Nick Bruno (‘Nimona’ director) on going beyond the graphic novel

When looking at how “Nimona” would handle the romantic storyline between Ballister (Riz Ahmed) and Ambrosius (Eugene Lee Yang), director Nick Bruno decided to go further into it than is done in the graphic novel. “The thing that we got most about the graphic novel was that theme that there’s people who are othered, who are pushed to the shadows and this movie helps celebrate those who should be in the light in their own kingdom,” he tells Gold Derby during our recent Meet the Experts: Film Animation panel (watch the exclusive video interview above).

Bruno and his team championed the story until Annapurna and Netflix helped rescue it in 2022. “We were there to help support and raise those stories and hopefully create a film that the little kid versions of those people really could have used. And so we were unapologetically saying, ‘No. We’re going to continue to tell this story.’”

“Nimona,” which is currently streaming on Netflix, takes place in a futuristic-medieval kingdom. Ballister Bloodheart is about to become the first commoner to join the Institute for Elite Knights, but during the ceremony, his sword kills the queen. This shocks everyone including his boyfriend and fellow knight, Ambrosius. As Ballister hides, he meets a teenage shapeshifter named Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz) who Ballister reluctantly brings along as a sort of sidekick to help clear his name. In addition to Ahmed, Yang and Moretz, the also stars Frances Conroy, Lorraine Toussaint, Beck Bennett, Indya Moore and RuPaul Charles.

Bruno said that it was fun doing the voice recordings for the entire cast but had an especially memorable time with Conroy playing The Director, who he called a “powerhouse.” “She’d come in and give us a bracket, just going from very kind and sweet to just, AHH!, and it would scare everybody. Sometimes it felt like you either had your mom in the room with you or a tiger that was about to kill you.” When it came to casting Moretz, Bruno took notice of how she was similar to Nimona in having a sort of comedic guard but also a real vulnerability to her. “Even though she has all that sincerity, most of the time we’d bring her in and we’d play silly, stupid, ridiculous games to find ways to make Nimona feel unpredictable.”