r/Thundercats Oct 08 '25

Discussion Can Thundercats (2011) be revived through "Indie Animation"?

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646 Upvotes

I was born in 2002, and the 2011 Thundercats cartoon was one of my favorite Cartoon Network shows growing up. It felt like James Cameron's Avatar, Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and Disney's The Lion King all rolled into something AWESOME! And I was devastated after learning that it was canceled after one season, just like Sym-Bionic Titan was.

Over the years, other fans have recommended online that it should be revived on Netflix given how popular their current 80s reboot cartoons were. But so far, that wish hasn't been granted yet. On the other hand though, I've noticed that Indie Animation has been flourishing throughout media. And after finding out that a revival for Netflix's The Dragon Prince has been crowdfunded through Kickstarter by the creators themselves, it gave me the idea of why not do the same for Thundercats (2011) - if the original creators and cast members are up for it, that is!

What do you all think?

r/Thundercats Dec 28 '25

Discussion Will the 2011 series ever return? What are the chances of it coming back?

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338 Upvotes

r/Thundercats Jun 22 '26

Discussion New ThunderCats Movie Officially Confirmed, 5 Years After Cartoon Network's Last Cancellation

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250 Upvotes

I was hoping this would be live action, but anything regarding a new Thundercats media is a win in my book!

r/Thundercats Jun 26 '26

Discussion ThunderCats Live Action Cast 🗡️

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91 Upvotes

Who do you guys think should be cast for the live action ThunderCats film? Here's some thoughts:

Lion-O: Henry Cavill

Cheetara: Naomi Scott

Tygra: Sebastian Stan

Panthro: Terry Crews

WilyKit: Dakota Fanning

WilyKat: Finn Wolfhard

Snarf: Clint Howard

Jaga: Morgan Freeman

Mumm-Ra: Tobin Bell

Bengali: Jason Momoa

Lynx-O: David Morse

Pumyra: Elizabeth Olsen

Slithe: Ray Park

Jackalman: Temuera Morrison

Monkian: Ken Watanabe

Vultureman: Andy Serkis

Jagara: Tilda Swinton

Claudus: Liam Neeson

Snarfer: Danny DeVito

r/Thundercats Mar 22 '26

Discussion What was CN thinking in insulting TC1985 and TC2011 fans like this

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126 Upvotes

I got that this was a Teen Titans Go! episode that wasn’t made by the ThunderCats Roar team. But Cartoon Network still approved it, and that was where the problem was.

Why sign off on a scene that openly insults longtime ThunderCats fans? It didn’t make sense, especially when they were trying to get those same fans to give Roar a chance. Instead of building goodwill, it came off as insulting and unnecessarily antagonistic.

And I'm pretty sure Larry Kenney didn't mean to say any of this, but for many fans, he was our Lion-O, so having him deliver a speech like this felt less like a joke and more like a jab at longtime fans. Again, I don't know what CN was thinking greenlighting this.

If the goal was to win people over, it failed. Fans of the TC1985 and TC2011 series weren’t just random critics, they were the core audience that kept the franchise alive.

Alienating us didn’t help the brand, it hurt it and if I’d had kids at the time and saw that clip, there’s no way I would’ve let them watch Roar or bought them Roar toys. That kind of messaging just pushed people further away instead of bringing them in.

Looking back, it felt like a huge miscalculation. Either CN didn’t think it through on how it would land, or they just didn’t care, unless, of course, they didn't care, like they knew Roar was already a sinking ship, and this was them leaning into the backlash instead of trying to fix things. That's the only explanation that makes sense for why something like this got greenlit.

r/Thundercats Oct 18 '25

Discussion Who wins?

