Dav Pilkey's "Dog Man" gets film adaptation

Get ready, boys and girls, because canine crime-fighter Dog Man is coming to the silver screen!

DreamWorks Animation, creators of well-known franchises such as Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon, will be bringing viewers the feature film adaptation of author-illustrator Dav Pilkey's New York Times bestselling literary series.

When police dog Greg and his cop companion are injured on the job, a life-saving surgery creates the part-dog, part-man hero Dog Man (it's a children's series, that's how it is). When he isn't distracted by squirrels, the dog-man hybrid pursues his archnemesis, the feline supervillain Petey the Cat. However, the arrival of Lil Petey, a kitten clone of Petey, disrupts their rivalry.

Dog Man is directed by Emmy winner Peter Hastings, whose credits include the animated series Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain. The film is produced by Karen Foster, who served as co-producer on DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon. Dreamworks also produced the Captain Underpants animated film and series, based on Pilkey's books. 

Launched in 2016, the Dog Man series now has 11 volumes, with the 12th – Dog Man: The Scarlet Shedder – coming this March. The series has more than 60 million copies in print and has been translated into 45 languages. Pilkey is also the author and illustrator of the Captain Underpants books and those in the Dog Man spin-off series, Cat Kid Comic Club.

Several volumes from Pilkey's series – including the most recent ones, Dog Man: Twenty Thousand Fleas Under the Sea and Cat Kid Comic Club: Influencers – have been MPH bestsellers for some time.

Dog Man is expected to be released on 31 January 2025 by Universal Pictures.

Check out all the Dog Man books here ahead of the film's release.