A Look Back At 'IYANU: Child Of Wonder' Season 1
Image Source: Animation World Network
Magic, wonder, adventure, cultures, these are all themes in IYANU: Child of Wonder show from Lion Forge Entertainment and created by Roye Okupe and Brandon Easton. The first season premiered on Cartoon Network/HBO Max in April of 2025 and will be joined shortly by an animated feature film IYANU: The Age of Wonders which is the origin story taking place 500 years before Iyanu. Season 2 is also on the way in 2026. In preparation for the movie, here’s a look back at the first season and the wonderful addition it brings to the world of children’s (and adult’s) animated television.
IYANU: Child of Wonder is inspired by Nigerian culture and some of the other cultures and peoples from around the surrounding regions and West African mythology.
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CultureSlate had a chance to be a part of a roundtable with Roye Okupe and Lion Forge Entertainment CEO, Dave Seward II, earlier in the year. You can find out all about the background of the stories, the inspirations, and what the creators are hoping the story will bring to people in this article. IYANU: Child of Wonder is based on a graphic novel series by Roye Okupe.
Image Source: IMDb
There aren’t many stories out there that focus on African mythos and culture, and definitely not many that you see on TV. IYANU: Child of Wonder is filling a gap in storytelling that is sorely needed. It helps viewers who are a part of those cultures feel seen along with teaching others who aren’t a part of those cultures learn about them. The voice actors are from Nigeria and the surrounding areas or have that ancestry which is a huge win for mainstream media and brings an added depth to the storytelling.
Season 1 brings a beautiful storyline of love, betrayal, family, deception, magic, and facing your fears in life through the characters of Iyanu, Biyi, Toye, Olori, Kanfu, Nuro, and many others. While it is a story geared towards children, and isn’t quite as intricate as some other fantastical stories, that doesn’t mean that older children and adults can’t get things out of the story as well and enjoy it. It is expertly told with a good balance of push and pull from the story without making things too easy for the characters, but also not drawing things out too much. This definitely helps keep the younger audiences engaged, but also makes it a perfect show to binge at only 10 episodes.
Image Source: IMDb
The clothing styles, fighting styles, and cultural customs all draw on Nigeria and West Africa perfectly mixing real culture and customs to that of the fictional Yorubaland. The story line draws from various African mythos. The fighting styles are based on traditional Nigerian and West African fighting styles. Even though this is a fictional superhero series, it does follow a lot of real cultures and customs.
One of the really neat things about this show is the animation style. It very much harkens back to some of the more traditional 2D hand drawn animation styles (and this show is hand drawn!) which was nostalgic for older viewers and brought a certain charm and simplicity to the show. There were a few parts where the animation of the characters changed almost like some anime characters will change where they suddenly become smaller and chibi-like on screen, which was very funny to see and added an almost Avatar: The Last Airbender feel to some of the animation and story.
Image Source: Lion Forge Entertainment
One of the most unique things about this show was because it was based off a graphic novel. In a comic or graphic novel you have sound effects like “bam” and “pow” that show up on the page. In most shows they don’t normally have something like that, or it’s done in a style like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse where it shows the onomatopoeia words on screen vs. hearing them. In IYANU, we heard them. Any time there was a sound effect, it was made on screen as a sound which added a depth to the story and really drove home that it was based on a graphic novel. It was neat and different to hear them sprinkled throughout along with the sound effects that you would normally get in a show like Ekun, the leopard’s, purring.
When the story first starts, all of the characters are in their separate lives, however, we learn quite quickly that they are all connected. The themes of loss, heartache, fighting through hardship, friendship, and family are strong. The show doesn’t shy away from the big important questions and even though it is a children’s show, there is still quite a lot of loss. It forces the viewer to think about the important things and confronts them. It is a perfect avenue for teaching children what to do when confronted with the difficult topics in life and how they might be strong and handle them, while at the same time showing that it is OK to not always be strong, and it’s fine to lean on others or cry. Which is a very important lesson.
Image Source: Lion Forge Entertainment
There is something for everyone in this show, and Season 2 can’t come fast enough! In the meantime, look for IYANU: The Age of Wonders movie coming to Cartoon Network on August 30 at 9:30 a.m. E.T/PT and on August 31 on HBO Max. Here is the trailer for the movie.
IYANU: Child of Wonder is rated as the #1 Children’s Show on Cartoon Network (ages 2-12), is in the Top 10 Kid’s and Family titles on HBO MAX, #1 Kids & Family title on Showmax across 44 African countries, and is now on ITVX in the UK. Here is the trailer for Season 2.
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Source: Lion Forge Entertainment and HBO Max
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