On Friday, animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Primal) posted stunning test footage for his current film project, Black Knight, on Instagram. There’s just one problem: The film may never even get released.
As Tartakovsky explained in his caption, Black Knight has been in development for six years. However, the studio, Sony Animation, is unsure that there’s a theatrical audience for the adult fantasy epic.
Genndy Tartakovsky breaks down the animation of “Fixed” while drawing his iconic characters
“We made a down and dirty test, and still no go,” Tartakovsky wrote of his attempts to sway Sony. “So to try something different I thought I would share the test to see if it can get a ground swell of excitement that would change the studio’s mind.”
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The minute-long test footage is chock-full of atmospheric action. It introduces the titular Black Knight, a 20-foot-tall suit of armor that Tartakovsky says is controlled by ropes, pulleys, and levers by a knight within. Given that the film is set around the 14th century, that makes the Black Knight the medieval equivalent of a mech suit.
In the footage, the Black Knight crosses paths with an agile, masked young woman armed with chains. The ensuing battle is brief but engaging, with the masked woman’s agility countering the Black Knight’s massive sword swings.
Black Knight isn’t the first of Tartakovsky’s projects to experience difficulties in development or release. In the early 2010s, Tartakovsky was working on a Popeye film for Sony. He exited in 2015, and Sony later scrapped the project. His latest film, Sony’s Fixed, was originally meant to be distributed theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures. The studio dropped it in 2024, but Netflix acquired its distribution rights and released it in 2025.
With Black Knight, it appears that Tartakovsky is settling in for what’s now a familiar fight, albeit with different tactics. As he wrote in his caption for the test footage, “Well, this might get me in trouble….But gotta try a new strategy.”
