Fox’s Mouse Guard had Idris Elba, Andy Serkis and the Maze Runner director, and it was two weeks from filming when Disney pulled the plug in 2019. See what happened, plus the test footage.
Disney bought Fox in 2019, and one of the first big movies to go was about mice with swords.
Mouse Guard was a motion-capture fantasy based on David Petersen’s comic books. It had Idris Elba and Andy Serkis in the cast. It was about two weeks from the start of production.
Then Disney shut it down.
The director later posted almost 10 minutes of test footage, so you can see what we missed.
What is Mouse Guard about?
It’s a medieval world of mice who talk, wear armor and fight off predators.
Petersen’s comics follow a brotherhood of mice sworn to protect their own kind, TheWrap reported. The series started in 2006 and won two Eisner Awards, the big prize in comics, according to /Film and Syfy Wire.
People pitched it as “Game of Thrones but with mice,” Syfy Wire noted. That’s a fair description.
Who was in the Mouse Guard movie?
A big cast for a movie about rodents.
Idris Elba, Andy Serkis, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Sonoya Mizuno and Jack Whitehall were all attached, TheWrap reported. Mizuno was set to play the lead.
Wes Ball, who directed the “Maze Runner” movies, was directing. Matt Reeves, who went on to direct “The Batman,” was one of the producers, Syfy Wire noted.
It was going to be a motion-capture movie, with actors performing the mice, and effects by Weta Digital, the company behind Gollum in “The Lord of the Rings,” Cartoon Brew reported.
Why did Disney cancel Mouse Guard?
Disney never gave a public reason. But the people involved and the trade reports point the same way.
The movie had a reported $170 million budget, TheWrap and The Hollywood Reporter said. Some sources told THR that Disney balked at that price, Cartoon Brew noted.
Others said Disney worried a CGI animal movie would look too much like its own “The Lion King” remake, which came out that July, Syfy Wire reported. Another source told THR that, aside from “Avatar,” Disney wanted Fox focused on lower-budget family movies and PG-13 and R-rated films, /Film noted.
Ball’s own take was blunt. “Our #mouseguard movie is dead,” he wrote on Twitter that June. “Seems it’s too big a risk.”
He added an apology to his cast and crew: “I’m sorry I couldn’t push this one through.”
When was Mouse Guard canceled?
In April 2019, about two weeks before production was set to begin, TheWrap and /Film reported. Deadline broke the news.
Disney let the producers shop it around to other studios, TheWrap reported. By late June, Ball posted that the movie was dead.
Is there Mouse Guard footage?
Yes, and it’s pretty great.
Ball posted a demo reel of almost 10 minutes on YouTube in June 2019, IndieWire reported. He called it “an early test we made with Unreal,” built inside a video game engine before Weta got involved.
He was clear that it only showed how the movie would “feel,” not how it would look in the end, IndieWire noted. The finished film would’ve gone to Weta for photorealistic CGI.
Here’s Ball’s upload:
What happened to Wes Ball after Mouse Guard?
Disney hired him anyway. Kind of funny, right?
Ball directed “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” for 20th Century Studios, the Fox studio Disney now owns. It opened to $56.5 million in North America in May 2024, AP reported.
He’s also directing Sony and Nintendo’s live-action “The Legend of Zelda,” set for May 7, 2027, TheWrap reported.
Will Mouse Guard ever get made?
Nothing’s been announced.
Petersen has always been careful with his series. “I’m not willing to make a quick deal just to get a film made,” he told Nerdist in 2013, as Cartoon Brew reported. “I want it done properly.”
What are some fun facts about Mouse Guard?
Gollum’s actor was on board. Serkis, who created Gollum with Weta, was in the cast, Cartoon Brew noted.
It was an early Disney-Fox casualty. /Film called it likely the first major movie lost in the Disney-Fox merger.
The concept art came out anyway. Concept artist Darek Zabrocki posted his Mouse Guard work on Instagram after the cancellation, calling it the biggest project he’d ever worked on, Cartoon Brew reported.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
TheWrap, April 18, 2019: ‘Mouse Guard’ Halted at Disney 2 Weeks Before Production Begins
/Film, April 18, 2019: Disney Scraps Fox’s ‘Mouse Guard’ Two Weeks Before Production Begins (citing Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter)
Josh Weiss, Syfy Wire, April 18, 2019: Disney pulls the plug on Fox’s Mouse Guard two weeks before production
Cartoon Brew, June 26, 2019: Director And Artists Share Behind-The-Scenes Material For Fox’s Canceled ‘Mouse Guard’ (citing Wes Ball on Twitter and Nerdist)
Kate Erbland, IndieWire, June 26, 2019: ‘Mouse Guard’ Director Releases Demo Footage From His Canceled Fox Movie
Andrew Dalton, AP, May 12, 2024: ‘Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ reigns at the box office
TheWrap, June 9, 2025: Live-Action ‘Legend of Zelda’ Movie Delayed to May 2027
Wes Ball on YouTube: Canceled Mouse Guard Movie Test Demo Footage
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