{"id":3990,"date":"2025-10-15T20:56:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/3990\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T20:56:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:56:38","slug":"roye-okupe-announces-malika-warrior-queen-animated-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/3990\/","title":{"rendered":"Roye Okupe Announces \u2018Malika: Warrior Queen\u2019 Animated Feature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Roye Okupe<\/a>, creator and showrunner of hit animated children\u2019s show Iyanu<\/a>, has revealed he is working on an anime-inspired feature adaptation of his graphic novel Malika: Warrior Queen in collaboration with New York-based The Co-Production Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tSet in a richly imagined 15th-century West African empire, Malika: Warrior Queen is billed as an epic tale of power, family, and destiny, following a young queen\u2019s rise from tragedy to legend as she unites a divided land under her rule.<\/p>\n

\n\tOkupe, who is writing and directing the feature, says it will combine the emotional precision of anime with the soul and rhythm of African storytelling, blending breathtaking action, political intrigue, and a visual style inspired by the pulse of Afrobeats.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe feature is produced by Doug Schwalbe at The Co-Production Company and multiple Emmy Award-winner Randy Dormans (Kung Fu Panda, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous).<\/p>\n

\n\tAward-winning Nigerian actress Adesua Etomi-Wellington<\/a> (The Wedding Party) will lead the cast as the voice of Malika and serves as Executive Producer, alongside Impact X Studios\u2019 Erica Motley and Okupe via his YouNeek Studios banner.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Okupe, the Iyanu and Malika: Warrior Queen adaptations are part of a larger ambition to build an Afro-Anime universe taking its cue from his acclaimed YouNeek YouNiverse, a collection of African-inspired fantasy graphic novels rooted in history and mythology, published and distributed by Dark Horse Comics.<\/p>\n

\n\tOriginally self-publishing under the banner of his multiplatform entertainment company YouNeek Studios, Lagos-born, U.S.-based Okupe signed a 20-book deal with Dark Horse in 2021. \u00a0Since 2016, more than 100,000 copies of the Malika comics and graphic novels have been sold worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMalika: Warrior Queen is more than a film, it\u2019s a mission: to show the world that African stories can stand shoulder to shoulder with the biggest franchises on the planet. Malika\u2019s journey mirrors the creative fight so many of us face: the struggle to lead with strength while still holding onto empathy, to build something lasting while carrying the weight of our past,\u201d said Okupe.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI want audiences around the world to feel Africa in every frame and to recognize that these are not just African stories. They\u2019re human stories,\u201d added the creator, who previously experimented with the onscreen potential of Malika with an animated pilot in 2019.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is currently in development, with Okupe now writing the screenplay and pre-production gearing up to begin soon.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRoye\u2019s YouNeek Youniverse of epic characters and stories is resonating globally.\u00a0 With the success of Iyanu on media platforms around the world and the incredible fan base support for the Malika graphic novels and short film, Malika, Warrior Queen promises to be a breakout hit,\u201d said The Co-Production Company Founder and President Doug Schwalbe.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBy teaming with Randy Dormans, we can bring TV economics to feature film production while delivering Royes\u2019 unique storytelling through elevated traditional 2D animation,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\n\tExecutive Producer Motley at Impact X Studios, said Malika: Warrior Queen heralded a new type of big screen hero.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMalika represents the kind of hero we rarely see \u2014 a woman who leads, fights, and loves with equal power,\u201d she said. \u201cHer story celebrates African history, but her struggle to claim her voice and define her destiny is universal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe announcement comes amid the continuing worldwide success of Iyanu \u2013 about a heroic young orphan living in the magical kingdom of Yorubaland \u2013 which was adapted from Okupe\u2019s graphic novel series\u00a0Iyanu: Child of Wonder.<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst launched in the U.S<\/a>. on HBO Max and Cartoon Network, the show ranked as the number one kids\u2019 series on Cartoon Network and a Top 10 Kids & Family title on HBO Max. It premiered on Showmax across 44 African countries in June, where it quickly became the top title in the Kids & Family category.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Roye Okupe, creator and showrunner of hit animated children\u2019s show Iyanu, has revealed he is working on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4217,4218,9,24,63,122,124,123,4219,4220],"class_list":["post-3990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-adesua-etomi-wellington","tag-iyanu","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-roye-okupe","tag-the-co-production-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}