#post. zagtoon

[parismystere]

i just find it funny how ml s4 completely fucked over adrien's character and then the s5 bible leaked, every single concept art and model leaked, scripts leaked, and now the entire movie apparently leaked as well

[myanimatedopinion]

The fact that Thomas Astruc you know the literal creator of miraclous ladybug wasn’t involved in the making of the movie at all and was only credited in being the creator of the show the movie was inspired by isn’t sitting well with me.

[lc-holy]

Conférence Masterclass 808 (Translation)

I've taken the liberty of translating the conference that took place last year with the writing director of Miraculous (Sébastien Thibaudeau). It was only made public when someone posted a video of the conference a short while ago.

In this conference, Sébastien Thibaudeau will talk about the creation of Miraculous and his work on the series. He is joined by Chloé Paye, a new scriptwriter working on Miraculous season 6.

Sébastien talks a lot and repeats himself a bit, so the summary can be a bit confusing.

I strongly advise you to go and listen to the video if you understand French. There are a lot of details I'm going to leave out, and Sébastien is very funny.

Photo belongs to mlbfanfr on twitter.

Please be respectful in comments or tags. If you want to debate on things related to this conference, please make your own post. I apologize if there are any mistakes, I'm French and I'm not fluent in English.

-12 years ago, Sébastien arrived at Zagtoon, a studio that was just starting out and had yet to produce and broadcast any series. The producer (Jérémy Zag) and Sébastien hit it off and decided to start working together. Zag decides to give Sébastien total freedom over his projects. Sébastien then decides to put the spotlight on scriptwriters, because in this profession they are unfortunately poorly paid and never stay on the same projects.

So they produced a cartoon called Kobushi. A little-known series that did rather well, even if it didn't stay on the "Gulli" channel for long. The scriptwriters and producer were happy with the end result, as it was produced in a very short time.

Jeremy Zag then proposed another project, which he thought was quite good, but which he was unable to sell to broadcasters. At the time, the project was called "Ladybug". No one was interested, as the project was aimed more at an adult audience than a children's audience. Sébastien had to make sure that the project could be broadcast on Disney and TF1.

There was only a "trailer" also called "Ladybug" (but you'll find the video under the title Ladybug PV) animated by Toei animation. At the time, Sébastien had not yet been hired by Zagtoon. It was Jérémy Zag who convinced Toei animation to work with them (no mean feat, since Toei animation doesn't work with anyone).

So Sébastien started working with Thomas Astruc (the man who wrote and created the "Ladybug" project). At first, he didn't want to work on this project because he found it complicated. Thomas wanted to make a series for adults, but at the time, it was very complicated to make a cartoon for adults. What's more, they didn't have enough money to take on such a project. Sébastien finally agreed, but there were some changes to be made, which Thomas accepted.

-What Sébastien appreciated most in this project was the romantic comedy, the love square between the two main characters.

To meet the requirements of the cartoon industry, "Ladybug" had to be set in a neutral universe, in other words, in an imaginary country or the USA, but Zag, who loves Paris, declared that the cartoon had to be set in Paris.

In the end, Thomas Astruc's entire project was discarded, leaving only the love story between the two heroes and the city of Paris, where the story was to take place.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Sébastien explains how he writes Marinette's first dialogues: He says he talks a lot in real life, so he writes Marinette like him. She says out loud whatever she's thinking.

For Chat noir, he makes him tell his father's jokes. Something TF1 doesn't accept. The TV channel went so far as to refuse to validate the Bible (a collection of information on the series and episodes) until it had removed the sentence: “Chat noir makes jokes”. Sebastien has therefore removed the sentence, but will continue to make Chat noir tell jokes.

-The writing director's job is to get the producer, creator and broadcaster to agree. The series broadcast on TF1 and Disney are very different. TF1 wants series whose story can be told in a single episode, unlike Disney, which wants series whose story spans several episodes.

Sébastien and TF1 agree that Miraculous will be a series with one story per episode, a "Formula Show".

He cites the example of Dora the Explorer episodes, where every episode is the same: Dora goes on an adventure from point A to point B, she has to find 3 clues, then she meets Swiper, she sings a song to make Swiper go away, she uses the talking map to get from one place to another, then Dora manages to get to point B and the episode ends.

This episode format is used for children, to give them a reassuring framework, as they build themselves up through repetition. That's why series like Dora work so well with young children.

So Sebastien sold the Miraculous series to broadcasters as a formula show. A person gets angry, is akumatized, then marinette transforms into Ladybug then frees the person from the akumatization and… The End.

