The Hollywood Reporter (Weekly)
How Nimona’s Universal Tale Expands Inclusion
The Netflix animated film, based on ND Stevenson’s webcomic about a punky shape-shifter and two gay knights and featuring an LGBTQ voice cast, breaks new ground for animated family movies: ‘It has always had this transness and gender fluidity at its heart’
When ND Stevenson, executive producer of Nimona, discusses the fiery titular character of Netflix’s upcoming animated film, he uses descriptors rare for a lead: angry, punky, chubby, weird. “She’s this teen girl who wants to murder people,” he says of the charmingly chaotic shapeshifter. “She’s a character with a lot of pain and anger at her heart, and that’s why she exists.” For Stevenson, Nimona is a “power fantasy” — an avatar and alter ego — but one who is equally wounded, scared and desperate to be seen and loved. “When I made her,” he says, “I was doing it for my own catharsis.” Based on his webcomic turned graphic novel, Nimona is set in a medieval future society, where advancements in science and tech are controlled by a highly militarized and surveilled state. Within its towering walls, the feared Nimona (voiced by Chloë Grace Moretz) comes to the aid of Lord Ballister Blackheart, an outcast knight, when he is accused of a crime. Significantly, Blackheart (Riz Ahmed) is one of animated cinema’s first gay leads, groundbreaking territory in an industry that has still struggled to tell LGBTQ stories. The film, out June 30, also features a sizable number of LGBTQ actors — RuPaul, Indya Moore, Julio Torres, Eugene Lee Yang — in its voice cast.