seen at this point, as does the approach Kunze and Bartlett will take here to their whale-y big star. In the original movies, actual orca Keiko stole our hearts as the eponymous Willy, helping undo generations of misinformation and myth-making surrounding the killer whale as a species. One would suspect a modern-day Willy will be some sort of at least partially CG-constructed beast — but who knows?
With Brian Duffield’s sperm whale epic Whalefall mere months away, and now the return of Free Willy to *checks notes* look forward to, perhaps we’ve misdirected our energy into the Welsh New Wave. Clearly, the Whale New Wave is upon us. All hail the new blubber!
Sources Links
THR