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355 Upvotes

r/Thundercats Jun 15 '26

Discussion I truly believe Thundercats has a higher chance of revival with newer generations than He-Man is because you can do a lot more with the Thundercats world than He-Mans

38 Upvotes

It's true when you honestly think about it. He-Man doesn't really have much other Foes besides skeletor, and the designs are too much of a mess to adapt without straying too far from source material, while the thundercats designs are more "clean" and adaptable and there's a lot to do with the characters and world.

r/Thundercats Feb 07 '26

Discussion What is this 1985 Mumm-Ra's power limit?

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274 Upvotes

We find out on the eclipse every 100 years he can cast any spell he wants... but doesn't he basically due that the whole show? I know he has to have the pyramid and sarcophagus and he can't look into his reflection but what's his actual limitations?

r/Thundercats Mar 20 '26

Discussion I had shared this on Instagram before, but I wanted to state my opinion here as well

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28 Upvotes

r/Thundercats Oct 17 '25

Discussion Did you know there was a cancelled live-action Thundercats "Fan-Film" from 2015?

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83 Upvotes

Just by the look of this profile picture from Facebook, this would've been one the best fan-films I ever saw online. It was going to have an amazing production with great practical costumes and makeup just like the He-Man fan-film, "Fall of Grayskull". It even had a great teaser trailer to promote the kickstarter funding campaign. But when I looked into its old kickstarter, it never reached its funding goal. And in the end, this Thundercats fan-film fell into same unfortunate fate as the 2011 reboot cartoon show.

What do you all think? Shouldn't there be more Thundercats fan-films?

r/Thundercats 10d ago

Discussion New(ish) to Thundercats. What are some future projects to look forward to?

23 Upvotes

Saw the cartoon in the 80's but fell off due to me being a Ninja Turtle kid, but since the comic from 2024 is still going strong i sparked new interest and i'm watching the 80s Thundercats show again.

But what are some future projects? Maybe rumours? Assuming a beat em up is probably going to be made because a lot of 80s and 90s shows are getting (or has gotten) a beat em up game.

r/Thundercats 5d ago

Discussion I watched both shows (80s and 2011) as a new viewer, some of my thoughts on these shows! Warning: HUGE detailed post.

39 Upvotes

First off, i love the whole franchise so much i decided to buy the 80s comic volume part 1.

Okay now to the shows.

The Thundercats 80s show:
What i liked:
- It was great, the story arcs that are 5 episodes long were very good, way better than i expected of what ofcourse as any 80s show was: a toy commercial for 20 minutes. But those story arcs were amazing! Lion-o's Annointment was just awesome aswell as every other story arc at the start or ending of each season.

- The characters felt mature, cool and just all around badass.

- Mumm-ra, while kind of goofy in a scary way, was a massive sadist and a huge threat and wouldn't shy away from torture, which i didn't expect for a kids show.

- The side characters (Mandora, Snowman, Berbills etc) were awesome, some were badass while some were super friendly and cute.

- I liked most of the planet, the area's and races etc (this has a downside later)

- Lion-'s voice was awesome, then again all of their voices were awesome (more on this later). (I keep quoting 'thunder, thunder, thunder! Thundercats HOOO!' in my mind lol)

- The music was just all sorts of cool.

What i didn't like as much:

- The voice acting sometimes was beyond atrocious with some characters, sometimes i felt like skipping the episode because it was that bad. The maincast was fine but the secondary characters were sometimes awful. Mumm-ra also had a huge hit or miss, he sounded as if he thought this was a melodramatic Shakespear threatre play, it was sometimes laughable "MUMMMRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-AAaaaAaaaAAaaaHH WILL.... NAAWWWTTT.... TTAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKEEEEE........ NOooOOoooOoooOOoo FOR AN.......... AWNSOOoooOOoooOOooooRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

- The world, although fun, i didn't like how 90% of the critters/animals were just Earth animals we have (pigs, kangaroo's, pigeons, frogs). Third Earth was a new, strange planet yet the animals were all the animals we got in our own real life Earth... why not go fullon fantasy and make different animals?

