‘Trollhunters’ Writer Aaron Waltke Tapped as ‘Wings of Fire’ Showrunner

Aaron Waltke — a Daytime Emmy-winning writer-director-producer known for his work on Guillermo del Toro’s Tales of Arcadia series Trollhunters and Wizards, as well as Star Trek: Prodigy — has been appointed the showrunner for the animated series adaptation of Tui T. Sutherland’s bestselling fantasy novel series Wings of Fire. 

The project was initially set up at Netflix as a 10-episode series in 202, from Warner Bros. Television and set to be executive produced by Ava DuVernay. but was dropped from the streamer’s slate in 2022. Amazon MGM Studios picked up Wings of Fire for its animation development slate in 2024 and announced an all-new creative team under executive producer Marc Resteghini (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Jack Ryan), former head of series for then-Amazon Studios, through Jack Tar Productions and its overall deal with Amazon MGM.

The logline for the upcoming Prime Video series reads: Five young dragons have been raised in secret, destined by prophecy to end a terrible war. But when one of their own is threatened, they decide to escape and find their own fate — saving themselves and the rest of their world along the way.

Launched in 2012 by Scholastic, the Wings of Fire franchise comprises 15 novels as well as supplementary books and a graphic novel version. The books have sold more than 27 million copies worldwide, landing at No. 1 on best-seller lists for USA Today and New York Times. 

Watke most recently served as a staff writer and co-executive producer on Star Trek: Prodigy, the franchise’s first-ever animated series aimed at kids. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for writing on Trollhunters in 2018, as well as a second nomination the following year. He wrote and worked on the story for the follow-up mini-series Wizards. His animation credits also include story editor and writer on Unikitty!

[Source: Variety]