Feature Photo: Rovender (Gary Anthony Williams), Eva (Jeanine Mason), Muthr (Teri Hatcher) and Otto (Brad Garrett) in WondLa.
Join Eva, a typical curious and enthusiastic teen, as she leads a team of new friends on a dangerous quest to find humans, her home, and her true destiny. This new AppleTV+ series, WondLa, is based on the sci-fi/fantasy book series by artist, children’s book creator, and motion picture producer, Tony DiTerlizzi. All seven episodes in this new animated series will debut on June 28th.
WondLa centers around Eva, voiced by Jeanine Mason (Roswell, New Mexico), a teenager being raised in a state-of-the-art underground bunker by Muthr, her robot caretaker who is voiced by Emmy-Award nominee Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives). On Eva’s 16th birthday, an attack on their bunker forces her onto Earth’s surface, known as Orbona, which is now inhabited by aliens, other-worldly fauna, and no humans to be found.
Eva meets Otto, a loveable giant water bear with whom she shares telepathic powers voiced by Emmy Award winner Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Rovender, a cantankerous alien with a troubled past voiced by Gary Anthony Williams (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows). Together, they embark on a dangerous quest to find humans, home, and Eva’s true destiny.
Showrunner and executive producer, Bobs Gannaway, spoke with us recently to give some more insight on the show and the personal reason why he wanted to be a part of the creative team that brought DiTulisi’s books to life.
“He wrote [the novels] for his daughter; he and I both have daughters of very similar age,” says Gannaway. “He wrote it with the idea that his daughter’s going to be going out into the world, and the world his daughter’s going to go out into is different than the world he went out into. All you can do for your kids is just try to teach them as best you can to know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, to make good choices and then send them out in the world on their own. He took that idea to the sort of extreme. We’re both experiencing that right now with our own kids.”
Gannaway considers WondLa a coming of age story, highlighting the growth and challenges of Eva. Though it’s a fictional, magical world, audiences can relate Eva’s journey to real life. “I think it’s very relevant now that the world is full of challenges. It’s not one hundred percent clear sometimes what is pure right or pure wrong. There’s a lot of grey, and we have a very specific episode- and some later episodes- that really deal with that sort of greyness.”
He goes on to explain how important it was to him that a story doesn’t truly begin until audiences can connect to the main character. Anyone who watches the series will get to know and root for Eva as the episodes continue.
And does Gannaway have a favorite character?
“I will get in trouble with [picking] a favorite,” he says. “Jeanine [Mason] as Eva was fantastic. Teri Hatcher- I’ve worked with her before. I’ve known Brad Garrett for years. We had over 250 recording sessions for the show. Everybody was committed. So I can’t! It’s like a Sophie’s Choice. I can’t pick a favorite!”
Tune into this magical journey on June 28th, exclusively on Apple TV+. More about the show, the cast and a trailer can be found here.
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