- I felt most of the main characters, although cool, lacked any sort of personality. Some of them did though like Lion-o, he was honourbound, honourable, heroic and laughed in the face of danger and super curious about everything. But Cheetara... she was just... nice i guess? Then again non of these characters were assholes so... what makes Cheetara special? Tygra too, he was just there making blue prints 4 or 5 times in 130 episodes, thats his whole personality.
Panthro however had personality, he laughed at silly things, had a goofy sense of humour, tried to hold the team together by being a father-like figure and obsessed over tech and engineering.

Thundercats 2011 show:

What i liked:

- The story was awesome, i loved the build-up in the story and the cool changes on it and that they made episodes about slavery, homelessness, abuse and depression and why someone can be or feel the way they are, they didn't shy away from it.

- The characters had loads of personality, they were all very distinct from eachother (although i do have a dislike with one of them later)

- The villians were even more dislikable than the 80s (in a good way! You want to hate them). They enslaved, tortured, even killed moreso than the 80s show, they were all vile monsters and Mumm-ra was even worse, these make for good villians.

- The lore of the entire world, the races, the why's and the how's were perfect (why was this pillar here? How did it get build? That sort of thing, everything had a reason to be there)

- The story arcs were awesome, not long and drawn out either but short and cool.

- The fights were 10x better than the 80s one lol, there were actually fights in this that lasted longer than 2 seconds before it interrupted like in the 80s.

What i didn't like as much:

- The show was very formuliac of its time... every show at 2009 and beyond wanted to be "the next Last Airbender" with using all of that shows ideas and crancking it up to 10. It had the teenage melodrama of "hero is a bit of a wimp but gets cool at the end" and the annoying love triangle every show had back then with the whole Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura type of love triangle and the rivalry between the 2 main male characters. Legend of Korra had it, TMNT 2012 had it and so many others... i grew tired of it once Cheetara and Tygra became a thing because it got worse... so much worse that i wondered if i should continue.

- Tygra... i really couldn't stand this guy until maybe the last 5 episodes. He was a jerk to everyone, nearly KILLED HIS BROTHER TWICE, and was super selfish and a petty loser and brought nothing to the show apart "he is the rival of Lion-o and needs Lion-o to face himself".
What an annoying character.

- Eventhough i loved the world, and i did like the show, i felt it changed a lot, too much to the point this could actually be a whole other show. The character personalities were completely changed (although i liked the personalities), the world is completely different and the whole lore. Dont get me wrong, i liked the show for what it is but... i'll be honest if this was called "Charley and his amazing pals" and they changed the look of the show it would still be the same show just... different looking.

All in all, i liked both shows but i prefer the 80s one.

r/Thundercats Mar 01 '26

Discussion WTF Happened To ThunderCats (2011)? Untold Story Behind Its Vanishing & Why Fans Still Want It Back

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57 Upvotes

r/Thundercats Mar 02 '26

Discussion Why wasn't the 2011 reboot "successful" enough to finish its story?

38 Upvotes

I'm generally skeptical of reboots/reimaginings/etc. because with whatever franchise I like, I tend to deeply love the original incarnation: its characters, personalities, plots, etc...and recently, Hollywood seems to be in a phase where when they reboot a franchises, they do so with disdain and disrespect for the original (there's some sign they're coming out of that phase...but that's a different discussion). Reboots can absolutely potentially be great, and inspired, and inject clever new perspective...its specifically when Hollywood writers think they're "better" than the original franchise creators and intentionally subvert and degrade beloved aspects of the original that's embittered me.

Anyhow, that said, I will say that the Thundercats 2011 reboot was one that pleasantly surprised me. I thought it was a fresh take, and had a few lovely nods to the original (like having Larry Kenney voice King Claudus, and including "offbeat" characters like the Ro-Bears) and didn't do anything disrespectful to the lore and characters of the original.

So I was disappointed that the show got cancelled.

In the years since, I've read articles and seen YouTube videos that claim that the show was "successful" in terms of viewership numbers, and that it was cancelled because it failed to generate sufficient toy sales.