It's also for this reason that Marinette tries to confess her love for Adrien in every episode, but is unable to do so.

But he tried to go against what he had planned with TF1, by slipping little extra stories into certain episodes. Audiences were receptive to these slightly hidden stories. The TV channel even asked Sébastien if there really were hidden things in the series, but he denied everything. Thanks to the positive reception from the public, TF1 agreed to develop the characters of Marinette and Adrien and flesh out the universe a little more.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Once the bible is written, they have to write a script. But first Sébastien, as writing director, needs to know the mood of the series, and to do this he calls on Thomas Astruc, the series creator. Thomas is a great fan of classical painting. A single painting can tell a complex scene with lots of detail. He wants the episodes of miraculous to be like these paintings, there will be very few shots, but in a single shot a lot will happen.

-Sébastien explains that one of the things Thomas wanted to convey in the series was emotion. They didn't want to do what a lot of children's cartoons do, which is to beat the bad guys and win at the end of the episode. They wanted to tell kids that it's normal to have negative emotions. We can also become better people, learn from our mistakes and so on. It also reassures TV channels by setting up scenes that are repeated in every episode: people get angry, people akumatize then people deakumatize, end of episode...

Once the TV channels had been reassured, they set about writing a script.

-Sébastien asks Thomas to write the ending, as they're not sure the series will work. They also wondered what the aim of the series was, and what they wanted to say to the children. The two of them sat down in an office and wrote the ending, which turned out to be just the end of an arc. He even adds that now that they've written a lot more, it's important for them to write in advance so that everything is clear to them.

-The first season was written by 19 authors, from home. He found it interesting that the series was written by several different authors, even if some of them didn't quite understand the premise of the series. One episode that Sébastien particularly appreciated was written by two “autrices” (I think it's weird to say “two female authors”, so I'll use the French word): the refletkta episode, with the story of Juleka who couldn't get into the photos. (Note that all the episodes were proofread by Sébastien and Thomas).

After that, they kept a few people on to work together on the scripts for subsequent seasons.

Sébastien explains that he keeps a close eye on the production of the episodes, to make sure that everything that goes into the picture is as faithful as possible to what they've written in the script.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-The kwamis exist thanks to Toei, who wanted funny little animals to sell plush toys. So the scriptwriters had to find a way to integrate kwamis into the story.

-(Again, Sébastien advises people to check out the Kobushi series if they can still watch it somewhere, or ask the leaker who leaked the whole of season 5 to give them the episodes (that's a joke, of course)).

-Sébastien talks about the Ikari gozen episode, which could have been a total failure because the storyboarder didn't fully understand the scenario. Sébastien asks Zag to redo the storyboard, which will add 10 weeks to the episode's deadline. The storyboarder admits that he's always done storyboards mechanically, without worrying whether the episode is good or not, whether the jokes are funny or not. Eventually, the episode was redone by the same storyboarder, resulting in the episode we all know today.

- They still have a lot to tell with Miraculous, to the point where they're wondering if they'll have enough seasons to tell everything they want to tell. Sebastien says there will be a season 6 and 7, and probably a season 8 and 9.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Chloé Paye met Sébastien when she was looking for an internship. She had never worked in animation, and knew nothing about Miraculous. She tells us how the scriptwriting team works. Each time, all the scriptwriters in the room have to be convinced of the script. They can sometimes spend hours on details to get everyone to agree.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- The driving force behind the series is that there must always be a secret between Marinette and Adrien. The lovesquare can never be broken, otherwise there's no series. Sébastien knows that some people are worried about this. Will they continue the lovesquare for another 4 seasons or more? How will they evolve? Sébastien says not to worry, they know where they want to go.

-It takes them 14 to 16 months to produce an episode, but it's often much longer due to unforeseen circumstances. And they don't work on one episode at a time, but on several at the same time. One episode takes a long time because of the 3D animation.

One of the things that's complicated with Miraculous 3d animation is that they can only display 3 characters at a time on screen, whereas the series requires them to display many more characters. It's also very difficult to correct animation errors, as this takes a lot of time.

-The TV networks were very surprised by the success of miraculous. They didn't think adults and children alike would watch the series. The TV channels were a little confused because they usually make series for a specific age group, but since miraculous had people of all ages watching, they weren't sure what to do.

- Sébastien says he's very happy that miraculous inspires a lot of people to create things, like writing fanfiction, however he's not interested in it because he doesn't want to be influenced by certain fans who would love to see certain things in the series.

