D23: Disney Animation Announces Raya And The Last Dragon
Walt Disney Animation just revealed its upcoming project: Raya and the Last Dragon.
Walt Disney Animation Studios has taken the wraps off its next project, unveiling at the D23 Expo on Saturday Raya and the Last Dragon, which will star Cassie Steele and Crazy Rich Asians standout Awkwafina. A November 25, 2020 release date has been set.
Awkwafina adds to her Disney credits that soon will include Shang-Chi and the live-action The Little Mermaid. Steele is best known for starring on Degrassi: The Next Generation and also voices Tammy on Rick & Morty.
Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins (Big Hero 6, Frozen) are directing with Moana‘s Osnat Shurer producing. Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians) penned the script. The plot: a lone warrior from the fantasy kingdom of Kumandra teams up with a crew of misfits in her quest to find the Last Dragon and bring light and unity back to their world.
Check out the new logo for Raya and the Last Dragon, coming to theaters November 2020. #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/EfrXMbY1SU
— Disney Animation (@DisneyAnimation) August 24, 2019
“She’s not like any other dragon you’ve seen before,” @awkwafina says. “There’s a catch,” Sisu is also a human ? #RayaAndTheLastDragon
— cait petrakovitz ➡️ D23 ???? (@misscp) August 24, 2019
Raya will be an epic fantasy adventure with southeast Asian themes, writer Adele Lim said at the panel. The film is set in a realm called Lumandra, described as “a reimagined earth inhabited by an ancient civilization.” Five clans form the land of the dragon, and Raya is determined to find the last dragon.
Cassie Steele is the protagonist Raya, and the rapper Awkwafina (Nora Lum) plays the dragon, named Sisu. “She’s not like any other dragon that you’ve seen before; she’s a water dragon,” Awkwafina said.
Raya and the Last Dragon’s development goes back to 2017, when Disney shelved Gigantic, a re-telling of Jack and the Beanstalk that would’ve taken place in 15th century Spain and focused on the young hero befriending an 11-year-old giantess. “We are focusing our energies on another project that has been in the works,” Ed Catmull, the Walt Disney, and Pixar Animation Studios president said at the time.
Just Announced: Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon, starring @cassandrasteele (Raya) and @Awkwafina (Sisu, the Last Dragon). Check out all-new concept art, and see the film in theaters November 2020. #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/V40bv64IIp
— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) August 24, 2019
Raya and the Last Dragon is expected to release on November 25, 2020.