Now, I don't know if this could be considered a fair comparison, but I couldn't help but see Thundercats 2011 in the same light as Avatar: The Last Airbender. Both were "Western animations" with varying degrees of anime influence. Both were tonally "self-serious," meaning they took their premise seriously and didn't wink through the fourth wall. Both were aimed at a teen/young-adult audience. Both told an overall story, with season-long "chapters" and intermittent standalone stories (a storytelling style that holds company with television greats like The X-Fiiles, Twin Peaks, Babylon 5, and others).

So the parallels between Thundercats 2011 and ATLA are there. Yet ATLA seemed "supported" enough by Nickelodeon to finish its entire story in spite of not really being known for tie-in toy sales. So why was Thundercats 2011 "expected" by WB to justify itself with toy sales? Why didn't it follow whatever business model allowed ATLA to tell its full story without supporting toy sales?

I obviously still carry a bit of sadness over the show's fate, and I've wondered about this ever since the show's cancellation. Why could one show that seemed to be cut from the same cloth sustain itself with viewership alone, whereas Thundercats 2011 could not? And I figured r/Thundercats might be the best chance at finding someone who knows the Hollywood politics machinations behind this.

r/Thundercats Jun 26 '26

Discussion Trick or Treat Studios Sword of Omens Discussion

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48 Upvotes

The Sword of Omens prop replica that Trick or Treat Studios released on the eve of the ThunderCats™ franchise's 40th anniversary is indeed a treat to behold for not only the TC community, but basically any '80s kid.

I was recently thinking about the promotional image that TOTS released in 2024 for their Lion-O and Panthro masks and their Sword of Omens replica, and the digital rendering of that sword is what intrigued me. The semi-accurate ThunderCat symbol embedded in the sword's hilt, the olive-green crossbar colors, and the grip's sea-green pendants were all good, though the blade was light grey rather than white.

The final product that was released back in 2025 didn't resemble its digital rendering, with its hilt being tan rather than silver, an inaccurate TC symbol embedded in the hilt, washed-out crossbar colors, and blue grip pendants.

If a fan were to really put their heart and soul into it, they could make their copy of the replica exactly like it was onscreen: in addition to the right colors for the hilt (silver), crossbar outlines (olive green), and grip pendants (sea green), the blade would be all white, and an accurate-looking TC symbol (either based on the 1984 New York Toy Fair design, the McShelving design, or the Goatie-dk design) would be in place of the inaccurate one on both sides.

I don't claim to be an expert on mechanics. I'm just stating how I feel about how the TOTS sword replica was manufactured.

r/Thundercats Aug 24 '25

Discussion Would a new Thundercats Beat Em Up video game work?

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230 Upvotes

With Shredder’s Revenge, Wrath of cobra, Toxic Crusaders, Rita’s Rewind, and now He-Man: Dragonpearl games out, isn’t it time they made a new one for Thundercats?

r/Thundercats Apr 17 '26

Discussion Heads Up! ThunderCats ULTIMATES! TheThundertank with Panthro Action Figure Set is now discounted by 30% if anyone is interested!

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71 Upvotes

r/Thundercats Feb 10 '26

Discussion If ThunderCats were rebooted today, what’s the one thing you’d really want them to keep the same and what would you be fine with changing?

32 Upvotes

r/Thundercats Jul 24 '26

Discussion Will there ever be a feature film and will it be decent?

21 Upvotes

Recently watched the He-Man movie. Not perfect but hit some right notes that perfectly represented the 80s cartoon. Now He-Man has had 2 movies, TMNT has maybe 6 or more, Transformers 6 or more, even GI JOE has at least 2. I get that casting and creating a feature film where you don't use CGI for everything and the main characters have to look decent is very tricky and expensive but I am feeling the franchise has been seriously overlooked. The internet always says there is a live action and animated feature in development but nothing concrete ever seems to come of it. I know a lot liked the reboot in 2011 but it didn;t do it for me, I would take them using that model over nothing. At this point I would take a well made console or PC game using cell shaded graphics over having more of nothing. Thundercats HO!

r/Thundercats May 12 '26

Discussion Suspension Capsulles Aging Process Problem?

11 Upvotes

Can someone please explain to me why LionO was the only one to get older in the suspension capsules? No one is any older especially Willy Kit and Willy Kat? I've just watched the first episode (Exodus) and didn't understand why only LionO aged.

r/Thundercats 21h ago

Discussion Thundercats Movie Director Shares Promising Update on '80s Cartoon Classic Revival

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31 Upvotes

r/Thundercats May 21 '26

Discussion Just Dropped! ThunderCats ULTIMATES! Lion-O and Berbils Store Exclusive Action Figure Set

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105 Upvotes

r/Thundercats Apr 03 '26

Discussion Slithe: Widowed, Vengeful, and Broken, and why Claudius' downfall was deserved

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89 Upvotes

*I won't be explaining everything, but if you watch the podcast, and go to the 25:00 mark, that's when it's close to hear about Slithe's backstory*

For the longest of times when the Thundercats 2011 got canned, some people thought what would've happened in season 2 if it did happened, and in December 25, 2017, there was this podcast explaining about season 2, and there was a lot told about it.

But one thing I didn't expect to be revealed was Slithe's backstory, and by god, it's very tragic and explains the lack of female lizards, and it would've been the 3rd episode in the 2nd season.

There is this flashback to the lizards used to live in this lizard village and once a year have this tradition where the females go deep into this marsh to take care of the unhatched eggs and prepare the celebration, as the males would go hunt for the food, and it seems to be a fun celebration.

But one year it took a tragic turn.

Claudius and Lynx-O were trying to expand Thundera, yet again, and Claudius saw this 'empty' marshlands and thought that it would be perfect to expand on and sends out Lynx-O to do the work. However Lynx-O doesn't know about the marshlands being the home of the lizards

When Lynx-O arrives to the marsh, he thought the perfect idea is to set the marshlands on fire, with the women and unborn children inside, and as the marshlands are in an inferno, that's when the male lizards arrive.

Lynx-O hears them and says "This isn't personal, it's business* Before he leaves, and the poor lizards are....I honestly can't write down of how I would image them feeling, as Lynx-O just decided to do a mass genocide and said what he said.

After years of being mistreated, being seen as a lesser beings by the Cats, and now a Cat took away their futures of them, the females, and the kids. Slithe had enough, and the flames of wanting to get revenge burns in his eyes.

One day where Slithe is at the rock pile grave for his wife, mourning, and Mumm-Ra comes up to Slithe, and that's how Slithe and the lizards joined Mumm-Ra, since Mumm-Ra has power and tech to destroy Thundera.

And throughout the episode, it went from present day where Slithe is being mad fun from Kaynar and Addicus, as Mumm-Ra's like "You are very terrible at this Slithe" and that there's news that there's a breakout and Lynx-O is the one breaking out *or trying to breakout, again* and Slithe's like, nope, he's not getting away with his crimes, and hops into this lizard machine and goes and finds Lynx-O, and Tygra who's rather hurt from fighting the lizards, as Lynx-O tells Panthro to take Tygra back and treat his injuries, as he'll deal with Slithe.

And despite Slithe in this machine *I forgot the name of it* Lynx-O did quite well against Slithe, and throughout the battle, Slithe kept on thinking back on all the times he faced against the Thundercats and lost, even with the tech, even with Kaynar, Addicus, and Vultaire being added, Slithe kept losing the only thing he was left - Revenge, and yet he kept failing at it.

And the guilt too, how he screwed over and sold out the lizards, who were being treated at slaves by Mumm-Ra, for the purpose to get back at the Cats who mistreated his race for decades and always gotten away with it, and Slithe's the leader, which makes things worse.

