News Citizen of the Galaxy Robert A. Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy Is Getting an Animated Film Adaptation By Molly Templeton | Published on August 22, 2025 Media: Scribner’s/Wikimedia Commons Comment 0 Share New Share Media: Scribner’s/Wikimedia Commons A Robert A. Heinlein book is headed to the silver screen—and this time, it’s not Starship Troopers. Jay Oliva (Twilight of the Gods) is set to direct an animated adaptation of Heinlein’s 1957 novel Citizen of the Galaxy, which has never been adapted before. (To be fair, there are other Heinlein adaptations beyond Starship Troopers, most recently a Japanese take on The Door into Summer, which was released in 2021. But the bugs loom large.) Citizen of the Galaxy feels like an odd choice in this moment. It’s about a young boy named Thorby who is sold as a slave before being adopted by an intelligence agent. He joins a society which gives its members little freedom, joins the military (ditto), and eventually—as Alan Brown explains in a 2019 column—”learns that he is heir to a gigantic fortune—but finds the obligations of his wealth and power to be perhaps the most onerous burden of all.” Brown also described the book as “more preachy and a lot darker than I had remembered.” But the men making this film are an interesting crew. Director Oliva, as The Hollywood Reporter notes, has worked on “projects as disparate as Zack Snyder’s Twilight of the Gods and creating storyboards for Deadpool and Wonder Woman.” Comics writer Luke Lieberman is writing the script; Lieberman’s Instagram bio describes him as “president/rights holder of Red Sonja comic book franchise.” (Lieberman was a producer on the recent Red Sonja film.) Among the producers is Ryan Silbert, who along with Lieberman and Stan Lee is co-creator of the Alliances Universe, which includes the Audible Original Alliances: A Trick of Light. In a statement, Lieberman said, “Thorby has such a compelling character arc on his journey through the stars. He travels every walk of life, treads a mile in many different shoes, set against the biggest canvas possible, and sprung from Robert Heinlein’s wild imagination full of his wisdom and insights. This is a special story, and I can’t wait to share it with a whole new generation.” THR notes that the film is written and visual development is underway; the filmmakers are “discussing casting” and are aiming for a 2027 release.[end-mark] The post Robert A. Heinlein’s <i>Citizen of the Galaxy</i> Is Getting an Animated Film Adaptation appeared first on Reactor.