Entertainment

New Studio Popular Demand Launches With Queer Comedy-Drama Fucktoys

Putri ArdhanaPublished 6m ago2 min readBased on 3 sources
New Studio Popular Demand Launches With Queer Comedy-Drama Fucktoys
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Jon Leland and Ivan Askwith have launched Popular Demand, a new studio built to develop projects with creators and their fan communities.

The launch was reported by Variety on 20 October 2026. The idea is simple. Instead of chasing the widest possible audience, the company will organise projects around smaller, dedicated followings.

Leland is the former chief strategy officer at Kickstarter, the crowdfunding platform. Askwith previously led Digital Media at Lucasfilm, the company behind Star Wars. They are joined as founding partners by Daniel Dominguez and Jacob Robinson, with Dominguez serving as head of creative development.

Popular Demand plans to develop, finance, produce and distribute across film, television, publishing, gaming and live experiences. That is a broad slate for a new company. It means the studio intends to stay with a story from its first pitch through to its release in cinemas, on screens or on stage.

Its first test is already set. The studio's first major release is Fucktoys, a queer, surrealist dark comedy-drama directed by Annapurna Sriram. Sriram also stars in the film alongside Sadie Scott, Damian Young, Brandon Flynn and François Arnaud.

Behind the camera, the film is produced by Timothy Petryni. Petryni and Sriram are executive producers — a senior credit for helping to finance and guide a project — under Trashtown Pictures, alongside Heather Buckley, Lizzie Goodman and Jean Louis Droulers. Sarah Wielusz and Alex Hidago are co-executive producers for Atypical Day.

Popular Demand has also named a high-profile advisory board. It includes actors Kristen Bell and Alex Winter, comics creator Todd McFarlane, musician Ryan Lewis and media scholar Henry Jenkins, alongside executives from YouTube, Skybound, Artists First and CAA. Backing for the venture includes TMV and additional private investors, according to the same report.

For fans, this means a direct invitation. Popular Demand says it will partner with fandoms to get niche stories made and seen.

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