Artemis Fowl Animated Series Greenlit at Disney Channel and Disney+ With Eoin Colfer as EP

Disney is betting big on animation again — and this time, it’s giving one of its most beloved book franchises a second chance at the screen. The studio has greenlit an Artemis Fowl animated series for Disney Channel and Disney+, with original author Eoin Colfer on board as executive producer. The announcement dropped at New York Comic Con 2026, during a special “25 Years of Artemis Fowl” panel celebrating the milestone anniversary of the first book.

The series will follow 13-year-old genius Artemis Fowl as he discovers a hidden underground world of armed, dangerous, and surprisingly high-tech fairies. What starts as a mission to capture one of these magical beings quickly becomes a desperate plan to steal its magic — all to save his dying mother and keep his family from falling apart.

For anyone who grew up with the books, this is the adaptation fans have been waiting for. The eight-book series by Eoin Colfer has sold over 35 million copies worldwide and been translated into 48 languages since the first installment arrived in 2001. The blend of fairy mythology, advanced technology, and a morally complex kid genius made the franchise a global phenomenon — but the 2020 live-action movie didn’t quite capture that magic.

A Second Shot at Bringing Fairy World to Life

The 2020 film starring Judi Dench and Josh Gad took significant liberties with the source material and landed with a thud among critics and fans alike. Now, Disney is going back to the drawing board — this time in animation, with Colfer himself helping steer the ship. The author said he is “proud and delighted to be part of the formidable team that is putting the Artemis Fowl animation on screen,” adding that “everyone is so talented and so positive that I feel certain the fairy world is in excellent hands.”

Animation is the smart call here. The source material lives in a world of fairy cities beneath the Earth’s surface, high-tech gadgets powered by magic, and creature designs that would strain any live-action budget. An animated format lets the production go wild with imagination — and frankly, it gives the story a better shot at capturing the books’ unique blend of wonder, danger, and wit.

The Artemis Fowl books have always been visual in their storytelling. Colfer’s novels are packed with elaborate set pieces — underground fairy courts, high-speed chases through magical realms, and gadgets that blur the line between science and sorcery. These are sequences that animation can render with a sense of scale and spectacle that live-action would struggle to match without a blockbuster budget. The 2020 film had a reported budget of $125 million and still managed to feel visually flat — a problem animation simply doesn’t have.

There’s also the matter of tone. The books walk a tightrope between genuine danger and sharp, dry humor. Artemis himself is a morally ambiguous antihero — a 13-year-old criminal mastermind who kidnaps a fairy to save his mother. That complexity is hard to pull off in a sanitized live-action kids’ movie, but animation has a long tradition of embracing morally gray characters. Think of how DuckTales balanced real stakes with humor, or how Monsters at Work tackled corporate satire within a family-friendly framework. The Artemis Fowl animated series has the same opportunity — and the creative team’s track record suggests they know how to use it.

The Creative Team Behind the Curtain

Joining Colfer as executive producers are Ben Juwono and Colleen Evanson. Juwono brings serious animation credentials — he worked on Marvel’s Big Hero 6: The Series and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, two shows that proved they can balance heart, humor, and action in equal measure. Evanson’s resume includes DuckTales and Monsters at Work, giving her deep experience with legacy franchises and ensemble casts. Together, they’re a team that understands how to honor what made these properties special while bringing something fresh to the table.

Ayo Davis, president of Disney Kids & Family, emphasized the dual audience in her statement: “Bringing this beloved franchise to life as an animated series gives us the opportunity to introduce a new generation to Artemis’s world while honoring the longtime fans who have cherished these stories for years.”

Where Artemis Fowl Fits in Disney’s Animation Slate

The greenlit series joins an increasingly crowded — and ambitious — animated slate at Disney+. Alongside Artemis Fowl, the platform is developing Dragon Striker, Phineas and Ferb, Big City Greens, Messi and the Giants, Kingdom Hearts, Warrior Cats, and Journey. It’s a lineup that spans reboots, adaptations, and original concepts — and it signals that Disney is leaning hard into animation as a core pillar of its streaming strategy.

This is a smart bet. Animation has proven to be one of the few genres that can reliably pull in both kids and adults, and Disney’s track record with the format is unmatched. The studio’s animated consistently outperforms live-action reboots in both viewership and cultural staying power — just look at how DuckTales and Monsters at Work have thrived by respecting their source material while updating the storytelling for a new generation.

What We Don’t Know Yet

Disney has not announced a release date, voice cast, or episode count. The studio is also staying tight-lipped on whether the series will hew closer to the books than the 2020 film did — a question that’s top of mind for many fans. The live-action movie compressed multiple books into one film and changed major plot points, which alienated a lot of the built-in audience. Whether the animated series takes a more faithful approach will likely determine its reception.

For now, the combination of Colfer’s involvement, the animation format, and a production team with genuine pedigree gives this project a fighting chance. The books deserve a great screen adaptation — and for the first time in six years, it looks like Disney is finally giving the fairy world the treatment it deserves.

Keep an eye on this one. When the Artemis Fowl animated series eventually arrives, it could be the franchise’s redemption arc — and the next big thing in Disney’s growing animation empire.