New Animated ‘Bananaman’ Series In Development… By FOX
I think we can safely put this one in the “well that was unexpected” file. Fox Entertainment, alongside ‘Bob’s Burgers’ Bento Box Animation, have acquired the right to make a new animated series based on ‘Bananaman’, the classic British comic book character.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the fruit-based superhero, the story followed Eric Wimp, an ordinary schoolboy living at 29 Acacia Road, who transforms into the super-strong, flying, invulnerable adult superhero Bananaman whenever he eats a banana. He first appeared in 1980 in the pages of the comic Nutty, before moving across to The Dandy, and then The Beano. Just to slightly depress the older readers amongst you, that means Bananaman celebrated his 40th-anniversary last year…
This wouldn’t be the first time ‘Bananaman’ has been turned into an animated series. The BBC ran a cartoon from 1983-86, which was voiced by The Goodies – Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor. You can actually get all 3 Seasons of that version on Amazon Prime.
Fox are currently looking for a UK writer to adapt the comic into a new animated series. “Given Bananaman’s relationship with its readers, maybe we will hook a big fish in the UK by having that property,” commented Michael Thorn, president of entertainment at Fox Entertainment to Broadcast, who first reported the news.
Bento Box Animation are the people behind the hugely popular ‘Bob’s Burgers’, along with Fox’s ‘Duncanville’, Netflix’s ‘Paradise PD’, and Apple TV+ show ‘Central Park’. Mark Talbot, the chief creative officer of Beano Studios, will serve as non-writing exec producer on the potential series.
‘Bananaman’ is currently classed as “in development” at the moment, but we’ll let you know if/when we hear more.
