Amazon revives Jem and the Holograms after 2015 movie disaster
Amazon MGM Studios is developing a live-action Jem and the Holograms series with Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan's Kilter Films (Westworld, Fallout) and Hasbro Entertainment.
Hollywood is going back to the toy box. The toy box keeps not paying for the trip.
Amazon MGM Studios is developing a live-action Jem and the Holograms series with Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan’s Kilter Films (the production company behind Westworld and Fallout) and Hasbro Entertainment, per a June 8, 2026 Deadline scoop from Nellie Andreeva. Joy, Nolan, and Athena Wickham are executive producing for Kilter, with Gabriel Marano producing for Hasbro Entertainment.
The deal closes after months of conversations that Deadline reports had been rumored “early on.” The series joins a growing Prime Video slate of female-driven young adult and coming-of-age content including Off Campus, The Summer I Turned Pretty, We Were Liars, and the Culpables franchise. Kilter is also producing Fourth Wing for Amazon, with Joy directing the opening episode.
The Amazon Jem revival is happening 41 years after the original 1985 cartoon debuted and 11 years after the 2015 live-action movie collapsed.
The 2015 movie was a disaster
The 2015 Jem and the Holograms film was directed by Jon M. Chu, produced by Blumhouse Productions in partnership with Hasbro Studios (Allspark Pictures), and distributed by Universal Pictures. Aubrey Peeples starred in the title role.
It opened on October 23, 2015 and grossed approximately $2.3 million worldwide on a $5 million budget. Critics dismissed it. Fans of the original cartoon rejected it. The film was pulled from many theaters within two weeks of release. It is one of the most decisive commercial failures by a major studio adaptation of a recognized toy IP in modern memory.
Chu went on to direct Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights, and the Wicked film duology. The Jem misfire stayed on his resume as a cautionary tale about what happens when a studio adapts a beloved property without listening to anyone who actually loved it.
Christy Marx called the studio out publicly
The single most damaging part of the 2015 production for Hasbro’s reputation with longtime Jem fans was the company’s treatment of Christy Marx, the original creator of Jem and writer of over a third of the show’s original 65-episode run.
Per a 2014 Marx Facebook post, Marx was informed of the project only days before the public announcement. She spoke to Chu but never received an offer to write, consult, or otherwise contribute to the script.
Her public statement: “Many people wonder how I feel about it. I don’t think I can hide that I’m deeply unhappy about being shut out of the project. That no one in the entertainment arm of Hasbro wanted to talk to me, have me write for it, or at the very least consult on it. I wouldn’t be human if that failed to bother me. My other unhappy observation is that I see two male producers, a male director and a male writer. Where is the female voice? Where is the female perspective? Where are the women?“
Marx had been the architect of the entire Jem world. Per her 2011 interview with The Mary Sue: “I was able to create the full names, biographies and major elements of the show. I came up with the Starlight Girls, Starlight Foundation, Starlight Music, Eric Raymond, all the other secondary characters, the Jerrica/Rio/Jem love triangle and so on.“
She did make a cameo in the 2015 film as Lindsey Pierce, a Rolling Stone editor character she had originally created for the cartoon. That was the extent of her formal involvement. She also wrote her own version of a Jem movie script that never reached a studio.
It is unclear from the Deadline reporting whether the Amazon series has approached Marx about creative consultation. The Hasbro Entertainment branch involved in the 2026 deal is a different operational structure than the 2015 Hasbro Studios division, and Lisa Joy is a writer-creator herself, but the question is open.
Masters of the Universe just bombed
The Jem announcement lands at an awkward moment for toy-IP-to-screen Hollywood.
Masters of the Universe opened in theaters this past weekend (June 5-7, 2026) with a $29 million domestic opening on a reported $170-200 million production budget, per Deadline. Despite a 67 percent Rotten Tomatoes critics score and 87 percent audience score, the box office never showed up. Direct competition from Scary Movie 6 and Backrooms did not help, but the larger issue per most industry analysis is that the 5 percent under-12 demographic in the opening weekend audience signaled exactly the failure mode Mattel was hoping to avoid: aging-nostalgia adults showed up, kids did not.
