{"id":47225,"date":"2025-09-27T18:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/47225\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T18:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:07:07","slug":"genndy-tartakovsky-releases-test-footage-for-black-knight-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/47225\/","title":{"rendered":"Genndy Tartakovsky Releases Test Footage for ‘Black Knight’ Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime animator Genndy Tartakovsky<\/a> has a new film he\u2019s working on called\u00a0Black Knight,\u00a0and to get it made, he\u2019s calling on his longtime audience for assistance.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the\u00a0Unicorn: Warriors Eternal <\/a>and\u00a0Star Wars: The Clone Wars\u00a0alum released test footage for the film, which he\u2019s been working on with his team for nearly a decade. Tartakovsky said on Instagram<\/a> that Sony Animation \u201cliked what we were doing, but they were unsure if there is an audience that would go see it theatrically. So to try something different, I thought I would share the test to see if it can get a ground swell of excitement that would change the studio\u2019s mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black Knight\u00a0is an original film centered on a 14th century knight operating a 20-foot tall suit of armor \u201cusing ropes, pulleys, and levers,\u201d said Tartakovsky. While short, the footage shows our unnamed hero using a massive sword to fight a human-sized ninja armed with a kusarigama. The knight\u2019s got the size advantage, but the ninja has speed on her side, though we don\u2019t get much of an idea of what that would look like.<\/p>\n

Still, the concept here is promising: the armor carries a lot of weight and the forest they\u2019re fighting in looks gorgeous. Tartakovsky\u2019s got plenty of CG experience thanks to his\u00a0Hotel Transylvania\u00a0movies, and you can bet it\u2019d look good from start to finish.<\/p>\n

Why wouldn\u2019t Sony Pictures Animation want to make\u00a0Black Knight\u00a0for theaters? Because, as discussed during KPop Demon Hunters<\/a>\u2018 rise, original animated movies finding an audience are a crapshoot, and there\u2019s no telling what hits in the moment or takes off after the fact. (Nobody cared about Elemental<\/a>\u00a0until Disney changed its marketing strategy and it took off big in South Korea, for example.)<\/p>\n

If Sony did put it in theaters, promoting it as \u201cfrom the studio behind\u00a0KPop\u201d might also have general audiences thinking it\u2019s only coming to theaters for a week or two before jumping over to Netflix. Whatever deal the two companies struck in 2021 that\u2019s resulted in KPop\u00a0and Tartakovsky\u2019s recent raunchy 2D comedy\u00a0Fixed\u00a0hitting the streamer first doesn\u2019t apply here, and Sony would probably like to not give every animated movie it owns over to Netflix right away.<\/p>\n

None of this should take away from the fact that\u00a0Black Knight\u00a0should get made, given Tartakovsky\u2019s pedigree and relationship with Sony. That\u2019s what matters first and foremost, and with luck, enough interest will be drummed up that we can see it in some format in the years to come. Until then, there\u2019s always Fixed, Primal,\u00a0and everything else he\u2019s made.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n