Skydance Animation, the studio behind projects such as Luck and Spellbound, has readied audiences for the final season of WondLa. The animated success found its home on Apple TV+ and has built quite a fandom in the last year. In the final season of the franchise, Eva and her friends face life-changing challenges as Orbona is on the brink of all-out war.
An adaptation of the book series by Tony DiTerlizzi, WondLa takes place on a futuristic Earth called Orbona. Think post-apocalyptic fiction, but a lot milder for child consumption. With a dying earth and a single human life in an underground silo, it has a similar feel to another Apple TV+ series, Silo. While the “dystopian future” has been done before (Fallout is another great example), this series focuses more on how Earth has evolved after humanity’s fall (and the TV-PG rating doesn’t hurt).
If you’re new to the series, here’s a quick recap of what took place in the first two seasons.
In Season 1, we meet Eva (Jeanine Mason) as a young child who’s under the care of a robot named MUTHR (Teri Hatcher). The MUTHR unit, an acronym for Multi-Utility Task Help Robot, was programmed to raise and protect Eva while also overseeing her training. A balance of physical challenges and videos, the latter provides holograms of Cadmus Pryde (Alan Tudyk), the creator of the Human Repopulation Project. With Eva under the belief that she’s the last human left on Earth, she believes her role is to survive and cultivate. Once she becomes a teenager, a misstep leads her outside the silo for the first time. With an open mind and an open heart, she makes friends with a Cærulean named Rovander (Gary Anthony Williams) and a giant water bear named Otto (Brad Garrett), who teach her about Orbona and herself.
Season 2 showed just how close the trio has become. Their exploration led them to an encounter with Cadmus Pryde, who was not only alive (clearly) but also the leader of a human utopia called New Attica. While things look promising on the surface, Eva and her friends soon discover the dark side of Cadmus. The man-made utopia he constructed kept them secluded from a world he refused to learn of or appreciate. Eva digs deeper into her telepathic abilities (the only way she communicates with Otto) and comes across another Eva, Eva-8 (Ana Villafañe), from a previous cycle. Children were dispersed in pods every 16 years, meaning Eva-8 is exactly 16 years older than our Eva (Eva-9). As her ability to speak to wildlife and nature strengthens, she develops a deeper connection to the Heart of Orbona. With others taking notice, both aliens and humans start planning what’s best for their respective existence.
Now, in its third season, the series is poised to bring closure to an exciting story that taught love and acceptance while boasting masterful cinematography and character design.
Audiences will be exposed to a long list of characters in the series, but this season, here are a few names to remember that will help follow the story:
Queen Ojo, the alien queen of Solas and a friend of Eva
Redimus, loyal to Queen Ojo, and the Dorcean brother of Besteel (who hunted her in S1)
Vanpa, an older human with a country accent who can fly and repair aircraft
Hailey, a human Eva’s age who’s an apprentice to Vanpa
Laroc, a shady advisor to Queen Ojo and the main antagonist in the series
Azura, a Cærulean who joins Eva and her friends on their quest to save Orbona
The visual effects and animation are on full display here with incredible colors and sights. From Solas to Lacus, and even New Attica, every detail was carefully crafted to demand attention and awe. The only thing I can compare it to visually is Avatar. You’ll notice Eva and her friends traversing through a jungle-esque landscape, where they could be interrupted by an animal-consuming plant or even whales that swim in the sky.
The plot is fun and easy to follow. A young girl grows her courage and self-belief through her experiences and friendships, never shaking her glass-half-full perspective of the world. The planet, as she understood, would need repair and a lifetime of effort to restore its former prosperity. What she encounters is a new Earth, Orbona, that’s adapted and grown in unexplainable ways. Things are new, meaning they’re different, and for some people, “different” is a hard pill to swallow. But with an open mind and an open heart, Eva turns out to be the bridge that’s needed to keep Orbona thriving. That “bridge” is the connection between humans and aliens, where compassion and friendship can be found.
Now, in season 3, Eva and her friends get eerily close to seeing Orbona fall into all-out war. Laroc has seized power and seeks to destroy humanity, while Eva-8 reveals an ulterior motive for toppling Cadmus. Rovander’s past is fully revealed as Eva seeks his village’s help when he falls ill. Eva taps into her power more than ever and learns what she must do to save Orbona. With fear gripping most of Orbona, new friends and old will have to dig deep to save their loved ones. Acceptance and compassion are two of the main themes audiences will get this season, and it’ll be easy to connect what’s onscreen with reality.
Upon reviewing certain parts of the books, I can see that purists will be unhappy. If you’re a fan of the book series and were looking for an exact match adaptation to screen, you’ll be disappointed. The books go into deeper detail with setting, story, and even powers. While some characters onscreen just appear, in the books, they play major roles and have a more significant presence. My advice would be to accept the series as a standalone project. Those who’ve never read the books shouldn’t have any problems following along.
WondLa gets a 9.5 out of 10. A fun-filled series with a great variety of characters and mesmerizing animation makes for an outstanding project. Chop this up as another win for Skydance Animation and another huge win for Apple TV+. Parents won’t have to worry about any inappropriate topics being addressed, and can exhale while watching. This is a fun adventure with silly humor and top-tier visuals. I wouldn’t be surprised if the series landed in awards conversations.
Season 3, the final season of WondLa, premieres on Apple TV+ on Nov. 26
-Jon Jones
Photos: Courtesy of Apple TV+
Genre: Animation
Rating: TV-PG
Runtime: Six Episodes | 24 mins.
Trailer: Watch
U.S. Release Date: November 26, 2025