Ever since the new take on the classic cartoon—which promised to update Lion-O and the gang for a new generation—was announced this past summer, we've been hungering for info. At last, we've got some.
According to producer Michael Jelenic—who's all over the superheroic landscape, having served as a producer on Batman: The Brave and the Bold and written the upcoming Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam animated short—one of his main goals was to de-clutter the Thundercats universe.
"One thing is that I tried to simplify the mythology a little bit," he told MTV's Splash Pageabout the series that's going to launch on Cartoon Network in 2011. "It's a pretty complicated backstory that borrows from a lot of other sci-fi stuff, like Superman and Star Wars. In developing this, I wanted it to be a little more simple. In the other version, there's something like three different planets involved, and they all converge onto one planet, and nobody's really connected. I just wanted to bring that all together."
Thundercats will be animated overseas, by the same Japanese company that did The Animatrix. As such, it'll have a more mature vibe: "I think when people see the final character designs, people will think it's a different take, but it will feel very familiar to the old series. ... The colors aren't quite as bright as they were. It's a little darker take, but you'll recognize everybody."
And as for Lion-O's annoying sidekick, Snarf, Thundercats' very own proto Jar Jar Binks, Jelenic says: "Everyone always wants to know about Snarf. ... He will be in it, and he will not talk. Don't worry. He won't be going, 'Lion-O, why don't you do this?' It's funny, because people are always like, 'I hate Snarf! Wait, you're not going to put him in? That's terrible!'"
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