Blink Industries And Nick Mohammed Team Up For Animated Series ‘The Young Magicians’

Blink Industries has unveiled its next major animated project, announcing at Annecy that it is developing The Young Magicians, an animated comedy-adventure series based on the children’s novels by actor, writer, and comedian Nick Mohammed.

The series is being developed under Blink’s first-look agreement with BBC Studios Kids & Family and is aimed at viewers aged eight and older. Set within the secretive world of London’s famed Magic Circle, the story follows four young magicians named Zack, Sophie, Jonny, and Alex as they uncover conspiracies and hidden dangers lurking behind the institution’s doors. Mohammed will serve as both executive producer and showrunner, while Blink executive producer Ayoola Solarin leads development.

Mohammed, a double Emmy nominee best known for Ted Lasso, Intelligence, and Slow Horses, first published The Young Magicians and the Thieves’ Almanac in 2017. The book drew inspiration from his lifelong interest in practical magic, a passion he says remains central to the adaptation.

In a release, Mohammed said:

It’s been an absolute dream come true getting to dive back into the world of The Young Magicians, even more so to develop this as an animated series with Blink Industries and BBC Studios. Magic was, and kind of still is, my first true love, and so to share that passion with a wider audience, given magic’s rich and bountiful history, its oddness and curiosities, has always been a hope of mine. I can also 100% assure you that every single element of this series is true – including the bit where our four heroes stumble across a set of booby traps in the Magic Circle library preventing them from accessing the restricted section and come face-to-face with a real-life automaton!

Blink Industries CEO and co-founder James Stevenson Bretton said the studio was immediately drawn to the world Mohammed created in the books, describing the forthcoming series as “warm and hilarious and super smart.”

The project continues Blink’s push into creator-led animation. The London studio’s recent credits include Dead End: Paranormal Park, Love, Death & Robots, and the Oscar-nominated short Wander to Wonder. The company is also behind Ricky Gervais’ upcoming Netflix series Alley Cats, which is being showcased at Annecy this week.