When British author Katherine Rundell dreamed up the world that became Impossible Creatures, she was not setting out to build a five-book fantasy saga, spark a bidding war among studios, or land a major Disney film franchise. She simply wanted a world big enough for a flying girl to belong in. That single image, which came to her in 2016, grew into one of the most acclaimed fantasy series of recent years, a richly imagined realm of mythical beasts, fading magic, and heartfelt adventure.
Now, with the series a global bestseller and Disney developing it for the big screen, Rundell has been opening up about how she conjured her world, where its magic comes from, and why it strikes such a deep chord with readers young and old. Here is a closer look at the magic behind Impossible Creatures, from the real-life roots of its enchantment to the blockbuster future ahead.
Inside the World of Impossible Creatures
Impossible Creatures takes place in the Archipelago, sometimes called Glimouria, a hidden cluster of unmapped islands where every creature of myth is real and thriving. Sphinxes, krakens, griffins, dragons, and stranger beings all live within a world sustained by a magic called the glimourie, described as the magic of the air and the soil. Rundell has said she wanted this place to feel like an untouched, undestroyed version of our own world, green and vivid, but layered with wonder.
The story follows two children. Christopher is a boy from our world who stumbles into the hidden Archipelago, and Mal is a girl of that world who, thanks to an extraordinary coat, can fly. Together they race from island to island to uncover a terrifying mystery: the glimourie is failing, and magical creatures are beginning to die. Along the way, they consult sphinxes, battle krakens, and negotiate with dragons, only to realize that saving the last magical place on earth may fall to them alone. The book is brought to life with more than 60 illustrations, a map, and a bestiary of its creatures, giving the world a tactile, immersive feel.
The Real-Life Inspirations Behind the Glimourie
For all its invented wonders, the heart of Impossible Creatures is rooted in Rundell’s own life and in stories far older than her own. She has spoken about spending part of her childhood in Zimbabwe, where her father worked in international development, surrounded by a vivid living world of lizards, geckos, snakes, and hundreds of species of birds. That early closeness to nature shaped her love of the living world and, ultimately, her fiction.
That love gives the series its emotional core. Rundell has explained that the peril facing the glimourie, a magic tied to the air and soil, is in part a way of thinking about the fragility of our own beautiful, threatened planet. The idea of magic and creatures quietly disappearing carries clear echoes of real-world extinction and environmental loss, a theme she has also explored in her adult book Vanishing Treasures, about endangered animals.
The other great well of inspiration is classical mythology and the long tradition of fantasy itself. Rundell, an academic as well as a novelist, has said she has always loved fantasy for its power to speak to what it means to be human, touching on power, grief, yearning, discovery, and, above all, love. Each book in the series is built on the bones of an older text, and she has pointed to sources like the labors of Hercules and the questing voyages of The Iliad and The Odyssey as she shapes later installments.
How Katherine Rundell Built Her Fantasy World
Rundell’s worldbuilding began, fittingly, with research and imagination in equal measure. She has described spending many happy hours in libraries digging into the mythological creatures that fill her Archipelago, blending the familiar with the surprising. The result is a menagerie that feels both ancient and fresh.
Her characters are a big part of that magic. She has spoken warmly about writing Nighthand, a fearless berserker-turned-pirate with no patience for etiquette, an especially fun creation for an author who was raised with strict manners. She also delighted in Jacques, a tiny, belligerent jaculus dragon small enough to perch on a thumb. Across the series, Rundell has said, she is using the larger canvas of multiple books to trace deeper emotional journeys, including Nighthand learning to open himself to fear so that he can open himself to love, alongside a scientist figure named Irian.
Underpinning all of it is Rundell’s conviction that writing for children carries an enormous responsibility, and a matching respect for young readers. She has repeatedly said she trusts children to handle complex themes and emotionally challenging choices, which is why her stories blend genuine danger, sacrifice, and darkness with humor, warmth, and joy. She has called Impossible Creatures the most joyful creative project of her life.
Why Impossible Creatures Became a Publishing Phenomenon
Since its 2023 debut, Impossible Creatures has become a runaway success. The book was named Waterstones Book of the Year, and Rundell was honored with the British Book Award for both Book of the Year and Author of the Year. Critics responded with a wave of starred reviews and lofty comparisons.
