‘Astro Boy Reboot’ Gives Anime’s First Great Star A Double Identity, New French Series Impresses At Annecy

What do you add to a character and franchise that’s been adapted nearly 10 times over more than 70 years? Well, if you’re Louis-David Delahaye, you take a page from American superhero comic books and give Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy a secret identity.

“His father doesn’t want this boy to be attacked due to robot-human tensions,” the show’s head writer said during a Work in Progress session for Method Animation and Shibuya International’s Astro Boy Reboot at the 2026 Annecy Animation Film Festival. “So he urges him to live a double life.”

Based on Osamu Tezuka’s most famous and beloved creation, Astro Boy Reboot follows a young boy named Atom who is also secretly a robot superhero named Astro. Yes, Astro’s identity not only as a hero, but even as a robot, is secret in this new adaptation. It’s by far the biggest addition to the Astro Boy franchise, and something that producer Katell France said took some convincing before Tezuka Productions, which owns the rights, signed off on the idea.

Still, the idea of Atom/Astro having to hide his identity echoes some of the themes of Tezuka’s original manga, namely segregation, paranoia, and bigotry. The relationship between humans and robots, being, well, flimsy at best, has been an integral part of the franchise for over 70 years, so this fits quite well within that tradition.

Astro Boy Reboot will combine sitcom-like elements with sci-fi and action. Episodes of the series, which is set to be released sometime in 2027, will be split in half, following Atom as he lives a regular life as a young boy, with a crush on a girl he can barely speak to, friends he hangs out with, and bullies who torment him.

Then there’s the Astro side of the story, in which the young boy goes through a transformation sequence worthy of Sailor Moon, reveals his metallic self, takes flight, and fights evil robots, mad scientists, military bad guys, and more. Louis-David Delahaye wanted every episode to have a problem for Atom to solve and another for Astro. The trick became finding a way to balance the stakes of both halves. How important can Atom’s baseball game with his friends be when an evil robot is about to blow up downtown?

So the writers were tasked with finding ways to weave the two parts of the show together. Atom would accidentally use his powers to cheat at a kart race, as shown in a clip during the presentation, thereby risking exposure. Batman: The Animated Series was a major source of inspiration for Delahaye when structuring the episodes. Expect a new villain for Astro to fight in every episode.

Visually, the show takes a bright, colorful approach meant to appeal to younger audiences while still capturing the essence, expressiveness, and sheer creativity of Tezuka’s original work. Director Nicolas Hess emphasized that the show would “remain true to the original designs,” meaning round shapes and big eyes, while striving for realism in its approach to lighting and texture for Astro’s metallic body.

Additionally, the show took inspiration from several modern films. According to animation director Emilie Guintini, the goal was “not to reinvent Astro Boy, but to extend the legacy” by pushing current animation trends and techniques.

Movies like The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Turning Red, and K-Pop Demon Hunters served as inspiration for the series’ portrayals of robots, characters living double lives, and characters transitioning from a neutral or resting state to an active state, respectively. Likewise, the team looked at Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the way that film portrayed fluid movement when developing Astro’s movements.

The idea was to change the way Atom moves once he becomes Astro, making him more confident, fluid, and energetic. Indeed, the framing of the footage shown changes entirely depending on which version of the titular character we follow. For Atom, the camera is static and natural. The moment Astro jumps into action, the camera becomes dynamic, the poses are stronger, and there is plenty of movement and diagonal framing. “The animation might be in CG, but we wanted to treat the action as if it was real,” Hess said.