Disney announces ‘Iwaju’ — Afro-futurist series set in Lagos

Disney, a media-entertainment conglomerate, has partnered Kugali Media, a pan-African entertainment company, for ‘Iwaju‘, a forthcoming animated TV series scheduled to debut in 2022.

Disney announced the partnership on Friday after it picked up ‘Iwaju’, Kugali’s comic book collection, as a new TV series for Walt Disney Animation Studios as the entertainment conglomerate seeks to tell more original African stories.

It also described the partnership as “the first of its kind,” while stating that the animated series will premiere on its Disney+ streaming platform.

“In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, Disney Animation and Pan-African entertainment company Kugali will team up to create an all-new, science fiction series coming to #DisneyPlus in 2022: Iwájú,” Disney wrote on Twitter.

It's been quite a challenge keeping this one a secret for so long, but we could not be more proud to share this with you all! https://t.co/XBcN1bFqiq

— KugaliMedia (@Kugalimedia) December 11, 2020

‘Iwaju’ is credited to Tolu Olowofoyeku, Hamid Ibrahim, and Fikayo Adeola, three Nigerian-Ugandans colleagues who founded Kugali Media in 2017.

The friends created the comic book collection which is set in futuristic Lagos, Nigeria’s capital city. In Yoruba, the title ‘Iwaju’ roughly translates to “the future”.

Commenting about the project, Jennifer Lee, Disney Animation Studios’ CEO, said the series will explore themes of “class, innocence and challenging the status quo.”

On Kugali Media, Lee lauded the skills of the creators, saying, “their talents as storytellers blew us away.”

TheCable Lifestyle had earlier reported that Disney listed 10 new Marvel series; 10 new Star Wars series; and 15 new Disney live-action, Disney animation, and Pixar series among the projects it would debut over the next few years.