Author Michael Morpurgo captured the mood with a now much-quoted line of praise: “There was Tolkien, there is Pullman, and now there is Katherine Rundell.” Fellow authors and reviewers reached for words like “instant classic” and compared the series to the enchantment of C. S. Lewis and the depth of Philip Pullman. The commercial results matched the acclaim. The series has sold millions of copies worldwide, and Rundell reportedly became the first UK children’s author since J. K. Rowling to hit the number one spot on the children’s book charts in both the UK and the United States at the same time.
The Disney Deal Turning Glimouria Into a Movie Franchise
The clearest sign of Impossible Creatures’ cultural momentum came in October 2025, when Walt Disney Studios won a competitive auction for the film rights in a deal reported to be worth a substantial seven figures. Disney secured theatrical and related rights to the series, setting up what many in the industry immediately described as a potential Harry Potter-scale fantasy franchise.
Crucially, Rundell is adapting her own work. She is writing the feature film screenplays for the first two books, Impossible Creatures and The Poisoned King, under the Disney Live Action banner, and producing alongside her creative partner Charles Collier through their London-based company, Impossible Films. Their team includes producer Alexandra Derbyshire, known for Paddington 2 and Wonka, and Simon Bax, a former chief financial officer of Pixar. Rundell said she was thrilled to be partnering with Disney and credited Disney chief Bob Iger’s personal enthusiasm after reading the book with helping set the collaboration in motion. The agreement also gives Disney a first-look relationship with all of Rundell’s current and upcoming work, a striking vote of confidence in her storytelling.
What’s Next for the Impossible Creatures Series
Rundell has always planned Impossible Creatures as a five-book series, with each novel telling its own self-contained adventure while advancing longer emotional arcs across the whole quintet. Here is where the series stands:
- Impossible Creatures (2023 in the UK, 2024 in the US): the first book, introducing the Archipelago, Christopher, Mal, and the fading glimourie.
- The Poisoned King (2025): the second installment, deepening the world and its stakes.
- The Neverfear (September 2026): the third book, drawing on classical myth and returning readers to the last surviving magical place.
- Two further books are still to come to complete the five-book plan.
With three novels published, two more on the way, and Disney building the world of Glimouria into a film series, Impossible Creatures is positioned to grow well beyond the page in the years ahead. For readers, that means the magic Rundell first imagined with a single flying girl is only beginning to spread.
The Magic Behind Rundell’s Storytelling
Ask why Impossible Creatures resonates so widely, and the answer keeps circling back to Rundell’s philosophy about stories. She believes fantasy, at its best, is a joyful and serious way of thinking about the real world, capable of holding both wonder and hard truths. She often returns to the idea that love runs through the greatest fantasy, and that courage is not the absence of fear but the choice to care anyway.
She is also a passionate champion of children’s literature as something adults should never outgrow, a theme she made explicit in her essay Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise. That belief shapes everything about Impossible Creatures, a book designed to be read aloud, shared across generations, and returned to for the rest of a reader’s life. The magic behind her fantasy world, in the end, is not only the glimourie or the mythical beasts. It is Rundell’s conviction that a story can be thrilling, funny, frightening, and profound all at once, and that young readers deserve exactly that.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Impossible Creatures about?
It is a fantasy adventure set in the Archipelago, a hidden world of unmapped islands where mythical creatures are real. Two children, Christopher and Mal, race to discover why the world’s magic, the glimourie, is fading and its creatures are dying, and to save the last magical place on earth.
Who is Katherine Rundell?
Katherine Rundell is an internationally bestselling British author and an Oxford academic. She grew up partly in Zimbabwe and has written acclaimed children’s books including Rooftoppers, The Explorer, and The Wolf Wilder, as well as the award-winning adult biography Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne.
Is Impossible Creatures being made into a movie?
Yes. In October 2025, Walt Disney Studios acquired the film rights in a seven-figure deal, and Rundell is writing the screenplays for the first two films under the Disney Live Action banner, producing through her company Impossible Films.
How many Impossible Creatures books are there?
Rundell has planned the series as five books. Three have been published so far: Impossible Creatures, The Poisoned King, and The Neverfear, with two more still to come.
Is Impossible Creatures the next Harry Potter?
Many in the film and publishing industries have compared its franchise potential to Harry Potter, given its huge sales and the Disney deal. Whether it reaches that level remains to be seen, but the series has already become a major publishing phenomenon.
What is the glimourie?
The glimourie is the magic at the heart of Rundell’s world, described as the magic of the air and soil that sustains the Archipelago and its creatures. Its decline drives the central quest of the first book.
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