- Writing direction also means paying attention to how the characters speak. They all have their own way of speaking. For example, Adrien will never say "j’te parle", but rather "Je te parle".

- During the writing process, the writers sometimes act out scenes to make the dialogue more natural. This is what happened with the episode "Gang of secrets". They felt that, with the success of the show and the pressure it was generating, they needed to write something to relieve their stress. So they wrote about Marinette and the enormous pressure she was under to keep all her secrets. The final scene, in which Marinette tells Alya that she's Ladybug, came naturally when they performed it together.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Questions (Since I can't use the askbox anonymously anymore)

Hi! I don’t really agree with you on everything about Miraculous Ladybug, but I thought I might ask you some questions here since I don’t want to make an account to do so and I can’t use the anonymous ask anymore without one.

1. I Assume that your Chloe vs Daruizen post will probably attempt to compare a character who may have been teased as being potentially redeemable before pulling a fakeout vs one who quite possibly wasn’t (and had the show try to pretend otherwise). I’ve seen an essay arguing that Chloe wasn’t meant to be redeemed from another fan, so I would be interested in seeing if you would respond to some of their points.

2. Honestly, I haven’t seen a lot of good things about other Zagtoon shows – I remember Ghostforce in my mind stands out because the comments on the site I found it on describe it as a terribly formulaic Danny Phantom Meets Power Rangers setup, and they also mention other shows by Zagtoon, which they see as average at best. I know Miraculous Ladybug has its flaws and I shouldn’t necessarily be listening to strangers on the internet for opinions but if it’s the best/most successful show that Zagtoon can put out then it certainly seems like they have a problem, especially overambition. I could see them being like telltale games in that they have a huge hit or two and several flops that try to repeat the success but instead gradually drag the studio down.

3. I do feel that more of the fandom would be okay (not necessarily happy, just feeling a bit better) about Gabriel winning if Adrien found out about his father being Hawkmoth (and maybe got to finally have a permanent reveal to ladybug) and we at least got to see him decide on what to think about him knowing that. The antagonist winning can be a huge gamble in writing, for better (Watchmen - where it was thematically appropriate) or worse (Re: Creators – in fact, I think if you watched this show you would compare its main villain to Gabriel in some ways). Though, maybe it might be the other way around and the fandom would have preferred Ladybug winning for good without Cat Noir’s help (and him and the rest of Paris not finding out Gabriel was Hawkmoth), if the choice came down to that or my other proposal. Hell, just to ask you, which would you have preferred?

4. Do you think they are going to reveal that the Utopian Paris happened naturally (to push their messaging) or because of Gabriel’s wish? I would prefer the latter, as it would imply that Gabriel ruined another city/country in the process, which would give a good plot hook and remind us that he was still ultimately a villain. Finding a way to undo the damage would be another good plot.

5. I heard in the interview you did that there has been a bit of resentment against Jeremy Zag. I don’t really know why – is that because he just didn’t do anything about Astruc’s bad decisions, because he was apparently (as) difficult to work with, or something else? I do give him a bit more respect than Astruc for making the movie(s), at least.

--------------------------------------------------------

1. The main idea for that post (assuming I ever wrire it) is more to compare two irredeemable villains who have a history with the main character, and why I think Dariuzen does everything Chloe was meant to do, but better.

2. The issue with ZAG is that they keep coming up with poorly marketed shows and pointless Miraculous Ladybug specials. It’s a case of overambition at its finest.

3. All we really wanted was for Adrien to get some kind of closure with his dad after all the years the show spent tackling their tense relationship. That’s what so many people liked about the movie, that Adrien was able to appeal to Gabriel’s humanity and make him give up. Hell, if you wanted to split up the two, make it so they’re both doing something. Have Ladybug lead the charge against the Miraculized while Cat Noir fights Monarch.

4. I feel like it’s unfortunately going to skew towards the latter. People keep saying that the show meant to make the ending uncomfortable, but not only did the writers’ commentary confirm that they were done with the Agreste family arc, even the marketing seems to believe that Gabriel was a good man.

5. My best guess is that it’s the same problem most writers and executives run into: creative differences.

[fabseg-creator]

Miraculous fanart: Cerise Bianca (Lila Rossi)/Chrysalis V2

I've remade a new draft of Chrysalis (again!). This time, I've made her design from this image (a supposed leak for):

Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir belongs to ZagToon.

