Everything You Need To Know About ‘Bonders’ The New IP From The Creators Of ‘The Dragon Prince’

At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con I had the great fortune to moderate a panel on the future of Wonderstorm, the studio behind the hit Netflix animated fantasy show The Dragon Prince (my review of the show here).

I joined Wonderstorm co-founders Aaron Ehasz (lead writer on Avatar: The Last Airbender) and Justin Richmond (formerly of Riot Games) onstage to talk about the new project in front of a live audience of fans eager to learn more about the studio’s next project: Bonders.

Executive Producer Villads Spansberg, actor and producer Zach Anner, and Niantic Creative Director, Terry Redfield, comprised the rest of the panel. Along with discussion of the new show and game, Wonderstorm showed an animated short of Bonders in action. This was a demo rather than an actual episode, but it gave the audience a chance to see what this new high-tech world is all about.

Like The Dragon Prince, Wonderstorm is approaching Bonders as both a TV show and a game (or potentially multiple games). The Dragon Prince is actually a TV show, a video game, a tabletop RPG, a board game as well as a series of graphic novels, so when I refer to Bonders as a “project” or an “IP” it’s because I can’t exactly refer to it just as one thing or another.

But what is Bonders and how does it differ from Wonderstorm’s previous efforts? Let’s take a look. It’s pretty cool.

What Is Bonders?

While The Dragon Prince is set in a fantasy world of dragons, elves and powerful sorcerers, Bonders takes place in a sci-fi universe of spaceships and high-tech gadgets. Nevertheless, Wonderstorm isn’t straying too far from its fantastical roots.

The opening of the presentation at Comic-Con began with a quote from science-fiction author, Arthur C. Clarke:

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

The world of Bonders is set decades in the future, but the technology itself feels much more fantastical than anything we’re likely to see anytime soon. The idea is pretty straightforward. The story focuses on a group of cadets attending a training school for especially gifted pilots—think Hogwarts but with lots of fancy high-tech stuff instead of magic potions.

Some of these cadets are paired with Bonders—basically transformers that ‘bond’ to a human, similar to a daemon from The Golden Compass or a patronus from Harry Potter. But unlike these mystical beings, Bonders are technology. They can zip into a pilot’s jet and transform into a giant version of whatever beast form they take (see the two images above).

The school is run by the world’s first trillionaire, a woman named Professor Ximena Sanchez, the inventor behind both the Bonders and other high-tech creations (of the robot pet variety, among other things).

The short film we watched at Comic-Con centered around two brothers, Edison and Tyler. Edison (played by Zach Anner) has cerebral palsy but, like his brother, dreams of piloting his own ship. They’ve set up a custom-modified training cockpit at their apartment and he’s learned to fly in simulations. Tyler, who already attends the academy, surprises his brother one day by telling him that he’s set him up with an entrance exam.

The majority of the short is spent on that exam, which consists of a real flight in a real ship that’s been modified to (almost) the exact same specs as Edison’s. He requires a great deal of modification due to his physical limitations. Edison uses a wheelchair, his hands cramp more easily, and he has trouble with many basic tasks you or I might take for granted, such as putting on pants in the morning. Some high-tech gizmos and inventions have made this existence a little bit easier, but it’s still a struggle.

Accessibility and Authenticity

This is where Zach Anner played a major role, not just in consulting on the project (which is what Wonderstorm had asked of him at first) but voice-acting Edison and helping inform the writing team on every small detail. Creating an authentic story around Edison’s real, lived experience was incredibly important to the team at Wonderstorm and it shows.

“Zach wrote a brilliantly funny book, “If At Birth You Don’t Succeed,” and also worked on the brilliantly funny show “Speechless,” so it seemed like a fair bet he would be brilliantly funny,” Ehasz tells me. “Initially we brought him on as kind of a creative consultant to give us some authentic perspective on Edison and his cerebral palsy, but Zach quickly proved to be an unstoppable creative force. Zach helped us push the writing further, pitching the great ending of the film – and in the process helped us evolve and shape Edison’s character in beautiful ways. He also helped us think about the meaning of accessibility in a world with advanced technology, and how empathy and asking individuals what their real needs are is always going to be important no matter how fancy the tech gets. Bonders would not be the same without Zach.”

