After years in development, the adaptation of ND Stevenson’s graphic novel Nimona is finally about to release on Netflix. The story follows a young shapeshifter named Nimona (Chloë Grace Moretz), who befriends the begrudging ex-knight Ballister Blackheart (Riz Ahmed) and becomes his sidekick. Outcasts from society, the pair of them work together to prove Blackheart’s innocence after he was accused of murdering the queen, and in the process come to learn more about themselves and each other.

In this one-on-one interview with Collider, Stevenson talked about getting to be a part of the process of bringing his graphic novel to the screen. He also talked about the challenges of jumping from one medium to another and the hopeful message he wants audiences to take away from the story.

COLLIDER: So you are obviously no stranger to seeing your work on screen, but what has the experience been like of seeing a graphic novel of yours adapted to a new medium?

N.D. STEVENSON: It’s such a leap of faith, I think, to kind of let a story go and let it go and be what it has to be. From the start, I was like, “I have told my story. The graphic novel exists. That is that version of the story; now it’s gonna go and be whatever it’s gonna be.” But it is scary. It’s like, are they choices I’m gonna agree with, or is it gonna feel like the same story, the same characters? And to be here at the end of it and to still be so connected to this property, and to have been able to be such a part of the process of creating this movie and getting to continue to spend time with these characters in this world that means so much to me, it’s been– I try not to take a moment of it for granted because it’s not something that every creator of the source material can say about the adaption of their work. It’s just been a real honor to be included in the process of this movie, and Nick [Bruno] and Troy [Quane] always just kept that conversation open. I am so grateful to every single person on that production because I can’t imagine the movie being in better hands.

I wonder, what were the big challenges in jumping from medium to medium, like in terms of changes that had to be made and stuff like that?

STEVENSON: I think that there are a lot of things that work in a comic, and you have a certain ability to introduce plot points and let them kind of lead wherever they go. With an animated movie, you have to really hone in on what’s important because you really need to find that, and you need to stick with that. So every time it starts wandering too much, you kind of risk losing the characters or losing the emotion. And so I think it’s a world that is so intriguing, that has so much going on in it, and there was always the desire to explore and know more about it. It was challenging because as soon as you start getting more into the rules of the world and the setting, and all of those other things that can be so cool and so fun to geek out about, you start losing sight of the characters, and this story really is just defined by those characters.

So, I think one thing that Nick and Troy did that was really, really smart was just always bring it back to its most simple version and always make it about the emotion of the characters and their relationships to each other. It’s hard to identify what that is, especially once you’ve been with it for a while, and you really just have to come to it with fresh eyes and be like, “What is the most simple, elemental version of this story, and how do we stay true to that?”

Image via Netflix

As you said, you have been with us for quite some time, but I wonder, now having seen the finished product, is there any moment, scene, beat, or interaction that really sticks out to you, like, “Wow,” as if you are seeing it for the first time?

STEVENSON: The final act always hits me really hard. Everything from Nimona’s flashback to her friendship with Gloreth up to her rampage through the city. That was really why having Nimona become this being of pure rage was something that people were nervous about it, even as a graphic novel when you do have more freedom to kind of push those boundaries a little bit more. The book is weirdly gory. Every time I look back at it, I’m like, “Wow, you really got into drawing all that blood!” [Laughs] But it was like, how do you find that version that’s family-friendly but also doesn’t sand down those rough edges because she is a character in this story, and it’s all about those rough edges? The anger and the grief and the loneliness and the messiness, all of that is who she is and why I wanted to tell this story.

So, I think seeing that represented, of her letting that monster out after a lifetime of being told she’s a monster, I am just so glad that that made it to the screen and that they did such a beautiful job with it and found so much emotion in that. It’s definitely it– I always hear the sniffles in the audience at that point, and sometimes more than sniffles. It’s so emotional, and it just blows my mind to see it represented like that on the screen. I think it’s really gonna heal a lot of hearts because I know that it’s healed mine.

So this is quite the time to be a fan of animation. It’s just an un unparalleled moment, I guess. What do you think it is about a story like this that lends itself so naturally to that medium?

STEVENSON: I mean, I think that so much of the story is about motion. It’s something you can’t really do in a comic. Like, I can’t literally transform her from one thing to the other. I can only imply that or stylize that in some way. And I think to see that explosion of movement and watch her change between these different forms in this unbroken line of action, it is something that brings the story to life in a whole new way. Comics and animation are very different mediums, and yet they are in conversation. They have a lot in common. And I think that they found this much more cinematic— They found that fluidity of movement and that freedom of movement that really just brings her as a character to life. And when she comes to life, the rest of the world comes to life, too.

I thought the fluidity was so perfect because it’s so inherent to who she is that there’s no stop and start, it just is, which I love.

STEVENSON: Yeah, absolutely.

Image via Netflix

So, what do you hope audiences take away from this movie when they watch it?

STEVENSON: I touched on it just a second ago, but I was really struck watching it at the world premiere with a packed theater and hearing and seeing the emotion as people responded to the movie. I realized that I had put my soul into this comic and into this character and really ripped all these emotions out and laid them out for others to read and to see and relate to, and the feeling of that, that that was happening at that moment too, it was a little scary. For some of it, I was really nervous. It felt very vulnerable. But then, to feel the love and all the energy of just people relating to Nimona, seeing themselves in Nimona, and as a character who came out of a time when I just felt really lonely and angry and scared and lost, it felt like it was reaching back and soothing that part of me and accepting that part of me. And I really hope that it does that for everyone who watches it because I do think everyone kind of sees a little of themselves in Nimona, and I really want people to know that, just like her, they’re worthy of love.

Nimona is now streaming on Netflix.