All my Cerise/Chrysalis fan-designs here:

All Lila/Cerise/Chrysalis posts here in this tags

#lila rossi/cerise

#cerise bianca

#chrysalis

Bonus (Beautifly/Butterfly Marinette):

[jauneilles]

#𝐉𝐀𝐔𝐍𝐄𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐒 is an independent and private roleplay blog for 𝘾𝙃𝙇𝙊𝙀 𝘽𝙊𝙐𝙍𝙂𝙀𝙊𝙄𝙎 of zagtoon's miraculous ladybug franchise. written by fae. if you could give this post a ♡ or ↺ to help me find people to interact with, i'd really appreciate it!

[greatwyrmgold]

I'm a fan of enough Miraculous Ladybug fanworks to catch bits of Miraculous Ladybug fandom discourse, and it seems like a rough show to be a fan of. So many of the analysis posts are either directly discussing writing decisions they don't like, or have caveats about how the analysis is disrupted by inconsistent writing or poor narrative choices or whatever.

And this isn't just a ML thing. I'm in the Parahumans fandom, we complain about details all the time. But, broadly speaking, we do like how the core characters are characterized and their character arcs and the overall plot. (Except sometimes in the sequel. Let's not get into it.)

Miraculous Ladybug fans don't even have that much. I'm writing this right after reading a post which literally defends Marinette from the way she's written. It's defending a vague hypothetical version of Marinette who doesn't make a plot-defining mistake every episode, from the reality where she's written to make a plot-defining mistake every episode.

And sure, every fandom technically has stuff like that. Parahumans is full of non-platonic subtext* that appears to be both 100% unintentional and 110% frustrating. But people get frustrated about non-platonic subtext between the characters that actually exist, not a Victoria without romantic trauma and an Ashley without anger issues.

*See Ward chapter 13.4 for meme context. And the rest of Ward for chapter context. And all of Worm for Ward context. So to understand two and a half words, you need to read almost three million words of web serial. Maybe I should've picked another fandom as my example...

To be fair, this feeling isn't foreign to me. I like the My Hero Academia in my head way better than the one Horikoshi actually wrote. But I don't consider myself part of the MHA fandom any more, and while the MHA fandom has its complaints about canon, they're nowhere near as consistent or prevalent as the ML fandom's seem to be.

I don't have any insights to offer. I just think it's interesting how stark the difference is between the Miraculous Ladybug that fans want to enjoy and the Miraculous Ladybug that actually exists. I guess the Zagtoons writers or showrunners are really good at coming up with compelling concepts?

[emiquartzuli]

TechnoPeri fanart

I know I know, I’ve been posting a lot of Peri fanart, but I love her so I’m not apologizing. I do have other stuff I want to show you guys too, but that’ll be for later.

This is for @red_reddie on Instagram’s Steven Universe and Miraculous Ladybug crossover:) I love the concept of Peri getting akumatized so I just had to draw it! Hope I did it justice.

🐞✨🐞✨🐞✨🐞✨🐞✨ Concept and Peri’s redesign is @red_reddie ‘s, Steven Universe belongs to Rebecca Sugar and Cartoon Network and Miraculous Ladybug (of course including googled ref) belongs to Thomas Astruc and Zagtoon.

[velvetiivenus]

Hi, I was browsing tumblr here and quite by chance came across an important discovery, namely the supposedly existing version of ladybug from 2010. Can you write what this version is? And who is Gorgeous Nathan from the gym club, I assume that Nathan is pre Felix, he existed before Felix!?Is he Felix's prototype?

Do you have any ideas or headcanons about Nathan or any theories?

Do you know anything else about this Nathan?Was he a chat noir from the Mini Menace?Or did the chat noir from the mini menace have no name!?

This will probably end up being quite a long answer because there's a lot of ground to cover, so sorry if it ends up being quite long 😊

Can you write what this version is?

I actually already wrote about this version of Miraculous in one of my first posts on this blog! Here's what I wrote about half a year ago:

Around 2010, plans started to be made for a movie (and possibly a spin-off series) about Ladybug (at the time named "Lady Bug"). The movie would have been part of a trilogy and there were even plans for a comic book series based on these films. It's unknown if Chat Noir even existed in this concept, and I don't think Tikki and Plagg existed since they were probably introduced by Toei (who probably also introduced the transformations and all the other magical girl stuff). Félix didn't exist, and instead we had a character called Nathan. There is no concept art or information about Nathan apart from his name and that he was part of "the gym club", and since we don't know if Chat Noir existed in this concept he probably wasn't Chat Noir. I don't think there's any information on this era in the Ladybug Artbook, all I could find was the picture above and a page on the Miraculous Wiki.

