Virtual music group Gorillaz are about to get their own full length feature film on Netflix, and with the new project in development at the streaming giant, the group’s lead vocalist and former Blur frontman Damon Albarn has been giving an update on the new venture. Something as niche as a movie featuring an animated music group seems like the kind of project that would have struggled to get backing for a big screen but is perfectly suited as a streaming exclusive. While there is still little known about the details of the film, Albarn was able to detail where they are in the production in an interview with Apple Music.

"I'm in LA because we're making a full-length [Gorillaz] film with Netflix. We're having a writing session in Malibu. It's something we've been wanting to do for a very long time. It's been through so many incarnations, Gorillaz doing a movie."

While the news is exciting for fans of the band, who have been waiting to see if the future would hold any new output by the group, this is not the first time word has come from the band of a project being made for TV. Four years ago, the singer and co-creator Jamie Hewitt revealed that a ten part TV series was in the works, with the animation style keeping the tone of the band’s music videos and digital stage appearance, while that series never quite materialized it is unlikely that a Netflix movie and a TV series will be both on the cards.

The origin of Gorillaz can be found over thirty years ago, when Damon Albarn and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett met in 1990, and despite seeming to loathe each other ended up sharing a flat. While watching MTV and deciding there was no substance on the channel, the idea for Gorillaz was born. The first release under the Gorillaz name came in 2000, with Albarn revealing that the band allowed him to experiment with sounds and musical genres that he couldn’t venture into with Blur, who had their own set Brit-pop sound.

The band continued to make sporadic releases and even embarked on a tour, where the characters appeared on giant screens. In 2009, a documentary directed by Ceri Levy about the group’s history between 2000 and 2006 was released under the connected title of Bananaz. After a third and fourth studio albums released in 2010, the Gorillaz fell into hiatus thanks to a fallout between the creators around 2012, although they both said that when the time was right, the Gorillaz would return. That return came in 2017 with the album Humanz, and was followed up in 2018 with The Now Now.

The next project saw the group again pushing boundaries and venturing into new territory with Song Machine, a unique web series that saw each song being releases as an “episode” with one being put out every month from January 2020, which is as close to the previously announced TV series we ever got. The ninth and final episode was released in December 2020, but was followed up in 2021 with a 20th anniversary boxed set release of their first six albums, and in August they put out three brand new tracks. In September, Albarn revealed that he has recorded a new Gorillaz song which will form part of a new Latin influenced album to be released in 2022. Whether the new movie will have any link to the album, or will stand alone as a later release is unclear but with the project only in early development it is more likely that we will see the film arrive sometime in 2023.