BBC Studios Kids & Family teams up on a Kiki live-action series for 40th anniversary

BBC Studios Kids & Family just pulled a big lever on a beloved property: it is partnering with Wheel in Motion and Kadokawa Corporation to develop a Kiki's Delivery Service live-action television series timed for the story’s 40th anniversary. The deal includes adapting the first volume of the six-book series into 10 episodes, each 30 minutes long.

If you are tracking where major kids content budgets are going, this matters. Kiki's Delivery Service originally launched as books in Japan in 1985 through Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers, and Studio Ghibli director Miyazaki Hayao later brought the series to screen in 1989. Now, BBC Studios Kids & Family is taking the next step, developing the first time the work is being brought to television screens in this live-action format.

Here is the shape of the adaptation, and why executives should care even if you are not a Ghibli stan (we still are, but work with us). The series will follow 13-year-old witch Kiki as she leaves home and moves to Koriko, where she starts a new delivery service. That premise is simple enough for broad audiences, but it is also “episodable” in a way that fits modern TV: new deliveries, new people, new problems. The source material also comes pre-loaded with the kind of emotional beats that travel globally, which is exactly what international studios want when they plan slate strategy.

The partnership structure is also telling. Variety reports that the UK-based production company Wheel in Motion is teaming up with Kadokawa, a Japanese company, through the newly unveiled collaboration led by BBC Studios Kids & Family. In other words, this is not a one-way licensing play where an overseas team simply buys rights and ships a show. It is an international co-production effort, and the production team is anchored in the kind of cross-market collaboration studios pursue when they want to reduce risk around audience expectations.

The human and creative assignments add another layer of “this is real” momentum. Irena Brignull, whose credits include The Little Prince, The Boxtrolls and Skellig, is set to write the series. Brignull will be working from the narrative engine of the first book volume, not attempting to compress the entire six-book arc into a single season. That choice can be a board-level risk reducer: when you adapt one volume cleanly into 10 half-hour episodes, you can better manage story pacing, production planning, and consistency across episodes.

The statements in the announcement also map the incentives clearly. Grainne McNamara of BBC Studios Kids & Family said the company is “thrilled” to be part of a collaboration bringing Kiki's Delivery Service to life for “a new generation on a global stage.” Alexi Wheeler of Wheel in Motion described it as a “dream come true” and an “absolute honor” to bring the beloved story to a new audience as a live-action series. Kadokawa’s director of international co-productions, Takeo Kodera, framed the partnership as a “more exciting tribute” to the landmark 40th anniversary, adding that the UK creative team has absorbed the spirit of Kiki through close collaboration with Ms. Kadono, and that the results will enchant family audiences.

It is also worth noticing how Kodera and Kadokawa position the creative process. The work is being treated as both cultural product and brand trust, not just plot. Kadokawa’s Ms. Kadono commented that Kiki is about to set off on another adventure into a new world and expressed confidence this will be a great show. These are not business platitudes. For executives, anniversary timing and authorial involvement can be part of how studios de-risk audience skepticism around live-action remakes and adaptations.

Second-order implications? First, this is a direct signal that kids-and-family content is increasingly driven by “proven global IP” that can be reframed for different formats. Books from 1985, an animated film from 1989, and now a live-action TV series built around 10 episodes adapted from the first volume. Second, the partnership style suggests more studios are pursuing shared international ownership and shared creative control rather than going it alone. Third, the writing assignment for Brignull hints at the balancing act studios face: honoring the original’s warmth and “human connection” while delivering a production-ready story engine for episodic TV.

And if you are in the wider entertainment business looking for comps, this announcement lands in a broader wave of Studio Ghibli re-releases. The classic film Princess Mononoke is set to receive a new IMAX cinema release in the UK and Ireland. The 1997 epic fantasy from director Hayao Miyazaki will be available in a brand new 4K restoration in over 50 IMAX sites from August 15. The new restoration was released in the US and Canada earlier this year, marking the first time it has been shown in such quality. It is part of a series of cinematic re-releases for the Studio Ghibli back catalogue, after My Neighbor Totoro returned to UK cinemas last summer and Spirited Away followed a few months later.

For decision-makers, the strategic takeaway is straightforward: when studios line up anniversary dates, cross-border partnerships, and trusted creative teams, they are not just refreshing nostalgia. They are building multi-format, multi-market revenue paths out of IP that already has audience memory. If you run a board, fund a slate, or manage distribution strategy in kids-and-family, this is a reminder that the next winning move may not be inventing a new universe. It may be betting on the ones people already love, then scaling them carefully into new formats and markets.