However, I've managed to find some more information:

As well as Zagtoon and Method Animation (who are involved with the production of modern-day Miraculous), Univergroup Pictures (later known as Zagtoon Pictures) and Onyx Films were also involved in production.

Some sources say the film was going to have a budget of 50 million Euros (about 53 million dollars), others say it would have been 50 million dollars

There's also this picture:

Who is Gorgeous Nathan from the Gym Club?

Actually, what's in the image above is actually all the information we have on him!

In terms of fanon, however, he is usually depicted as Felix's older brother. He's also usually depicted as a jock stereotype, but much more agressive. If you take all the bad traits of pre-canon Felix/ Chat Noir and mix them together, you get Nathan. To add to that, he's usually depicted as being very popular among girls.

Also, yes, he is pre-felix :)

Is he Felix's prototype?

Probably! But, as mentioned before, since the image above is all the canon information we'll probably ever get about him, it's impossible to know.

Do you have any ideas or headcanons about Nathan or any theories?

A personal headcanon of mine is that he was a previous Chat Noir and went through some pretty traumatic things, which causes him to lash out at people.

Also, he does boxing.

Do you know anything else about this Nathan?

Sorry, this is all the information I could find :)

Was he a Chat Noir from The Mini Menace?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Honestly, I have no idea.

Did the Chat Noir from The Mini Menace have no name?

This depends on which Mini Menace we're talking about!

This is the first appearance of Chat Noir ever, in the original, hand-drawn 2005 Mini Menace covers. The only information we have about him is that he's (probably) an adult. This isn't even officially confirmed, it's just based on evidence from other Mini Menace covers. As such, this Chat Noir has no name.

This version of The Mini Menace is the most unknown phase of development of Miraculous. As such, there is no information on this Chat Noir (though he does look a lot younger than the original Chat Noir). However, there is actually some fanon for him!

This is Niklaus (or Niko), Felix's uncle and a previous Chat Noir. He is often portrayed as being quite flirtatious and catty and has a habit of calling people "darling". He's also gay. This is pretty much all the fanon for him, though

Sorry this answer ended up being quite long :)

[taldigi]

How much you gonna gloat when the pilot is online and it proves that the original concept was better then the finished show?

You must be mistaken. I wouldn't ever.

i wouldn't call it better. But I sure as hell wouldn't call it worse, either. it's funny, I wrote a huge rant on this earlier. Maybe I should post it after all.

The concepts that were presented were more interesting than what we ended up getting, And the PV was animated by talent- I'll state that. But better? Hardly.

But it would have still been a show headed by Zag and TA, with help from folk who actively drew porn of the main characters and approved of titty physics on children. ML was always an oversexualized racist wankpiece by old french men who can't let go of silver age comics. The big blessing we got with the PV was that none of the characters were able to open their mouths speak Zagtoons' shit writing.

but goddamn if the villians weren't cool as heck. IDC what yall think but the mime was a really cool villian actually.

[vesbeeria]

           BROKE AWAY, LEARNED TO FLY --

                              🐝 * ✧ . Independent blog for ZOÉ LEE as shown in zagtoon's miraculous ladybug. Canon divergent, selective & private.

             PERSONALS DO NOT INTERACT.

My name is Ash, 28. I use she/they pronouns. My rules will be posted under the cut!

affiliated with: jauneilles & yinbug & yangnoir

BLOG RULES.

I don't require heavy plotting, but if we're doing pre-established relationships that aren't handled in canon, I need to have some backstory on it - this goes for romantic, platonic and familial relationships. I just need something to go off of.

It takes a lot to upset me. But I do request you tag anything having to do with senility or terminal illnesses, such as Alzheimer's, dementia or cancer. Amnesia is not a problem! These topics are extremely triggering to me, so I ask that your posts about it be tagged as 'ash don't look //' or with the correct trigger warning. I have multiple variations blacklisted. Anything triggering that appears on my blog will be tagged as well.

If I see any bullying, drama or anything of that nature, I WILL unfollow and possibly block. I don't tolerate any racism/sexism/homophobia or anything of the sort. Don't be a bully!

I have no patience for petty, public drama. If you have a problem with me, please let me know and we can sort it out like adults. I won't participate in a public spectacle. I'm too old and tired for it.

I do not practice exclusives except in extremely rare cases. I do have mains, however. That just means while I write with dupes, mains will have first priority for replies / plots / etc. I won't repeat plots with multiple partners, but it is likely I'll ship with multiple people.

