Showrunner J. Chris Wall on the Epic Developments of ‘The Wingfeather Saga’ S3

Christmas came early for fans of the animated family fantasy The Wingfeather Saga this month as the third season of the show premiered online last week. Based on Andrew Peterson’s popular book series, the Angel Studios’ production has been praised for its rich world-building, engaging storylines and tackling themes such as redemption, sacrifice, courage and the power of love. The show creators are planning four more seasons, bringing the total season count to seven.

In the third season, titled The Ice Prairies, Janner journeys with his friend Maraly across the perilous Stony Mountains toward the frozen Ice Prairies, pursued by monsters and things best left in the shadows. Across the frozen frontiers, the family’s courage and loyalty will be tested as a new evil rises.

We recently had the chance to ask a few questions about the third season and its interesting storylines from the show’s executive producer/showrunner J. Chris Wall (3-2-1 Penguins, VeggieTales) Here is what the talented animation veteran told us:

Animation Magazine: Congrats, on your show’s continuing success. The third season of the show finds the Igiby family separated and making a dangerous trek across the frozen north to be reunited as they search for the legendary city of Kimera. What was new and exciting for you this time around?

J. Chris Wall: From a story perspective, the series expands into a broader epic with a massive battle, betrayal and loss. We’re also in a fantastical world of an under-ice city where families have fled to hide from the invading Fangs of Dang.

For production, we’ve shifted our full pipeline into Unreal Engine. As we have heard from Epic, we’re the only animated series in full production that is using the entire Unreal Engine pipeline, including character animation. We’ve built out a suite of tools for our team to use and continue our hybrid 2D/CG design for the “storybook” visual quality.

What are the big challenges of a third season of a popular show?

For any series, stepping into your third season is a challenge to try and step up performance in all phases. Looking at the benchmark we had established for our TV series and finding ways to improve, while working with the same overall budget.

What are the big animation influences for the whole project?

We’re big fans of any production that invites a viewer to engage their imagination through more abstract images. Aiming for non-photorealistic CGI feels like the best aim for the animation genre. Aiming for the more abstract will also allow a more timeless style that ages gracefully. Let VFX/CGI productions take that territory and lean into what makes our genre distinct. So we love Miyazaki for the hints at a deeper and storied world in the design. And of course, the bold take on CGI that Sony’s Spider-Verse movies brought to the mainstream.

What are you proudest about in regards to the series?

Watching a family work together while battling a terrible enemy. Siblings fighting for each other and parents jumping into the fray with them. It just feels great to me, like The Incredibles or The Mitchell’s vs. the Machines. Real families with authentic conflict, but a deep love for each other.

What do you find fans love best about The Wingfeather Saga?

The authentic characters that feel like real people. Just like us, making a great decision one day and a terrible one the next. And I think seeing those characters in a real world with perilous consequences just lands with a certain truth to it.

Why do you think the show has found such a big following?

The fantasy novels are brilliant and moving. I think years of fans reading and sharing that version of the story built up an incredible appetite to see it come to life on screen.

We really wanted to lean into the more abstract visual style and avoid photorealistic images that have become the norm in a lot of CG animated production. It feels like a way to invite the audience to engage their imagination, because we haven’t rendered it all out on screen. In a world of increasing AI reproduction, we are leaning hard against that with hand-painted CG. We think artists must be at the center of art creation. There are some great machine tools to help those artists create with better efficiency, but ultimately art has to cost something for it to truly resonate with an audience. With no cost, it becomes cheap and disposable.

How many people work on the series, and where is the animation being produced? Which animation tools are used?

Our studio [Shining Isle Productions] is based in Nashville, Tennessee. We have some remote artists across the U.S. and Europe with a full team of about 60 artists. We are entirely producing the series in Unreal Engine for Season 3 and forward.

What is your take on the world of animation as we approach 2026?

It is a time of diversity of tools and I think a real decision point as we consider the role of machines (AI) in our creation of art. I think some will go all-in on the cost-cutting opportunity and we’ll see a declining quality of art and ultimate theft of design that will go rampant for a while. But the true artists will persist and I think find ourselves with a devoted audience in the end.

Any tips for newbies who are looking to get in the business?

Learn a number of tools! From broad tools like Blender to diverse tools like Unreal Engine. There is a really interesting set of jobs emerging under “Digital Visualization” that can allow an artist to move from industrial work to medical, live entertainment and narrative, all within one set of tools. I talked about this recently with the Nashville Arts and Business Council in a webinar [available to watch here].

The six-episode third season of The Wingfeather Saga premiered on November 12 on Angel platforms. New episodes debut Wednesdays.