‘Winx Club’ creator hints at live-action movie after Netflix cancelled ‘Fate: The Winx Saga’

Netflix’s Fate: The Winx Saga was recently cancelled soon after the second season aired on the streamer.

According to Iginio Straffi, creator of the magical Winx Club TV franchise and founder of its Rainbow S.p.A production company, he was also surprised by the cancellation news.

“I still have to hear what Netflix has to say officially,” Straffi said told Variety exclusively after he learned from showrunner Brian Young that the series was axed. “I will be talking to Netflix to fully understand what happened.”

However, after the cancellation, contractually, the show creator is free to pursue with a long-planned, live-action Winx movie budgeted at more than $100 million. It’s “probably the most important project of my entire career,” he said.

Will there actually be a live-action movie for Winx Club?

According to Straffi, there is a chance for a live-action Winx movie. The fact that Netflix did not renew the third season gives me an advantage, because I can now make other live-action products.”

What can we expect from the live-action movie?

For its creator, turning Winx into a live-action movie franchise is a culmination of the saga’s journey.

“We started with the TV series, which had a more accessible budget and was a bit easier to finance. Netflix believed in it and I think they got a good return,” he said.

Even though Straffi had many opportunities to make a “low budget” live-action, he thinks the time has come to make a big-budget feature film with “all the strong elements it needs.”

The potential plot for the movie?

“These will comprise not just the characters’ relationships in school — which are a big part of what the Netflix series revolves around — but the franchise’s more epic fantasy aspect: transformations, battles with witches, the Trix,” said Straffi, alluding to the trio of witches who act as the fairies’ main antagonists. He is now looking to make “something more similar to ‘Harry Potter’ or superhero movies.”

“The audience I’m seeking to tap into comprises those who, just like the audience for the Netflix series, are nostalgic for the original animation series 20 years ago, and also families who want to go to the movies with children aged 10 and up,” Straffi said. “The Netflix series drew heavily on the existing characters, but also created a mood that is a bit darker.”

He added, “There will be dark shades, but the mood will be closer to the DNA of the animation series — especially the bad guys, The Trix, [whom] everybody was waiting for in the third instalment of the Netflix series.”

Why didn’t Netflix carry on with Season 3?

Straffi said he was surprised because the second season “was a top Netflix show in top all the top territories around the world, at least before the ‘Dahmer’ phenomenon dropped.”

“We are talking about dozens of millions of viewers,” he said. “The numbers were a bit lower than the first season, but that’s also due to the competition that was different from two years ago. From what we are given to understand, there were several considerations that Netflix made. They ranged from economic ones, of course, given that the third season would have cost more than the preceding ones due to rising talent costs, and the fact that there was a drop in numbers. But I don’t really know.”