Rumor has it, that an Animorphs 2.0 might be in the works...with Scholastic!

[Azguard]

30,000 is considered small in california where my home town, Anaheim, is considered average at 250,000 335,000 people.

[Kyle]

So I asked David Mattingly if he had been approached to do the new covers, and he says he hadnt even heard about the revival til I mentioned it. I think it would be a shame if they didnt have the original cover artist handle the new ones.

[anijen21]

lol really

ps how do you know david mattingly?

[Kyle]

I dont really, just found him on his Youtube account.

[anijen21]

ooh...

[Terenia]

Actually, I don't think I'd mind a new artist having a hand at it. Mattingly obviously left a pretty solid impression on the series, but his style was very 90's. If they're updating the series they need a more modern type of cover with a lot more glitz and whatnot than the last books. One of the big things they are changing is the cover art, and it's obviously because they want to update it, so....I can understand going with a new artist.

[Kyle]

How is his style 90s? Maybe the clothing the characters wore, the hair cuts, etc, but that's not really part of his style. those can be changed. and I'm not even so sure you can really assign a painting style to a decade... unless you go way back into vintage stuff.

[Essam 293]

Mattingly did a great job with the 50+ covers for Animorphs, but I also agree with Terenia, in that I wouldn't mind giving another artist a try at a new style for the covers, if they were completely remaking them anyway.

It wouldn't surprise me though, if Scholastic just reused the current covers to make them 3D. (Nothing's confirmed at the moment, just my guess).

[Kyle]

I dont think they would be able to make 3d covers without the original photoshop files of each cover. it can be done, but not effeciently enough.
and its not like their actually remaking them, just re printing. Even if they changed a few references here and there it would still have the same content as before. why in that case would you want to try a new artist? this is not the time to do it. maybe if they were to to actually continue the series (or a total reboot of sorts) then I would agree.

[Terenia]

It is not uncommon for a reprint of a series to have a new more up-to-date cover style, usually with a different artist. The Alanna series, for example, by Tamora Pierce went through a reprint and they changed the covers drastically. Nowadays book publishers tend to lean towards 'darker' covers that eek of mystery and more gothic themes, whereas in the 90's, when the monthly kid series was popular, they went for 'lighter', less realistic themes. IMO it's kind of like comparing the Ani cover art with the Everworld cover art.

Besides, Scholastic made a point to mention new holographic covers as a part of the re-release. In fact, that's the ONLY thing they mentioned really. I think it stands to reason that they mentioned it because they want to go in a new direction with them.

[aareavis]

I was searching for a different topic entirely and found this.  I must say that my heart skipped a little at the title.  It's probably just a rumor but I like to speculate.  I would love to see a revamped series with slightly older kids (14-15 instead of 12-13), a little language, maybe even a little sex.  Maybe not nightly romps in the bedroom (and certainly not rated R) but at least seeing the kids thinking about sex.  And, as for language, none of this, "And [insert favorite animorph] said a few choice words" BS.

[donut]

I think I would like that.  Older characters, aimed at an older audience, longer books.  But at the core, they would have to stay the same.  The issues the characters dealt with, maybe a little refinement more development and diversity, would have to be about the same. 
The sense of humor of the books was what really got me hooked (twice) so that would definitely have to stay.
The shades of grey in the series, that you aren't really that different from your enemy, when is killing ethical, when is it not, what's justified in a war for your very survival, how you can fight without becoming the very thing you're fighting against, that would definitely have to stay.

I'm not really against more romantic involvement between the characters, but I do not want to see the series become about that, I hate it when that takes over the plot of stories.

Maybe some more moments like in the books 20-22 where there's this utter desperation, and exhaustion, where it's not about a quick battle but a slow methodical chess game.  Although again these moments shouldn't completely take over the series it would be really cool if there were more of them.

Times when people pay the price for making the morally correct decision.  I mean, I'm hard pressed to think of a time when it bit them in the butt for taking the moral high ground despite that they did it a lot.

Less avoidance of killing in the series, most of the time the books went out of their way to mention that they didn't kill some one in a fight.  I  absolutely do not want to see violence and killing just for the sake of violence and killing, but I also don't want to see it avoided just for the sake of it being avoided.  If it fits the story then it should happen.  The avoidance of it also waters down some of the ethical and emotional dilemas the characters face.

[Terenia]

It would be nice, but we have to keep in mind that AppleGrant has absolutely ZERO involvement in the reprinting process, so I doubt there will be too much rewriting done. At absolute most they may re-edit them and fix up some consistencies. Or, the other route they could take, is to get a ghost writer of some sort to take over the re-write, and we all know how hit and miss that can get...

[donut]

Really? she's not involved?  wow, then yeah, just clearing up the inconsistances would be fine, not even updating the references and stuff would prolly be good since that's where a lot of the humor came from.

Why isn't she involved?

[Terenia]

No clue. Scholastic never contacted them about being involved. They haven't been contacted at all in regards to the process and, since Scholastic owns the copyright, they technically don't have to be. Scholastic can do whatever they want with the Animorphs brand, with or without KA and Michael's consent.

Both Applegate and Grant have expressed a certain amount of...dissatisfactio n...over this fact.

Another factor is that both authors are currently quite busy with separate projects. Applegate is working on her children's lit (specifically Home of the Brave) and Grant is busy with GONE and Magnificent 12.