Astro Boy Reboot Leads Single Global Merchandise Push

Toys, T-shirts and books tied to a new Astro Boy series will now be handled by one team around the world.

Mediawan Kids & Family and Toon2Tango have signed an exclusive worldwide licensing and merchandising agreement, Variety reported on 19 October 2026. Licensing and merchandising is the business of selling permission to make products based on shows. Under the deal, Toon2Tango will identify, negotiate and manage those partnerships across Mediawan Kids & Family's children's and family catalogue.

Toon2Tango is a Leonine Studios company and part of the Mediawan Group. The deal covers toys and games, apparel, home and living, publishing, digital games and promotional activities.

The combined portfolio includes Method Animation's Astro Boy reboot. It also includes digital-first series Wadoo and preschool series Maddie + Triggs.

Toon2Tango titles in the line-up include the animated feature Paluten Freedom, the Niko series, the Agent 203 series and feature film, and Showtime, commissioned by KiKA. A further project in development is Eldrador, an action-adventure series linked to German toy company Schleich.

This is the second tie-up between the two organisations. In March 2025 they signed a distribution agreement, meaning a deal to sell shows to broadcasters and platforms, under which Mediawan Kids & Family integrated Toon2Tango's content portfolio into its catalogue. Toon2Tango published its announcement of that agreement on 11 March 2025, according to Toon2Tango.

The Astro Boy reboot has been in the works for several years. Mediawan Kids & Family and Shibuya Productions agreed to produce a new TV series, announced at MIFA in 2022. The plan was for a 52-part CGI series with episodes of 26 minutes each, Senal News reported at the time.

Mediawan Kids & Family operates production labels in France, Italy, the U.K., the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Parent group Mediawan was founded in France at the end of 2015 by Pierre-Antoine Capton, Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse, and says it brings together nearly 100 production companies across 15 countries producing more than 450 works a year.

For families watching, this means fewer separate owners for the shows and the products around them. One group will sell the series. The same group will now sell the rights to put those characters on shelves.