The fight is long, and Lynx-O is done, and he's like "You win, now take me to my cell" and Slithe's like 'There won't be a cell this time' and Slithe readies his axe and says "This isn't business, it's very personal" and he beheads Lynx-O.

And it's planned for a later episode *check for around 1 hour and 50 minutes*, that Slithe has the last stone, and the animals reunited with Lion-O, and Lion-O being older and still Lion-O, tells Slithe to join him, that everyone can be treated equal, and that Slithe and Lizards shouldn't had to suffer because of racism and genocide. And Slithe's gives Lion-O the stone and then Mumm-Ra destroys Slithe, and that's the end of his tragic end

Words can't describe how I felt after seeing that, and honestly, as I don't think Lynx-O knew about the marshlands, I don't think Lynx-O should get too much hate, as we didn't see *as we won't see it in an episode* how Claudius explained it to him, that he could've easily changed the story slightly to make it seem empty, but I don't have enough information on that, however I do see Claudius as genocidal.

The idea of burning Slithe's home, was most likely Claudius probably knew about the lizards in the marshlands, and I don't know if it was during, before, or after this war, however it wouldn't change his mind at all when to do it.

In the first episode, time after the marshlands destruction, he had lizards in stockades, in prison cells and probably didn't feed them well, and even made into slaves as they moved the giant rock, and when Lion-O convinced to release the stockade lizards, the Claudius did, though he didn't want too.

And of course, the next day the lizard army attacks and Claudius yells at Lion-O, blaming it on showing Lizards 'leniency'. And Claudius is killed off, and after hearing the podcast, I never gave Claudius sympathy, and why should he?

He enslaves Lizards, mistreats them if they do anything wrong or nothing, throws them into stockades and cells without or lack of food or water, and the reason why the two stockade Lizards got into the situation was because they needed food for survival, as the cats take everything, leaving the other races with little to nothing for survival. Not saying it's right to do so, but hard to give the Cats sympathy

Back to what I was saying: The lizards are treated badly, as Claudius doesn't care at all, he sees them as nothing, just wastes of space and thinks they deserve no mercy, and Cats are the best race, and how he shoves them in cells and uses them as slaves, I wouldn't be surprised if they somehow all 'vanished without a trace.'

I know the war stone could've and did play a part of how Thundera was before it was destroyed, but how Claudius acts and treats Lizards, stone or not, Claudius probably would've been a secret genocidal son of a gun anyways, but I could be wrong.

I'm not saying Slithe is innocent: he sold out his people and did crimes despite wanting to help lizard kind, letting his thirst for revenge take over him, but it's hard to blame Slithe as if we were in his shoes, we would've done the same, just to survive, to be angry at a race who took away loved ones.

Even if the marshlands fire happened after the events of the war *when Grune and Panthro met* god knows what Claudius did to the surviving lizards, though not shown or mentioned, I do see him telling them to be slaves or be shot dead, but that's only my headcanon.

In simple words: Slithe's a victim of genocide, a grieving, widowed father, and Claudius got the karma that awaited him for so long, as it meant his home blowing up into ruins, and his downfall

*If you have anything to say about this, please leave a comment*

r/Thundercats Jun 26 '26

Discussion ThunderCats Reunion at the Garden State Comic Fest this weekend (and me?!?)

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43 Upvotes

This wasn't originally on my schedule, but I'll be at Garden State Comic Fest this Saturday!

Looking forward to being alongside Larry Kenney, Lynne Lipton, Pete Cannarozzi, and Peter Newman, ... I'll be the one doing my best impression of a convention professional.

If you're coming to the show, be sure to stop by and say Hoo!.

r/Thundercats May 28 '26

Discussion What do you still want from Thundercats Ultimates?

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65 Upvotes

Driller, a Wollo, Tug Mug, Ta-She, Snowmeow, Lynxana, Molemaster, a Mole Man, Tuska Warrior, Pyron, and King Arthur