Reporting from D23 Expo 2026, both Disney Dining and Inside the Magic caught something genuinely unexpected tucked inside Friday night's avalanche of franchise continuations at the Disney Entertainment Showcase: Walt Disney Animation Studios has an original feature in development, titled Clay and starring Kieran Culkin. Chief Creative Officer Jared Bush confirmed the project for a November 2028 theatrical window during the showcase, giving a long-battered fan base something it hasn't seen in years—an unproven idea from the house that built its legacy on exactly that impulse.
A Mentor, a Living Ball of Clay, and a Fantastical Forest
Clay, per the coverage from the showcase, centers on Flip—a man chosen to mentor Mushy, a young living ball of clay—as the two travel through a fantastical forest. It is, on paper, a premise built for the medium: shape-shifting, tactile, the kind of narrative that rewards animation's capacity to make the impossible feel consequential rather than cute. The choice of Culkin, an actor whose screen presence runs on dry precision rather than easy sentimentality, is a quietly striking tonal signal. Concept art shared on X after the showcase offered the first visual confirmation of the pair in their world; no director has been publicly named in available coverage.
Two Originals in a Sea of Continuations
Original storytelling, it turns out, doesn't have to wait until 2028. At the same showcase, Disney Animation also offered a more substantial first look at Hexed, a previously announced feature arriving in theaters on November 25, 2026. Two originals flanking a slate otherwise dominated by Coco 2 (2029), Incredibles 3 (2028), Frozen 3 (2027), Zootopia 3 (date unconfirmed), and a live-action Lilo & Stitch 2 (2028) does not amount to a wholesale reinvention of Disney's release philosophy. But it is a meaningful signal—and signals from this particular studio have been rare enough to register.
What to Watch
The real test, as ever, is execution. A high-concept pitch and a striking piece of concept art can carry a project only so far; Clay will rise or fall on the visual grammar of its forest, the chemistry between Culkin and whatever voice inhabits Mushy, and whether a studio that profits enormously from predictability actually permits these features to breathe. Until then, the entertainment world's stories this week reach well past Anaheim's stage lights: even the off-screen arc of Brittney Griner filing for divorce from Cherelle Griner after two years of marriage is a reminder that this industry's narratives are running on more than one track.