The snaggle-toothed toy that took over everyone’s bag straps is getting a movie. Sony Pictures and Pop Mart officially announced a Labubu feature film on March 18, 2026, at the Paris stop of The Monsters’ 10th anniversary global exhibition tour. Paul King is directing. Yes, the Paddington guy.
The Creative Team Makes This Worth Paying Attention To
Paul King is writing and directing the film alongside Steven Levenson, who has Tony, WGA, and Emmy nominations to his name for Dear Evan Hansen, Tick Tick Boom, and Fosse/Verdon, respectively.
Labubu creator Kasing Lung is on board as executive producer. The film is going to be a live-action and CGI hybrid, still in early development, with no release date yet.
King’s track record here is hard to argue with. Paddington and Paddington 2 are genuinely beloved films that somehow made a CGI bear from Peru feel emotionally real. Wonka made $635 million globally in 2024.
If anyone knows how to take a whimsical non-human character and build a movie around them that adults will actually sit through, it’s this guy. Labubu started as a picture book character in 2015, created by Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung.
Pop Mart picked up the toy rights in 2019, and things stayed relatively quiet until the blind box craze hit, and suddenly celebrities like Rihanna and Dua Lipa were photographed with them hanging off their bags. Pop Mart sold over 100 million Labubu dolls worldwide last year. Sony grabbed the screen rights in 2025, and here we are.
The announcement came at a good time for Pop Mart. Bloomberg reported the same week that the company is looking to the film to revive interest as toy sales growth starts to slow. A movie is a long game, and with the project still in early development, this is not a quick fix for anything. But locking Paul King and Steven Levenson is not a small move either.
No plot details have been shared yet. What the film actually is beyond “Labubu on the big screen” is still completely open. Given King’s instinct for warmth over spectacle, the expectation is something closer to Paddington than to a typical IP cash grab. That’s the hope anyway.
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