Angel Studios Debuts “Gabriel and the Guardians” Christian Animated Series About Biblical Giants

Angel Studios debuted a new anime-influenced series about the Nephilim, titled Gabriel and the Guardians, on Wednesday.

The crowdfunded fantasy, loosely based on the Book of Genesis and the apocryphal book of Enoch, will contain 13 episodes in its first series. Gabriel and the Guardians takes place in an ancient world of ziggurats and stone temples; a universe where mortals and celestial entities battle against “fallen ones” from another realm.

Christianity Today writer and author, J.D. Peabody spoke with the series’ creator, Jason Moody, who provided an inside look into the creative process behind the series. Moody describes how he studied ancient texts, that describe antediluvian world, prior to writing the story.  In addition to the Bible, non-canonical books like Enoch and Jubilees were source material for his story.

I began to imagine this narrative set in an antediluvian, ancient Mesopotamian setting, with ziggurats and Sumerian mythology and proto-Canaanite gods—which is not how I pictured Genesis growing up, with Sunday school characters made from felt.

Moody’s path to Gabriel and the Guardians was not a straight one. As Moody puts it, his passion for fantasy storytelling took a back seat after failing to realize his dream.  After an unsuccessful attempt in indie-comics, Moody assumed other career interests to make a living. It wasn’t until after the COVID pandemic that he was inspired by the Bible Project to revisit his passion for story and character creation.

I came upon the Bible Project podcast with Tim Mackie and just fell in love with it. He’s all about Genesis. You start diving into it, and it keeps opening up. That’s where the idea for Gabriel and the Guardians began to spark and I started sketching characters.

The story follows Gabriel, a celestial guardian inhabiting a star above the earthly realm who must recover the Eternal Seed, a supernatural artifact that was stolen by an evil entity.  As Gabriel fights his battle in the unseen realm, Nok, a human antagonist, fights physical giants in the earthly realm below.

Moody was able to attract a quality cast of voice actors for the project including Johnny Yong Bosch (Final Fantasy and Persona) and James Arnold Taylor (Star Wars: Clone Wars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).