Creator Trying to Move Canceled Netflix Project to New Studio

Jorge Gutiérrez is counting on another studio to pick up his animated feature I, Chihuahua.

After the film was quietly canceled at Netflix, the director revealed in a social media post last month that he is looking to take I, Chihuahua elsewhere.

“Working hard to set up I Chihuahua to happen at a different studio to be theatrical,” Gutiérrez wrote on X on Monday, April 14. He didn’t provide any further details.

Originally announced back in March 2022 as Gutiérrez’s first animated feature for Netflix, I, Chihuahua was billed as the ultimate underdog tale of Chacho, a scrappy masked Luchador Chihuahua. Per Netflix’s logline, “after learning his beloved home is in danger, a young Chihuahua named Chacho dons a Lucha Libre mask to become Luchacho! Our masked underdog enters an international fight tournament, competing against a hilarious and eclectic mix of animal fighters from all over the world, leading to the final epic fight against the nefarious beast known as Chamuco, The Widow Maker!”

After Netflix released little more info on the project in the following years, Gutiérrez revealed in April 2024 that Netflix scrapped I, Chihuahua over “creative differences.”

“Since everyone is asking, my beloved “I Chihuahua” is, as of now, officially dead at FAN (Feature Animation Netflix) over “creative differences,”” he wrote, indicating at the time that he was hoping that the film would be picked up somewhere else. “I adore the film with all my heart and absolutely plan to get it made somewhere else. Netflix is being really cool about letting me take it outside so I could not be more excited and hopeful for the future.”

Written by Gutiérrez, Doug Landale, and Candie Kelty Langdale, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias producing and starring, I, Chihuahua was set to mark Gutiérrez’s latest project for Netflix after the mini-series Maya and the Tree. That show, about a spirited princess who embarks on a mission to fulfill an ancient prophecy and save humanity, won two Annie Awards upon its premiere. A sequel series to Maya and the Three, titled Kung-Fu Space Punch, was also in development before Gutiérrez later confirmed that it was “not moving forward at Netflix Animation.”