Fans of Nickelodeon’s Dora the Explorer are finally getting their first look at Paramount+’s upcoming revival. During ViacomCBS’ Investor Day event on Tuesday afternoon, Brian Robbins, Paramount+’s Chief Content Officer for Movies and Kids & Family, revealed the first official photo from the upcoming Dora the Explorer CG-animated preschool series, which is produced by Nickelodeon Animation and slated for a 2023 series premiere. In the image, the beloved character can be seen surrounded by her animal friends, including best friend Boots and mischievous fox Swiper, as well as a few others.
In addition to the character’s animated preschool return, Paramount+ also confirmed that the first-ever live-action Dora the Explorer series, “inspired by the tone of Paramount Pictures’ 2019 Dora and the Lost City of Gold theatrical release,” is in the works. In development for Paramount+, the live-action series shifts the target audience from preschoolers to tweens. The series was first teased back in March 2021. Further details about the series, including the cast, have not been released at this time.
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The upcoming series will mark the second venture into live-action territory for the hit show. As Paramount+ noted, Dora made the live-action leap in 2019 with the feature film Dora and the Lost City of Gold. The movie starred Isabela Moner (Transformers: The Last Knight) as a teenage Dora leaving the wilds of the jungle for the even more dangerous wilds of American high school, and then right back into the jungle again. The hilarious and exciting film co-starred Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, and Eva Longoria. It also featured Danny Trejo as the voice Dora’s best monkey pal Boots, and Oscar-winner Benicio del Toro as the voice of the conniving Swiper, a mischievous fox who is always trying to steal from Dora. The film grossed more than $120 million at the global box office, and was acclaimed by both fans and critics alike.
“As we’ve known with Nickelodeon’s long-standing success, the kids and family audience is incredibly loyal, and we see that on Paramount+ as well, with kids and family ranking as one of the strongest genres on the service in terms of both engagement and subscriber acquisition,” Robbins said during the Tuesday event. “So as they stay for our shows and look for even more of them, we’re doubling down on giving them what they want by expanding the universes of the characters they love the best.”
In addition to the two Dora the Explorer titles, the company has several other projects that will be produced by Nickelodeon and Nickelodeon Animation in the works. Those include three new SpongeBob spinoff series, a series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle films, and Blue’s Big City Adventure, a live-action/animation hybrid Blue’s Clues & You! movie, among several others.