Mattel and Amazon (which distributed) are now staring at a probable $100 million-plus theatrical write-down on a property the studio spent years trying to relaunch.
The Jem development deal closing the same week as the He-Man theatrical implosion is either coincidence or strategy. Either way, the message Hollywood appears to be taking from He-Man is to move 80s toy IP back to streaming series formats where the budget commitments are smaller and the audience expectations are different.
Hasbro’s full streaming push
The Hasbro Entertainment slate beyond Jem includes:
The Forgotten Realms, a live-action Dungeons & Dragons series at Netflix with Shawn Levy producing
Baldur’s Gate, also set in the Dungeons & Dragons world, at HBO with Chernobyl and The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin writing and executive producing
A Power Rangers live-action series in development at Disney+
That is a substantial portfolio of streaming series adaptations of Hasbro toy IP across the three biggest premium streaming platforms in the industry, all targeted to debut within the next two or three years. The toy IP gold rush continues. Hasbro is positioning itself as the legacy IP supplier for every major streamer simultaneously.
Whether any of these projects actually delivers a hit is the question. The track record on 80s and 90s toy IP screen adaptations is mixed at best. G.I. Joe, Transformers, Battleship, My Little Pony, Power Rangers, and now Jem and Masters of the Universe have all had at least one major flop on the resume. The franchises that worked tended to require very specific creative leadership and very specific audience targeting.
Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan have both. Westworld established the duo as among the most ambitious genre showrunners working today. Fallout delivered Prime Video’s biggest original drama launch in years. If anyone can make a 41-year-old toy property work as serialized television in 2026, it is probably them.
Whether they listen to Christy Marx this time is a different question. Truly outrageous if they do not.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
D/REZZED is part of Clownfish TV. For more news, views, and rants on gaming, tech, and pop culture, visit clownfishtv.com. Watch the show on YouTube at @ClownfishTV where new episodes drop daily. Subscribe to the Clownfish TV podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and wherever else you get your podcasts. Sign up for the free newsletter at more.clownfishtv.com.
Hat Tips:
Deadline / Nellie Andreeva (June 8, 2026), primary verified source for the Amazon MGM Studios live-action Jem and the Holograms series development including the Kilter Films (Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan, Athena Wickham executive producers) and Hasbro Entertainment (Gabriel Marano producer) partnership, the late 2025 project pickup timeline, and the broader Prime Video female-driven young adult coming-of-age content slate context
Wikipedia / Jem and the Holograms (film), verified the 2015 film’s $5 million budget, $2.3 million worldwide box office gross, October 23, 2015 release date, Jon M. Chu directing, Ryan Landels screenplay, Aubrey Peeples title role, and the Allspark Pictures (Hasbro Studios) and Blumhouse Productions co-production credits
ComicsAlliance (March 2014) and Jezebel (March 2015), verified Christy Marx’s full Facebook post including “deeply unhappy about being shut out of the project,” the “no one in the entertainment arm of Hasbro wanted to talk to me, have me write for it, or at the very least consult on it” line, and the “Where is the female voice? Where is the female perspective? Where are the women?” framing
The Mary Sue (2011), verified Christy Marx interview where she described creating “the full names, biographies and major elements of the show” including the Starlight Girls, Starlight Foundation, Starlight Music, Eric Raymond, and the Jerrica/Rio/Jem love triangle
Slash Film (December 2025), verified the 2015 film’s status as a forgotten Jon M. Chu musical bomb and the Christy Marx “mostly frozen out” production context
Deadline (June 7, 2026), verified Masters of the Universe $29 million opening weekend on a reported $170-200 million production budget plus the 67 percent Rotten Tomatoes critics score and 87 percent audience score
Cosmic Book News (June 7, 2026), verified the 5 percent under-12 demographic in the He-Man opening weekend audience and the broader Mattel write-down context
Hasbro Entertainment public slate, verified The Forgotten Realms (Netflix, Shawn Levy producing), Baldur’s Gate (HBO, Craig Mazin writing), and Power Rangers (Disney+) live-action series development status