The clearest initial update came from someone who was not actually making the reboot. During an appearance at Fan Expo Chicago, original Gargoyles co-creator Greg Weisman was asked about the Disney+ project and described it as dead.
Because Weisman was not directly involved in the live-action development, that statement alone left room for uncertainty. Variety subsequently confirmed the project's status through a source close to it.
Disney+ is no longer proceeding with the series.
The reboot had been in development since 2023
Gary Dauberman was attached to write, executive produce and serve as showrunner. James Wan was executive producing through Atomic Monster, extending a working relationship that already included projects in the Conjuring universe.
The proposed version centered on Goliath, described as the last of a heroic race of gargoyle warriors that once lived alongside humanity. Freed from a centuries-long stone curse, he would protect modern New York with detective Elisa Maza while investigating his own past.
The project remained in early development rather than reaching the stage of a publicly announced cast, production start or series premiere.
That distinction matters. Disney+ has not canceled a completed season. It has stopped a development before it became a produced show.
Dauberman was still talking enthusiastically about it in 2025
The lack of visible progress had already made the reboot easy to assume was dormant, yet Dauberman said last year that it remained in development.
His stated goal was to preserve the peculiar tone that made the animated original stand out: serialized storytelling, darker material and a scale he described as operatic.
That sensibility made the Dauberman-Wan pairing intriguing. Gargoyles was technically part of Disney's animated television output, but it regularly dealt with betrayal, revenge, violence and long-running mythology more aggressively than its Saturday-afternoon packaging suggested.
A beloved catalog title is not automatically an easy reboot
Gargoyles looks almost engineered for modern franchise development on paper. It has recognizable characters, extensive mythology, a devoted audience and a complete older series already sitting inside the Disney+ catalog.
Live action would also have required a convincing cast of winged stone creatures moving through nighttime New York for much of the story. The potential technical scale was considerably larger than the phrase nostalgic television remake might suggest.
Disney has not publicly given a detailed reason for ending the development.
The original remains available
The 1990s animated series is still streaming on Disney+.
Its story begins in Scotland in 994 A.D., where Goliath and the surviving members of his clan are cursed into a thousand-year stone sleep. They awaken in modern Manhattan after billionaire David Xanatos relocates their castle to the top of his skyscraper.
Keith David voiced Goliath, with Salli Richardson as Elisa Maza, Jonathan Frakes as Xanatos and Marina Sirtis as Demona. Ed Asner, Jeff Bennett and Bill Fagerbakke were among the other major members of the cast.
Another Gargoyles revival goes back into limbo
The property has spent years generating possible revivals without producing a major new screen incarnation. The live-action Disney+ version now joins that list.
Weisman continues to be involved with Gargoyles through comics, but his comment should not be stretched into an announcement about another animated project. Asked about animation alongside the live-action series, he said he did not know its status.
So this is not evidence that Disney has permanently abandoned Gargoyles as a franchise.
It is confirmation that the specific Gary Dauberman and James Wan live-action series is over before Goliath ever got to wake up.
