The Smurfs Owner Rebrands & Expands Franchise

At Annecy, IMPS unveiled a rebranding to Peyo Company and outlined a new strategy for expanding The Smurfs franchise and reviving other original creations from creator and storyteller Peyo.

Alongside the Smurfs, early Peyo characters will be revived using modern animation with new stories inspired by the original Johan & Peewit and Benny Breakiron comic books. Two new series are in the works: The Tales of Johan & Peewit and Benny Breakiron.

Véronique Culliford—Peyo’s daughter who founded IMPS in 1984—and IMPS have created Peyo Company to regroup all of Peyo’s universes under one single banner: Peyo Company.

Culliford said: “It’s been an honor to be able to build such a success out of the blue characters my father created. And now I hope we will do the same for some of his other creations, Johan & Peewit and Benny Breakiron. To underline our engagement to expand his legacy beyond the Smurfs, we are renaming IMPS as The Peyo Company. It’s a well-deserved tribute to my father and features his signature, with which he signed thousands of drawings, as our new logo.”

Season two of The Smurfs is coming to Netflix on June 30, and season three will launch on Nickelodeon this summer. Season four is in pre-development. And there is a new Paramount movie, set for a worldwide theatrical release in February 2025.

Nele De Wilde, CCO at Peyo Company, said: “We are delighted to be working with Paramount Animation on an all-new theatrical production, The Smurfs Movie. Paramount pulled together a dream team of filmmakers led by the smurftastic director, Chris Miller, co-director Matt Landon, and producers Ryan Harris, Rihanna, Laurence ‘jay’ Brown and Tyran ‘ty-ty’ Smith. This fresh take on the beloved Smurfs will see them go on an interdimensional adventure to discover the power within and answer the universal question: What is a Smurf? We’re thrilled that Rihanna is on board to voice Smurfette and write, produce, and perform original songs for the film.”