‘Iwajụ́’ Brings Lagos to Life as Animation

Disney has partnered with Kugali, an African comic book company, in its effort to release an animated series about Lagos, Nigeria. Iwajụ́ will be the first animated series from Disney centered on Nigeria, and it is set to be released in 2023.

This first production of the partnership is a love letter to Lagos. According to Disney, the animation will take a futuristic look at Lagos, an island and mainland city separated by both water and socioeconomic status. The series is a story about Tola and Kole from the Island and Mainland part of Lagos respectively.

Following this new project, Disney also announces ongoing film and animation projects slated to be released between 2023 and 2024 including Mufasa, The Lion King, Zootopia, Hocus Pocus 2, Disenchanted, amongst others. Fifteen movie projects were announced in total with two of the projects in partnership with Pixar. This announcement was made at D23 Expo 2022 where all the film projects were unveiled with their synopsis and, some, with their trailers.

Disney, in addition, announced that some previous animations would be transformed to films. For example, Snow White is to be released in 2024 and will star Gal Gadot as the evil queen and Rachel Zegler as the princess.