Skylanders is heading to Netflix as a TV show

Activision Blizzard announced today that Skylanders, the company's popular toy-to-life game series, would be making its way to Netflix as an animated children's series later this year.

Skylanders Academy marks the first release out of Activision Blizzard's studio, which was launched last year, that creates television series' and films based on characters and stories from the company's games. The 2-year Netflix deal is the first step in creating more television and film properties, and Activision Blizzard said it was using Skylanders Academy to see how adapting its characters would come across to both fans of the series and newcomers.

Skylanders Academy follows the Skylanders team who travel through the vast Skylands universe taking on various enemies and showing a new wave of Skylanders cadets how to defend their world. Based on Skylanders, released in 2011, the show will use many of the characters available in Skylanders, but Blizzard Activision did not specify which ones made the cut.

Acting talents like Justin Long, Ashley Tisdale, Susan Sarandon, Jonathan Banks and Norm MacDonald will all join the cast of the series, along with a few others.

Skylanders Academy will debut on Netflix this fall.