In many ways, Disney is the king of movie franchises. Not only is the studio home to behemoths like Star Wars, James Cameron’s Avatar, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also has a strong track record of turning its iconic animated films into mini-universes in their own right. That’s even before they inevitably produce live-action remakes.

Last week, news broke that Disney is looking to add another valuable property to its stable: Impossible Creatures, the middle grade/YA book series by Katherine Rundell. The books, which follow a young boy named Christopher who discovers a fantastical cluster of islands brimming with magical creatures, have become huge successes.

Over 4 million copies have been sold worldwide, and Rundell became the first U.K. children’s author to reach No. 1 on the charts in both the U.K. and the U.S. since J.K. Rowling. Even its journey to becoming a movie has already been notable, as studios like Netflix and Warner Bros. fought for the rights before Disney scored them in a seven-figure deal.

Impossible Creatures landing at Disney is a huge achievement for Rundell, but it can also be huge for the Mouse House itself. If handled properly, this franchise could give Disney something massive and restore its reputation as a fantasy juggernaut.

Disney’s Impossible Creatures Movie Can Give The Studio A YA Fantasy Franchise

Though franchises like Star Wars and the MCU have a lot of young fans, few would likely define them as YA properties, even though they might occasionally dabble in the genre. Disney has never really had anything to rival Warner Bros.’ Harry Potter or Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games; it hasn’t truly built a theatrical live-action franchise off a successful young adult book series.

The closest it has come is perhaps its Chronicles of Narnia movies, which do remain quite beloved to this day. However, those films draw from books that had spent decades accumulating an audience, whereas franchises like Harry Potter sprung to life as their book counterparts were gaining traction worldwide and, in some cases, still releasing new installments.

Disney has attempted to breach the YA space before. In 2020, the studio released its long-gestating Artemis Fowl adaptation, a project that almost certainly had franchise aspirations. However, it was dumped on Disney+ during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its poor critical reception — which came from fans of the book as well as professional critics — prevented it from gaining a proper following.

Since then, Disney has found success with a different beloved YA fantasy series: Percy Jackson & the Olympians. However, it has been turned into a streaming show rather than a big screen adventure. This has suited Percy Jackson quite well, as author Rick Riordan has been heavily involved in the project and supports its ability to dig deeper into the books’ story.

Nevertheless, there’s little question that movie theaters have missed a reliable, hugely popular YA franchise in the vein of Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Maze Runner. Impossible Creatures, with its early success and acclaim, can be the perfect adaptation to turn this trend around for both Hollywood and Disney.

The fanbases behind YA series can be the most devoted in the world; that there are new projects on the way for Harry Potter and The Hunger Games can attest to this. Fans devour the books and then eagerly head to the theater to see them brought to life on the big screen. For Disney, this is a huge opportunity that it cannot squander.

This Can Be A New Era For Disney

For so long, Disney was the Hollywood studio that felt most akin to a storybook, producing big screen adventures that could take audiences from the high seas of Pirates of the Caribbean to Narnia. However, as the 2010s set in and the studio faced misfires like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and A Wrinkle in Time, it turned its back on newer properties.

Instead, Disney put all the focus on franchises like Star Wars and the MCU, and it put a slew of live-action remakes into development. Rather than being a beacon of originality, it became the go-to definition of risk-averse, mechanical filmmaking. Disney hasn’t really launched a fresh, successful franchise since Pirates of the Caribbean and The Chronicles of Narnia in the early 2000s.

All of this can change with Impossible Creatures. Rather than producing films and remakes based on IP no one is really looking for — Jungle Cruise, Snow White — Disney seems to be paying attention to what is popular among young audiences today. Impossible Creatures has the potential to grow its audience alongside the movies as more books are released and more fans check them out.

Disney returning to the type of fantasy filmmaking it excelled at in the early 2000s would be a huge move, and a smart one. As is clear with something like Harry Potter, the big-screen adventures viewers go on when they are young can stick with them forever, prompting repeat viewings every single year and a desire to pass them along to future generations.

Percy Jackson might’ve proven to Disney that there’s power in YA worlds, but it’ll be Impossible Creatures that can give the studio the huge breakout success it sorely needs. If Disney actually invests in making this a vibrant, original world, it could become Hollywood’s next sensation.