‘Iyanu’ Creatives Reveal the Magical Secrets of ‘The Age of Wonders’

Fans of Lion Forge’s animated series Iyanu have a big treat in store for them this weekend when the show’s prequel movie Iyanu: The Age of Wonders premieres on Cartoon Network and HBO Max. Set in the mythical ancient Yorubaland, the 90-minute feature follows Dara and Ishe, two young warriors who must stop the rise of Meje, the embodiment of the seven deadly sins.

Written and directed by graphic novel/series creator and exec producer Roye Okupe, with comics and animation veteran Brandon Easton (Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy, Avengers Assemble, Agent Carter, Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven) as story editor and co-writer, the movie is set five centuries before the rise of the titular heroine.

“This film is a love letter to African mythology and a celebration of our heritage,” says Okupe. “We’re expanding the world of Iyanu in a way that honors its origins while giving fans new heroes and legends to connect with.” We had the chance to chat with Okupe and Easton about this exciting new project. Here is what they told us:

Animation Magazine: Gentlemen, congratulations on the debut of this charming new Iyanu movie. Can you tell us a bit about how it all came to be?

Roye Okupe: When Brandon and I first started breaking the story for the entirety of the show, one of the things that came up very organically was to do a 10-episode season instead of 13 episodes, and then have a three sequential episodes that would be self-contained as a stand-alone way to end the season. It was just a natural decision to put those three together and release the prequel as a movie. This quite similar to what you saw in Star Wars right, where you had Episodes 4, 5 and 6 and then the prequel movies went back to sort explain how everything went to crap! For us, it was really about obviously setting the tone with Season 1 at first, but then giving more context as to why certain things happen, and fleshing out some of the stories about the Divine Ones, who are essentially the gods of Yorubaland.

We wanted to bring an epic feel to the universe. Often, when we talk about mythology, people only think about Greek or Norse mythologies, and maybe Egyptian mythology to some extent. We wanted to bring West African mythology to the forefront. Age of Wonder really dives into all the lore. However, at the end of the day, it really falls back to characters that people fall in love with and great characters that people can see themselves in.

Brandon Easton: When we were laying out Season 1, there were a bunch of like little puzzle pieces, like a Jenga set that we were pulling out certain moments so that we could drop hints about. We could leave a trail of bread crumbs of theme, lore and incidents that completely informed all of the first season. The best thing to do is for people to stream or binge all of Season 1 and then watch the movie, because as Roye said, just like in Star Wars prequels, where there were a lot of things that were hinted at in the original trilogy that you understood more about later — like that’s why he behaved that way or that’s why this look like that …. all of that is in The Age of Wonders. Without spoiling anything, you get to see what the world was before this great catastrophe occurred. It was a great process because when you’re working toward a story goal, and you know the end zone, it makes a lot of planning of the first 10 episodes easier.

When you were creating the show, did you always have this prequel story in mind?

Roye: Yes, we knew we were going to do the prequel before we even put pen to paper for Episode 1 It’s very helpful when you don’t just come up with that in the middle of writing, because then you’re sort of like scampering around trying to figure out those Jenga pieces, and it doesn’t feel natural. That’s why we started to sow the seeds that would pay off in the prequel movie in different episodes.

Roye, you’re based in Maryland, and Brandon you’re in L.A. Where was the animation produced and when did you actually start working on it?

Roye: The series and the movie are produced by Lion Forge, but the animation studio was NE4U, which is based in Korea. I think we started working on it towards the end of 2020. That’s when I and executive producers Erica Motley and Doug Schwalbe were looking for an excellent storyteller to come in and be our head writer and story editor. I’ve been a fan of Brandon for a very long time and I’ve looked up in in so many ways. He has written so many of my favorite comics; Superman, Batman, Transformers, Andre the Giant.

As a first-time showrunner and creator, I was very fortunate to be able to partner with someone like Brandon, who has so much experience and also gave me the room to express myself. He mentored me and allowed me to bring out the best in myself. There are a lot of things that you can’t learn when you’re doing this for the first time. When you’re thrown into the fire, you need people who can support you and hold your hand through the process. We’ve worked together for five years now. I think people are going to see that the movie is really the most ambitious thing we’ve done.

Can you talk about the visuals of the movie a bit?

