Disney’s New Magic: Is Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures the Next Harry Potter?

While HBO is busy rebooting Harry Potter and dealing with all the baggage that comes with it, Disney is quietly trying to grow its own fantasy behemoth. The studio just bought Katherine Rundell's Impossible Creatures series for a reported seven-figure sum, and yep, Rundell herself is writing the screenplays. If you were wondering whether Disney wants a new four-quadrant fantasy franchise it fully owns, this is your sign.

What Disney actually bought

Impossible Creatures is a new fantasy saga from acclaimed British author Katherine Rundell. Disney snagged the rights in a deal said to be in the seven figures, and Rundell will adapt her books for the studio. Analysts are already putting the property in the same bucket as Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Twilight in terms of franchise potential.

The book series at a glance

• Series size: Initially conceived as a trilogy, now expanded to five core books, with spinoffs and prequels planned.
• What is out: Two of the five are on shelves now. Book 1 arrived in 2023; Book 2, The Poisoned King, just debuted.
• Sales: 4 million copies worldwide.
• Awards: In 2024, Rundell won Author of the Year and Children’s Book of the Year at The British Book Awards.

So what is Impossible Creatures about?

Short version: classic kid-meets-secret-world, but with a mythic bestiary that actually feels mythic.

Christopher rescues a drowning baby griffin and, in doing so, stumbles into the Archipelago — a cluster of unmapped islands where magical creatures have lived for thousands of years. There he meets Mal, a girl on the run who needs his help. Together they bounce from island to island trying to figure out why the magic is fading and why creatures are dying. Along the way, they consult sphinxes, battle kraken, and negotiate with dragons. The deeper they go, the clearer it gets: no one else is coming. If the Archipelago is going to survive, Mal and Christopher have to be the ones to save it.

Disney is not subtle about its ambitions here

Bob Iger read the first book and basically planted a flag.

"When I read Impossible Creatures, I knew it belonged here at Disney. I was immediately drawn into the vibrant world Katherine imagined and the possibilities of what we could do together with this story. Written by Katherine herself, these movies are in the best of hands with our Walt Disney Studios team, and I can't wait to see this tale brought to the screen."

Rundell, for her part, says she is thrilled to be doing the scripts and developing the first films with Disney, alongside Charles and her outfit Impossible Films. She also singled out Iger for getting the collaboration moving, and name-checked Alan Bergman and David Greenbaum as key partners. The goal, per Rundell, is to build both Impossible Creatures and the world of Glimouria into a full-on series of films for family audiences around the world.

A few inside-baseball notes

That Glimouria mention is the broader world the story inhabits, so expect franchise-building from day one. Also, worth flagging: this is a brand-new IP, not a reboot, and it arrives with real momentum — strong sales, big awards, and a clean slate. For Disney, that combination is catnip. For fantasy fans, it might be the rare modern series that actually leans into ancient-creature mythology without sanding off the edges.