Naver Webtoon said on the 21st that Lore Olympus, an English original webtoon it discovered, will be produced as an animated series and released worldwide through Prime Video.
The Lore Olympus animated series will be produced by Prime Video and is set to stream exclusively in more than 240 regions worldwide. It is regarded as a leading example of Naver Webtoon's IP value chain, which discovers overseas creators, serializes their work globally, and expands it into screen adaptations.
Lore Olympus is a work Naver Webtoon discovered through its overseas amateur platform CANVAS, and it is a popular webtoon that has recorded more than 1.8 billion cumulative global views. It reinterprets Greek and Roman mythology, including Hades and Persephone, with distinctive art and vivid colors, and has earned favorable reviews from readers around the world.
In 2022, the work won all three of the major U.S. comics awards—the Eisner Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Ringo Awards—becoming the first single webtoon to achieve a triple crown in the same year. It also won Best Webcomic at the Eisner Awards for three consecutive years through 2024.
On the back of this popularity, The Jim Henson Company will participate in the Lore Olympus animation, and it is expected to be the studio's first adult animation. WEBTOON Productions, the IP business unit of Naver Webtoon's U.S. headquarters, Webtoon Entertainment, will also join as a co-producer.
Since launching its English service in 2014 and opening a U.S. challenge comics platform the same year, Naver Webtoon has continued to invest in discovering and nurturing local creators. As a result, as of 2024, Naver Webtoon has 26 million creators worldwide and 64 million works.
Works discovered by Naver Webtoon through contests and CANVAS are seeing their IP expand into various formats, including films and animation. Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell and Stagtown, both discovered in a 2018 contest, are also moving forward as film production projects.
Melissa Wolfe, head of animation at Amazon MGM Studios, said, "We are very pleased to present the compelling series 'Lore Olympus' to Prime Video viewers around the world," and added, "Through our collaboration with WEBTOON Productions and The Jim Henson Company, we expect it to be a meaningful addition to Prime Video's animation lineup."