At the panel, when I asked how Zach became involved with the project, he joked that “Aaron asked me to send him a video of me putting on my pants” to much laughter from the crowd. Anner absolutely stole the show at the Bonders panel.

The short gave us just a small glimpse into the magical high-tech world of Bonders and a brief but emotional sequence with these two brothers—one that very nearly ended in tragedy when the wing of Edison’s ship is hit by debris and he crashes, ending up in a hospital bed with only scratches.

But there’s much more to Wonderstorm’s plan, including a large and diverse cast of characters, layers of mystery and adventure, and plenty more that I haven’t been amde privy to—yet.

Aaron Ehasz says that the origins of Bonders are based both in action and sci-fi movies and in the desire to create a story about characters whose differences and imperfections make them stronger.

“On the cool action side, I had been thinking a lot about Top Gun and Robotech, which I loved growing up,” he tells me. “On the thematic side, my son had just been diagnosed with autism—and I could see he felt insecure comparing himself to other kids, because he felt “imperfect” and different… and I was just thinking a lot about how perfection was over-rated, and our differences are so important to our strength and specialness as humans. And from there, Justin and I started building a science fiction world where it’s that creativity and difference that allows us to unlock unlimited potential.”

Working With Partners

Epic Games was a key partner in the creation of the short film, which was created entirely in Unreal Engine 4. In fact, Wonderstorm is planning to work in Unreal Engine going forward with the project, which has interesting potential for game and show crossover and development pipelines.

“Wonderstorm is already an Unreal studio,” Justin Richmond tells me, “and by adding in a more linear pipeline for Bonders, it opens up all kinds of doors for us. By making the Bonders short in Unreal, it makes moving into our AAA gaming pipeline even easier. We believe that the future of entertainment is an even closer marrying of gaming and linear media, and this is the first step in that process for us. Unreal is letting us push the creative thesis of our company by removing the technological seams between storytelling and game development.”

Wonderstorm has also teamed up with Terry Redfield, an experienced veteran at Niantic with loads of experience developing Alternative Reality (AR) games. Niantic, of course, is the studio behind Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Pokémon GO, and Redfield sees a ton of potential in the Bonders IP for an AR mobile experience.

“Terry is an accomplished creative director who kindly gave us her perspective and advice on building a mobile game,” Ehasz says, “but in the most delightful way she got carried away and just went ahead and sketched out and designed an amazing game! I can’t get too specific but it’s a locational AR game that’s focused on the relationship the player builds and deepens with their own personal Bonders.”

In fact, Redfield joked at the panel that she came up with the idea basically the night she first heard about Bonders, sketching it out in a flurry of creative inspiration.

What Else Is In Store For Bonders?

Just like any kind of release date or even a home for the Bonders show remains a mystery (there’s no guarantee it will land on Netflix like The Dragon Prince) any other related projects are too far in the future to spell out.

“We’re always looking at opportunities outside of our core expertise (making awesome games and TV shows) for any of the projects we are working on,” Richmond says. “But we’re never going to force it. Bonders seems like it would be a great fit for other expressions of the IP, but we are always focused on the core experience first.”

And what about The Dragon Prince? Will Bonders have any impact on the development of that Netflix show? The short answer is “No.” The Dragon Prince is set to release its fourth season this November, the beginning of a four-season arc called “The Mystery Of Aaravos” and all four seasons have been renewed by Netflix already, meaning that fans never have to worry about cancellation or a lack of resolution.

I’ve seen the first episode and will have a sneak-peak review out soon. In the meantime, you can read more about the next phase of The Dragon Prince here. Wonderstorm is currently working on seasons 5-7 concurrently, and each season is in a different phase of production. The studio is also working on the still-mysterious Dragon Prince video game, and has been releasing boardgames, RPGs and graphic novels for the IP on a regular basis.

If Bonders ends up being as terrific as Wonderstorm’s first foray into storytelling, I think we’re all in for a treat.

Are you a fan of The Dragon Prince? If you want to ask me any questions about Bonders or the next phase of TDP on Netflix, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook and I’m more than happy to chat!

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