Filmmaker Andy Muschietti broke all kinds of records with his adaptation of Stephen King’s novel It in 2017 and now he’ll turn his attention to another adaptation of a wildly popular literary work: Hajime Isayama’s bestselling manga series Attack on Titan.
Muschietti will develop Attack on Titan as a series of films, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with Harry Potter franchise producer David Heyman attached to the project along with Masi Oka (Heroes) and Barbara Muschietti (It). No screenwriters have reportedly been hired for the adaptation at this point.
First published in Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine on September 9, 2009, Attack on Titan is set in a post-apocalyptic world where humans live within high-walled cities that protect them from gigantic, humanoid creatures known as Titans that attack and eat anyone they can catch. The story follows a group of childhood friends who join the military force tasked with locating and killing Titans — a unit that also has an extremely high mortality rate. The friends soon find themselves caught up in a mystery that delves into the mysterious origin of the Titans and the politics that dominate the remaining pockets of human civilization.
One of the most successful manga series of all time, Attack on Titan currently consists of 26 collected volumes that have sold more than 76 million copies as of August 2018. The series has also spawned a critically praised anime series that debuted in 2013, as well as a two-part, live-action Japanese film (see trailer above) released in 2015, and a long list of video games, novels, and tie-in projects that explore the series’ supporting cast of characters, prequel stories, and other elements of the saga.
Prior to directing It, Muschietti directed the well-received 2013 horror film Mama. The second part of his It adaptation is currently filming and is scheduled to hit theaters in September 2019. It was released in September 2017 and earned more than $327 million in U.S. theaters and $700 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing horror movie and the fourth highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time domestically.
Muschietti’s Attack on Titan movie is one of several adaptations of manga series currently in various stages of development or production, with Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel hitting theaters in February 2019, and adaptations of Detective Pikachu and My Hero Academia also in development. There’s currently no timeline for the Attack on Titan movie to begin production.
