Lion Forge & Folktellers partner on animation celebrating black musicians

Hero’s Journey The Series

Lion Forge Entertainment, the US-based studio behind the Oscar-winning Hair Love, has partnered with Folktellers Studios to develop and produce Hero’s Journey The Series – a set of stories that explore the rise to fame of black artists during segregation.

The series follows the tour route of juke joints and theatres known as the “Chitlin Circuit” that spread across the country from the 1930’s through the 1960’s. These were the places where black artists and musicians played and entertained crowds of loyal fans.

Seen through the eyes of circuit emcee, Theophilus George Odell, viewers will come to learn the origin stories and discover the music of the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Jackson 5, BB King, Ike and Tina Turner, Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor.

Lion Forge, which recently rebranded from Lion Forge Animation and hired Imagine alum Stephanie Sperber as president and chief content officer as part of a push into live action, will oversee the development and production of the animation.

Hero’s Journey The Series is the second collaboration between Lion Forge and Folktellers, which are also developing and producing an animated series based on Josef Bastian’s Excerpts from an Unknown Guidebook book series, which follows a group of teenager storytellers as they cross worlds and dimensions to fight the forces of darkness.

Lion Forge Entertainment founder David Steward II said: “We pride ourselves in telling the stories of the underrepresented, while bringing exciting and diverse entertainment to the world. The Hero’s Journey The Series franchise does just that, resurrecting the lives and music of black artists, who had to struggle through a very turbulent time in our collective history.”