Genndy Tartakovsky, the animation visionary behind Samurai Jack, Primal, and Dexter’s Laboratory, took an unorthodox step in late September in hopes of reviving his long-dormant project Black Knight: He leaked the test footage himself.
The reel, which Tartakovsky dropped on Instagram, depicts a lone fighter battling a 20-foot medieval knight, staged with the animator’s signature agility. Tartakovsky says he created the footage over six years ago to prove the viability of a more adult animated action film in the vein of his TV work. But despite creative approval, Sony Animation, where he was set up to direct two original films, never greenlit the project.
“They just go, ‘Where’s the audience?’ Or ‘Who is the audience?’” Tartakovsky tells Polygon on a recent call. “And it’s like… what do you mean? It’s part of Spider-Verse, it’s part of anime — that’s the audience.”
The leak comes in the wake of massive successes like KPop Demon Hunters and Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, which only underscored Tartakovsky’s frustration. “How long am I just going to sit there and have all these projects come out?” he said. “Because mine is original, it’s not getting made. So I thought I would just put it out there.”
To his surprise, Sony, his longtime partner on projects like Hotel Transylvania, didn’t object. “They weren’t yelling at me. They were like, ‘OK, I guess if this is what you want to do, go ahead.’ And now the reaction’s great,” Tartakovsky said.
The test reel has already found traction online, especially, Tartakovsky notes, after going viral in Latin America. Emboldened by the response, the animator says he plans to release new material “every week until it gets made.”
Tartakovsky hopes fan enthusiasm will prove to executives — especially Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman, who he says is key to the project moving forward — that audiences are hungry for more than sequels and IP content.
“Most people younger than my generation like animation and don’t treat it as just for kids,” Tartakovsky said. “That’s who I’m making this for.”