Brandon: I remember I was getting off the train to San Diego at Comic-Con and I saw Roye’s post on Facebook about it. It was crazy and crowded I was trying to look at it. From what I could see, it featured this incredibly vibrant lush animation. The show looks great, but the movie was truly on a whole other level. I couldn’t hear the music, but when I eventually got inside to the panel at Comic-Con, I actually got to see it with the fans the first time. I was sitting there just stunned. There were all these great moments when we were writing the script and Roye had written some really emotional scenes and they impacted me on the page like a gut punch. Knowing that that writing was going to be animated on the big screen really just blew my mind. I just feel that when people get to see the Divine Pantheon, and realize how things came about to get us to the beginning of Iyanu, it will be a great experience. I’m emotional thinking about it right now.

Roye: A lot of times you hear people throw around the phrase, “You’ve never seen anything like this before,” but in this context, it actually is very true. Unfortunately, that’s because you don’t get to see a lot of animated series or any kind of programming that is inspired by African culture. I know we have Black Panther and many more things that have come out recently. But for Iyanu, every single thing you see on screen was inspired by something that connects back to the real Yorubaland. For me getting to see things that I grew up in an animated medium done so well in a way that respects the culture that I grew up with was it was a very humbling experience.

Our readers seem to have really connected to the series. What kind of feedback have you gotten since the show premiered?

Roye: Lion Forge deserves a lot of credit, because we were allowed to really be authentic to Yoruba culture and Nigerian culture. We see a lot of times people claim that they want to be diverse and they say they want to do something authentic. But then, the pressure comes in term of money or timelines, they begin to make compromises that I feel dilute the whole intention. The mission of Lion Forge is tell diverse stories authentically, and Iyanu is the embodiment of that. We’re also very cognizant that we want people from anywhere in the world to watch this show and see themselves in our characters. I fell in love with Spider-Man, not because he was American, [but] because he was getting bullied and he got these powers and didn’t want anybody else to be bullied. That was something that I fantasized about as a child, because I also got bullied.

Getting to see people from different walks of life from all over the world with different backgrounds talk about our characters and see themselves reflected on the screen was the most rewarding experience for a creator. When we went to Comic-Con and fans were talking about the episodes and what was happening in each episode, that interaction and connection with the audience is simply amazing.

Brandon: I was thinking about all the interactions I’ve had before the show’s launch and after the launch: There was a tangible excitement way before it ever came out. I’m not really around a lot of young people anymore, because I used to be a school teacher. But I sent the HBO Max link to my friends who had kids. Then, we went to Comic-Con and I was blown away by the fan response. There was a woman in the audience who spoke to Roye in the Yoruba language during the Q&A. There was such a sense of emotional honesty, and you could tell that she was genuinely touched by whatever she saw in the show.

Since the show’s launch, I’ve heard that people say the show is not just meant for kids. It’s not talking down to the kids: We’re not being condescending or simple-minded. We are talking to young audiences on the same level of anime and manga. That’s why anime is is so successful with American kids, because they’re not being pandered to. We made this conscious effort during the course of the whole show to never talk down to children which is why we have a complex political storyline in the middle of it I feel that our audience feels respected because of that.

Can you reveal anything about the second season of the show for us?

Roye: Well, l we released some images at Comic-Con. What we can say about Season 2 is that we’re very excited about the antagonist. Adura, who is the main antagonist, is such a fascinating multidimensional character; I just I can’t wait for people to see how her interactions with Iyanu. As Brandon mentioned, we talk to kids about really important subjects — things like war, politics, strife, unforgiveness and things that happen on a day-to-day basis in our world. Through social media, kids are honestly exposed to so many things, but we still want to protect them obviously. In Season 2, there’s a civil war brewing in Yorubaland, so we get to see the interaction of two different factions, and they both believe that that they are the heroes of the story. We’re very proud of our first season, but I think Season 2 is much better. I can tell you that we took it to another level!

Brandon: I’m not going to talk about the content of Season 2, but I can talk about its vista, which is much larger in the sense that we get to see even more of Yorubaland. We get to explore the cracks and crevices as well as day-to-day life outside of the city which is something that we were planning from the star. I would say it’s just like The Empire Strikes Back, where we got to see and spend more time with the Rebellion in a way you never did before. I feel that people who have watched a lot of big epic anime shows and movies over the years particularly shows like Attack on Titan and the newer Gundam stuff will understand that our tapestry gets laid out much bigger. That’s what’s in store in the second season!

Iyanu: The Age of Wonders premieres on Saturday, August 30 at 9:30 a.m. ET/PT on Cartoon Network, and will be available to stream the next day on HBO Max. The movie is produced by Roye Okupe, David Steward II and Nicole L. Thompson. The all-African voice cast includes Shaffy Bello, Babajide Oyekunle, Ike Ononye, Sisan Victor-Woko and Serah Johnson (Iyanu).