The Story⚡
In the streets of Harare, a young mechanic named Lovemore takes on the identity of Razorman, a street vigilante armed with sharp wit and makeshift weapons. He launches a one-man campaign against The Thirteenth, the ruthless crime syndicate that killed his father.
Tell Me More
Razorman is a live-action feature based on the graphic novel series by writer-artist Bill Masuku, published by Kugali Media. The project is set in Zimbabwe and comes from the team behind Netflix’s Heart of the Hunter and Disney’s Iwájú.
Mandala Dube, the South African director of Heart of the Hunter and Silverton Siege, is attached to direct. Kurt Ellis, a South African novelist and screenwriter known for In the Midst of Wolves and Netflix’s Blood Legacy, will write the script.
The film centres on Lovemore’s fight against The Thirteenth. According to the team, the story draws stylistically from character-driven comics such as V for Vendetta and Spawn. The producers see potential to expand the property into a franchise.
Producers are Ziki Nelson, Emmy-nominated co-founder of Kugali Media; David Neumann, CEO of Newmation; and Steven Adams, CEO of Alta Global Media. Dube will also serve as executive producer. Kugali Media, co-founded by Nelson, Tolu Olowofoyeku, and Hamid Ibrahim, previously created Disney’s first African animated series Iwájú, which received three Emmy nominations in 2025 and has a seven-book publishing deal with Disney Hyperion.
Newmation represents directors including Hugh Welchman (Loving Vincent), Gary Trousdale (Beauty and the Beast), Anita Doron (The Breadwinner), and Jay Oliva (Twilight of the Gods). Alta Global Media’s credits include Spike Lee’s Rodney King and A Huey P Newton Story, with additional VFX executive producer work on Avatar, Life of Pi, and Thor.
Key Background
Mandla Dube is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, one of the defining institutions of the American civil rights movement. He was into filmmaking during the mid-nineties hip-hop revival, directing music videos for artists including Ice Cube, Outkast, Biggie Smalls, and Da Brat, and worked as an assistant cinematographer on F. Gary Gray’s The Italian Job.
He stepped out as a feature director with Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu, about the young anti-apartheid activist executed by the South African state in 1979. That was followed by Silverton Siege, a Netflix thriller dramatizing a 1980 stand-off in Pretoria that gave birth to the global slogan “Free Nelson Mandela.” Then came Heart of the Hunter, which became the first African film to open at number one on Netflix globally.
In 2022, Dube struck a multi-title development deal with Netflix and founded Pambili Media, his production company, which has since attracted financing from the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa for a slate of six feature films. He is currently developing a historical epic about the Battle of Isandlwana, in which the Zulu army defeated the British in 1879, and is assembling a documentary on Miriam Makeba. Razorman adds another chapter to a filmography that has consistently drawn from African history, politics, and identity.
Tangent
Razorman does not arrive in isolation. It is part of a broader movement of African comic and graphic novel titles finding their way into animation and live-action film — one that has been building steadily, title by title, for over a decade. Here are the titles that have already made the journey.
Supa Strikas
Supa Strikas is a pan-African football-themed comic book series that has sold more than 1.4 million copies monthly across 16 countries since it began publication in South Africa in 2000. It follows the world’s top football club, the Supa Strikas, as they battle rivals and unscrupulous opponents on their way to the Super League trophy. The series was adapted into an animated television show produced by Animasia Studio in Malaysia and Strika Entertainment in South Africa, running from 2008 to 2020, making it one of the earliest and longest-running African comic-to-screen adaptations. At its peak, the animated show was broadcast across South Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, reaching audiences in countries including Canada, France, Qatar, Malaysia, and the United Kingdom.
Aya of Yop City
Written by Marguerite Abouet and drawn by Clément Oubrerie, Aya of Yop City is a seven-volume comic series based on everyday life in 1970s Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. It was translated into 15 languages before being adapted into an animated feature film. The story follows Aya, a young woman navigating love, ambition, and family in the working-class neighbourhood of Yopougon — a deliberately grounded portrait of African life, told without the weight of crisis or conflict. The animated film earned a nomination for the French César Award for Best Animated Film in 2014, marking one of the earliest instances of an African comic-to-screen adaptation receiving major international recognition.
Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire
Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire is a ten-part animated anthology series produced by South African animation house Triggerfish and executive produced by Oscar-winner Peter Ramsey of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It premiered on Disney+ in July 2023. The title translates from Swahili as “fire generation.” It brought together animators from six African countries, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, and Egypt, drawing on ancient histories, folklore, and contemporary urban landscapes to imagine ten distinct visions of Africa’s future, populated with cyborg cattle, flying minibus-taxis, radioactive octopi, and robotic birds. Though not based on a single existing comic, it was rooted in the same tradition of African speculative storytelling and demonstrated that African animation could command a premium global platform.
Iwájú
Iwájú is an animated science fiction series produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios in collaboration with Kugali Media, set in a futuristic Lagos, Nigeria. The title translates roughly to “the future” in Yoruba, and it is the first original long-form animated series produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The series follows Tola and Kole, two young characters from starkly different worlds, one from the affluent Lagos Island, the other a self-taught tech prodigy from the mainland, whose lives intersect as they uncover secrets and face dangers.
It premiered on Disney+ on February 28, 2024. It earned three Emmy nominations at the Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, including Best Children’s or Young Teen Animated Series. The same Kugali Media behind Iwájú is now producing Razorman, giving the studio a footprint across both Disney’s first African animated series and what could become the continent’s first major live-action comic-book franchise.
Iyanu: Child of Wonder
Created by Nigerian filmmaker Roye Okupe and based on his graphic novel series published through YouNeek Studios and Dark Horse Comics, Iyanu premiered on Cartoon Network on April 5, 2025, and on HBO Max the following day. The series is heavily influenced by Nigeria’s Yoruba people and follows a teenage orphan girl who discovers she has powers that rival those of ancient deities. It was renewed for a second season alongside two animated feature films, with the first, Iyanu: The Age of Wonders, released in August 2025. The first season earned nominations for Outstanding Children’s Program and Outstanding Animated Series at the NAACP Image Awards. Its theme song is performed by Yemi Alade.
Malika: Warrior Queen
Malika: Warrior Queen is an anime-inspired animated feature film currently in development, based on Roye Okupe’s award-winning graphic novel published by Dark Horse Comics. Set in a richly imagined 15th-century West African empire, it tells the story of a young queen’s rise from tragedy to legend as she unites a divided land under her rule. Nigerian actress Adesua Etomi-Wellington voices the lead and serves as executive producer.
They all represent a generation of African creators who spent years building worlds on the page and are now finding the infrastructure, platforms, and audiences to take those worlds to the screen.
In Summary
No casting has been announced yet, and the question of who plays Lovemore, the scrappy Harare mechanic who becomes Razorman, remains one of the most interesting decisions ahead for this project. The role calls for someone who can carry a street-level action film on personality alone, in the vein of what the character demands on the page.
As for where the film lands, Mandla Dube’s last two features both went to Netflix, which makes a streaming deal the natural assumption, but the team’s stated franchise ambitions point toward something bigger. A property being built for sequels tends to want a theatrical launch.
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