Labubu is coming to the big screen, but what’s the story?

Labubu has already conquered handbags, blind boxes, and our social media feeds. Now it’s coming for the multiplex. If early reporting is any indication, the character's roots in Nordic folklore could become the beating heart of its big-screen debut.

Labubu movie: What is confirmed and what is speculation?

Long before Labubu was dangling off a designer tote, the character started as pen and ink. Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung introduced Labubu in 2015 as part of The Monsters, an illustrated book series drawing on Nordic folklore — populated by a whole cast of pointy-eared, toothy-grinned forest creatures. Labubu, with its rabbit-like ears and mischievous, gap-toothed smile, quickly became the breakout face of that world, eventually catapulted into pop culture stardom when Pop Mart began mass-producing the figures as collectible blind-box toys in 2019.

That folkloric backstory is exactly why a live-action treatment feels like more than just a toy cash-in. Sony Pictures and Pop Mart have officially confirmed they're co-developing a feature film blending live-action and CGI, with the project announced in Paris during a stop on The Monsters' 10th-anniversary exhibition tour.

That tension between whimsy and menace is baked into Labubu’s design, and it's the kind of duality that practically begs for an origin story on screen. Where did these creatures come from? Do they live hidden in some forest realm, only glimpsed by humans who wander too far off the path? Is there a mythic hierarchy among The Monsters' wider cast? None of this has been confirmed in an official synopsis yet, but it's the natural direction fans and industry watchers are circling — and it would give the film a built-in mythology to explore rather than inventing one from scratch.

As of now, Sony and Pop Mart haven't released a plot synopsis. Everything about the film centring on the creatures' folkloric origins remains speculation rooted in the source material.

No release date has been set, and the project remains in early development — no cast has been announced, and Sony hasn't confirmed how much of the film (if any) will be a straightforward origin story versus a contemporary adventure that only gestures at Labubu's mythic roots. For now, the folklore angle is the most tantalising thread available to pull on, and it's easy to see why: it gives a viral toy phenomenon an actual story to tell.

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