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Italic text Wonderstorm, Inc. is a Los Angeles based media studio founded by three former Riot employees, Aaron Ehazs, Justin Santistevan, and Justin Richmond, in 2017. It is most popular for its animated fantasy show on Netflix, The Dragon Prince, which premiered on September 14, 2018 with its second season out. A “AAA-quality” video game adaptation of the show, which will be set in the same universe, is expected to be released as well, although no set release date has yet been announced.

History
The company originated in 2016 when the three founders left their previous jobs at Riot Games to join and create their own studio. Aaron Ehasz, best known for his position as the head writer and director of the renowned series Avatar: The Last Airbender, began the company alongside Justin Richmond and Justin Santistevan. The former being the director of the popular playstation video game, “Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception”, and the latter having worked 4 years at Riot Games on its flagship franchise League of Legends. Giancarlo Volpe, who had directed 19 episodes of Last Airbender had also been brought along by Ehasz to help in directing the show. (Kleinman, 2018) Furthermore, Wonderstorm is being supported by MWN, its lead investor and executive producer for both the game and show. MWN will be helpful in the production of this franchise due to its interests in various mediums including TV, VR/AR, film and live events. The first season of the Netflix original, The Dragon Prince, was released on September 14, 2018, while season two came out on February 15, 2019; each season having 9 episodes. A third season has been confirmed.

Noteworthy people
Aaron Ehasz one of the founders of Wonderstorm, has worked as a story editor and script writer for Fox’s Futurama which ended in 2003. After that he worked on the popular Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, as the head writer and co-executive producer. Ehasz’s work during this period is what he is best known for. Although the live-action film of the series was received unpleasantly by fans, the original animated series is still highly respected. In 2007, he was also nominated for an Emmy award for his efforts on the second season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Ehsaz returned to the writing team for Futurama after its revival by Comedy Central in 2009. Later on in 2017, Ehasz co-found Wonderstorm and released its first animated Netflix original show, The Dragon Prince in September 2018. (Robinson, 2018)

Justin Richmond, previously having worked as a game developer on Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and game director on Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, is the second cofounder of Wonderstorm along with Ehasz. (Robinson, 2018) Relatively little is known about the third co-founder and president of Wonderstorm, Justin Satistevan. He had gone to Stanford business school, where he planned to focus his career on finance and equity, but then later entered the entertainment industry where he first encountered Ehasz, his future co-partner. Both eventually started to work at Riot and met Richmond there. Satistevan was the head of finance for Riot’s research and development department. All three then left together in 2015 to start a new studio which would be known as Wonderstorm. (Marquez, 2018)

The dragon prince
The Dragon Prince is an animated fantasy TV show aimed towards a broad audience, challenging the way kids think while also being enjoyable for adults. The story is set up in a fantasy world where different creatures live in harmony guided by six forms of nature-based magic. This peace takes a sudden turn due to humans discovering dark magic, and creating conflict by murdering the dragon king and his egg being destroyed (later found out it was actually stolen). The story in season 1 starts off by following Ezren and Callum, two young princes, along with a Moonshadow elf, Rayla, to return a dragon egg to its mother and restore peace (Freeman, 2019)

The story relies on the diversity and beliefs each character possesses. Ehsaz mentioned, “it really is one of the fundamental goals of this story and this world is to portray a fantasy world that feels more diverse and representative than fantasy worlds and stories we’ve seen in the past.” (Freeman, 2019) The animation style of the show is a hybrid of hand-drawn backgrounds and computer-generated characters. Although this does take away from the detail one would normally find in a completely hand-drawn anime, it saves a lot of time and effort and instead can be used on the intricately beautiful backgrounds. It subsequently also allows for “some dazzlingly impressive action sequences on par with anything you’ve seen in hand-drawn animation or live action”. Justin Richmond mentions to Inverse, “One of the things we really love about the style of the show is it’s something that allows us to replicate the look of anime without having to hand draw every frame”. (Kleinman, 2018) As mentioned earlier, season one and season two were released on September 14, 2018, and February 15, 2019, respectively, containing 9 episodes each season. Season 3 has been confirmed and its release date is yet to be announced.

Video game adaptation
Besides working on the TV show, Wonderstorm is working hard in the development of a video game adaptation to the Netflix show, The Dragon Prince. This game will take place in the same fantasy world and involve the same character. The video game had been in the original plans of the franchise and will not reiterate the main plot of the TV series. Wonderstorm has taken a transmedia approach by narrating a story beyond just television. In regards to this Ehsaz mentions "...from the beginning, [The Dragon Prince] is intended to be an amazing story, but also a world from which we can build incredible games and play experiences," (Farough, 2019)

Although we don’t know the release date or the platforms the game will be released on, a few things we can expect is that it will be combat based and multiplayer, however not a massively multiplayer online game. We can play various different characters and each will have a specific ability type associated with each of them, e.g. blocking agility, or dark magic based. This allows for strategic planning in the character selection process and crucial in building a good team force that compliments each other’s abilities. (Clark, 2019) Furthermore, the game will allow us to venture places unseen in the show itself. “The world is designed specifically where you can see a glimpse into it through the show,” Richmond says, “but the game will take you to places you haven’t seen.” (Kleinman, 2018)