It's somewhat hard to believe, given the character's popularity over the years, but Crash Bandicoot has somehow never had a starring role in his own TV show or animated film.
To our knowledge, there has been at least one attempt to turn Crash into a TV show, with Amazon reportedly axing a streaming project called The Crash Bandicoot Insane Cartoon Show back in 2021. Meanwhile, another rumour circulated in October of last year that a new project was in development at Netflix, based on an uncorroborated report from the unofficial Netflix site, What's On Netflix. As far as anything is confirmed, though, fans have been left waiting for the character to make the jump to these other formats — something the character's original co-designer, Charles Zembillas, sees as a huge missed opportunity.
Speaking to Time Extension recently about his career, Zembillas commented on the management of the Crash Bandicoot franchise and expressed disappointment over the lack of a TV series or movie based on the popular character.
Being a veteran of the animation industry himself, having worked on An American Tail, He-Man: Masters of the Universe, and She-Ra: Princess of Power, he believes that the character has the potential to lead his own series, and is shocked it hasn't happened already, something he communicated to us over a video call.
"It's got to be one of the most poorly managed properties," Zembillas tells us. "Even now, I'm thinking, 'Where’s the movie? Where’s the TV series?' You guys have a winner here, and you're doing nothing with it."
Despite being critical of the IP's management over the years, he feels something will "inevitably" happen.
"It's inevitable that Crash will be in a series or feature film," he tells Time Extension. "It just takes the guys who make these decisions to commit to it. Crash is in the fabric of society. It has a large fan base. It's a fantastic property. Crash is fun. A series or film would introduce the characters to a new generation. It would be a hit just because of the fan base.
"Crash is a 30-year-old pre-sold concept. It's been mellowing like fine wine. You've had Sonic and Mario Bros movies. It's time for Crash Bandicoot. Someone will eventually realize this and give it a greenlight."
Given that the floodgates have opened on film & TV adaptations, we have to agree with Zembillas here, but it would be interesting to hear your opinions. Do you want to see Crash receive an animated TV series or movie? We've put together a poll to find out: