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Gotham Group to Develop Film, TV Adaptations of Viz Media's Original Properties

Entertainment news website Deadline reported on Thursday that Viz Media and the Gotham Group have signed an agreement for the Gotham Group to develop film and television adaptations based on Viz Media's original properties, including titles from its Viz Originals graphic novels and the RWBY franchise that it had acquired.

The RWBY animated series has a 10th volume greenlit.

Viz Originals include Devil's Candy by Rem & Bikkuri, Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, Lynx by Sam Sattin, and Galaxic Baseball League by Acky Bright.

The Gotham Group is a film and television production company that has produced such titles as The Spiderwick Chronicles, The Maze Runner, Stargirl, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians, among others.

In July 2024, Viz Media acquired the RWBY series following Rooster Teeth shutting down. Viz Media owns the rights for future distribution, production, licensing, and consumer products. The company stated at the time that it was exploring the production of new chapters in the series.

The original RWBY web animated series by the late creator Monty Oum follows four girls with unique weapons and powers who are training to hunt supernatural "Creatures of Grimm." Rooster Teeth produced nine volumes and 117 episodes. The ninth volume began in February 2023 and ended in March 2024.

Shaft's RWBY: Ice Queendom television anime for the RWBY franchise premiered in Japan in July 2022. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan, and it also streamed an English dub.

Viz has published manga for the RWBY franchise, including Shirow Miwa's adaptation of the web animated series in Shueisha's Ultra Jump magazine from November 2015 to February 2017. Viz Media published the manga in its English edition of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine beginning in October 2017, and also published the manga in print. The company also published Bunta Kinami's RWBY: The Official Manga manga. Kinami launched the manga in Shonen Jump+ in December 2018, and ended it in June 2020. Additionally, Viz Media published the RWBY manga anthology series.

Rooster Teeth (RWBY, gen:LOCK) revealed in March 2024 in a memo from general manager Jordan Levin to its staff that, after 21 years, it was shutting down "due to challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage." Rooster Teeth had stated at the time that its parent company Warner Bros. Discovery would explore options for its IP such as RWBY and gen:LOCK.

Source: Deadline (Denise Petski)