Florida-based experiential company Falcon’s Beyond is expanding its Katmandu IP with its first animated series.

The entertainment company is developing a preschool show inspired by its theme parks and starring its character Boro the Yeti—a character first introduced at its Katmandu property in Mallorca, Spain. 

Falcon’s Beyond has been building up content partnerships with companies such as BRON Studios and Epic Story Media in the last year to expand into animated content and games. Now, it’s looking for partners to take this ride into TV with them, says Simon Philips, the company’s freshly minted president. 

The company co-owns the Katmandu park locations and can co-finance expansions like the animated series. But beyond just bringing money to the table, the Katmandu IP has a strong story that makes it a good fit for a TV series, Philips tells Kidscreen. 

“[Rather than] a combination of different rides, it’s a theme park with a single cohesive story, where every ride is part of the lore,” he explains. 

The park’s story is based in a steampunk world where explorer Kilgore Goode, his mechanical sidekick and Boro travel to new areas to uncover the secrets of a substance called Ether Metal.  

Falcon’s Beyond is putting a Boro and a group of young yetis at the TV series core. The kid yetis will get up to mischief while being mentored in adventuring by Boro. Other Katmandu characters like Kilgore and his robot will appear to supply the younglings with handy tech. The company aims to unveil more details of the series later this year.

The way kids embrace the yetis at its parks guided the company’s decision to focus on the cute creatures, says Philips. Kids would flock to them when they arrived, and a yeti is both comforting and unique to children, making them ideal for leading the series.

“My experience tells me that today’s preschoolers want something which is comforting yet different,” Philips says, noting the series’ potential for blending familiarity with escapism.

In terms of long-term franchise planning, the plan is to create new content that caters to every age group, says Philips. The company has already made moves to target tweens and teens with a branded trading card game, Katmandu: Age of Artifacts, which it developed with Cryptozoic Entertainment and launched just last week. 

Philips, a former Marvel, Disney and Moonbug exec, is also exploring ideas to expand the Katmandu IP into gaming and theatrical content for older kids.