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India has established itself as a leader in family and children’s animation, but with Wolf King, the industry is venturing into a daring new realm: dark, epic fantasy aimed at young adults. In partnership with Netflix, Lime Pictures, and Jellyfish Pictures, Assemblage Entertainment has developed a pioneering animated series inspired by Curtis Jobling’s Wereworld novels, bringing his imaginative universe to life through cinematic storytelling and stunning visuals.

For Jobling, who is both the author and creator of the series, witnessing his characters and richly crafted world transformed into animation for a young-adult audience has been an exhilarating and fulfilling experience. He expressed, “It’s always a tremendous thrill to see my characters and stories come to life. I’m in the storytelling business, whatever the medium—film, art, publishing—and my Wereworld novel series has always been very dear to my heart. Seeing it adapted, animated, and hitting Netflix as Wolf King has been one of the highlights of my colorful career,” in an interview with Animation Xpress.

In a detailed discussion with the team at Assemblage Entertainment, we explored the creative journey and collaborative efforts that brought this genre-defining series to fruition.

• Ground-breaking new genre and tone: The challenge of creating dark, young-adult fantasy animation is not typical for Indian content. This project allowed artists to expand their creative skills while meeting the high production standards of a platform like Netflix.
• Creative collaboration: The team worked closely with director Tom Brass and the creative leadership at Jellyfish Pictures. Brass’s clear vision and collaborative approach enriched the creative process, as he guided the team through each character’s emotional journey.
• Global production management: Wolf King stands out as a successful co-production, showcasing effective collaboration among Netflix, Lime Pictures, and Jellyfish Pictures. Regular meetings ensured clarity on creative and technical aspects, resulting in a visually and narratively compelling show.

The visual style of Wolf King draws from Jobling’s storytelling, with inspiration from the teams at Netflix, Lime, and Jellyfish. The goal was to translate the essence of the original work into 3D while maintaining the depth of the designs. The team shared, “We leaned into hand-painted textures, stylized lighting, and graphic silhouettes to ensure the show felt like Jobling’s artwork had come to life, enhanced by the richness of CG.”

To achieve a unique visual identity, the team chose to animate on twos (12 fps), creating a subtle “flip-book” effect that added a handcrafted rhythm to the characters’ movements. This decision not only aligned with the series’ tone but also distinguished Wolf King from traditional, hyper-fluid CG animation.

However, animating on twos presented challenges, such as the risk of losing subtle nuances in character performances. To address this, the team conducted extensive research and development, adopting a hybrid frame-rate approach to maintain fluidity where necessary.

Animation director Chetan Tahshildar remarked, “Animating on twos sounds simple, but it’s like a balancing act; you want that handcrafted, stylized feel without making the movement look stiff. Solving that puzzle pushed us to be more creative and inventive as a team.”

For animation and look development, the team primarily utilized Maya, while also integrating a USD-based pipeline to ensure seamless collaboration across global partners. This approach significantly improved efficiency and reliability in production.

Another challenge was incorporating 2D effects into the show’s stylized aesthetic. To overcome this, Assemblage Entertainment trained an internal team in 2D FX, ensuring that the hand-drawn effects felt organic alongside the 3D characters. They also utilized Houdini for specific 2D FX, blending procedural workflows with handcrafted artistry.

“We relied on a mix of industry-standard tools, Maya for animation, Houdini for certain stylized effects, and a lot of custom scripts and plugins we built in-house. The real magic, though, came from the team’s artistry; the tools just helped us bring that vision to life,” said Vidit Kundra, CG co-head at Assemblage Entertainment.

Changing the Game for Indian Animation: The excitement surrounding Wolf King at the recent Animation and More (AM) Summit and Ann Awards in Mumbai highlighted the audience’s appetite for such content. Many were surprised to discover that a show as dark and visually ambitious as Wolf King was produced in India.

CEO Arjun Madhavan stated, “Wolf King is a bold leap for us, bringing young adult dark fantasy to life at a cinematic scale. It’s a testament to the extraordinary talent in our region and the trust global partners like Netflix place in us. We’re proud to push boundaries, elevate genres, and redefine what Indian animation stands for on the world stage.”

The second season of Wolf King premiered on Netflix last week. Assemblage Entertainment has an exciting lineup of upcoming projects, including Stitch Head, an adaptation of Guy Bass’s book set for theatrical release in Halloween 2025, and Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie, a DreamWorks Animation production scheduled for September 2025. They are also collaborating with global studios on several unannounced projects, reinforcing their mission to propel India’s animation industry into a new era of creativity and scale.

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