My activity is very sporadic, please be patient with me!!

This blog is selective. That just means that I will only rp with mutuals. Non-mutuals are welcome to follow and send questions to my muses, but otherwise I will not engage.

DISCLAIMER: I have the right to unfollow / softblock / hardblock anybody as I see fit. I do not owe you any sort of explanation. Do not approach if you have been unfollowed / softblocked. If it is a glitch, I will refollow as soon as I notice. Thank you!

[big-bundle-of-little-mistakes]

*spoilers* POSITIVELY SCREEEEECHINNGGGGGGG OH MY GOD YESSSSSSSSSS!!!! Zoey loving Marinette means that we are ON TRACK for Kagami, Adrien and Marinette eventually being a friggen THROUPLEEEEE! TOTALLY POSSIBLE! NOT OFF THE TABLE! ZAGTOONS REALLY SAID GAY RIGHTS LET'S FUCKIN GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Honestly this started as an appreciation post because like damn gay rights yeeesss, but then my brain jumbled up from the excitement, because The Ghost and Molly McGee said ghostie gay rights (complete with kiss, beautiful 😍) and then Hailey's On It said Gay Rights too with Scott's little sister (already forgot her name, my bad) crushing on Hailey, just, yes! Thank you! Representation finally! Grew up feeling so strange for feeling warm around girls, wanting to look good for them, loving making them laugh, and STILL insisting I wasn't gay cuz I wasn't shown that being gay is FUCKING NORMAL.

Anyway, yes, yes, yes, YES, we got some wins baby! Thank you Owl House for paving the way so much!

The Loud House also did gay dads years ago and I love them so much for it.

But The Owl House really showed us something so beautiful, how entirely normal it was for people to just experience love with zero judgements or questions asked. You like me? Cool. I like you too. End of convo. Beautiful. The way it should be. The way we can only hope the world someday will be.

Anyway, idk, just needed to squeal over all the stuff I've been seeing. The bi child in me is feeling so healed, seen, understood, finally as a 30 year old.

[fabseg-creator]

Fast and Miraculous (Fast and Furious AU): Cars don't fly [Full Color]

I've finished the scene.

Yes. The car where Marinette and Kagami are driving is a Tsurugi car.

Adapted from my previous post.

Cars don't fly sketch

One scene later:

Fast and Furious from Original Film and Universal Pictures

Miraculous from Zagtoon

[miraculous-awakening]

The movie that wasn't made

So with ML movie coming out this year, I remembered reading about the movie that was announced all the way back in 2010 at Mipcom.

The plan back then was to release the movie and then follow it up with the series. The movie was going to be directed by Astruc, not Zag. There were also 10 comic books planned, written by Astruc, for iPad and iPhone. Basically, Zag was planning to cover several mediums at once. Source

The movie had estimated budget of €50 million. The "Awakening" movie, for comparison, had budget of €80 million.

In 2011 news article, it was said that Zagtoon is developing a "superhero toon trilogy", which is interesting, because the movies that are now directed by Zag instead are also going to be a trilogy. Source

In 2012 Ladybug PV was leaked to the public. Same year french webcast Geek Inc discussed the future of the franchise, and it was revealed that the movie would show how Marinette got her earrings and met Chat Noir. The second season was said to be already in the works at this point. Source

The webcast itself is still available, but it's in French. So if you know French and are curious, you can watch it for yourself.

In 2013, ML website switched to describing the movie as live action, even though previously it was always said to be 3D. Source

That version was in development for 4-5 years, but Zag eventually decided not to go through with it, at least for now.

And finally, at May 12, 2017 Astruc posted a bunch of storyboards, related to the script he wrote for the hypothetical animated movie announced back then. In it, there were no kwamis, no transformations, no lucky charm (just good luck powers that could only be used selflessly) and Alya knew Marinette's secret.

(The part in french says: "Off-screen dialogue, something like "You don't need anyone's permission to do good around you")

Also, based on this summary from Mipcom, Marinette's crush might've actually been called Nathan instead of Adrien or Felix 🤔

It's interesting to me how the project changed throughout the years, and how the movie that was announced 13 years ago would be completely different from what we ended up getting.

[edorazzi]

I’M MAKING MYSELF NERVOUS

[rabbitholefor-anymediailike]

I used to have this theory when I was 14 that this

Was originally Nathaniel, but that they scrapped him and reused his design for an extra in miraculous. Pixie Girl hasn't been released yet so until then, no one can really prove me wrong