{"id":4672,"date":"2024-11-22T06:19:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T11:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672"},"modified":"2024-11-15T14:19:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T19:19:28","slug":"andrew-peterson-on-letting-go-trusting-with-the-wingfeather-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/2024\/11\/22\/andrew-peterson-on-letting-go-trusting-with-the-wingfeather-saga\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Peterson on Letting Go, Trusting with ‘The Wingfeather Saga’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When author and musician Andrew Peterson set out to adapt his beloved book series “The Wingfeather Saga” into an animated series he knew it would be a labor of love. What he didn’t anticipate was just how much work would go into bringing his imaginative world to the screen.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Andrew Peterson and “The Wingfeather Saga” image courtesy of Angel Studios.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I walked into this thing as the guy who knows the least in the room about how to make a TV show,” Peterson said. “All these guys are veterans and men and women who are veteran filmmakers and are used to doing this stuff, and I’m just kind of watching it going, ‘Oh my goodness, I will never watch a TV show the same again now that I know how much work goes into it.'”<\/p>\n

Despite the steep learning curve, Peterson has been thrilled with the success of \u201cThe Wingfeather Saga” series<\/a>, which is entering its third on the Angel Studios mobile app. The show, which follows the adventures of the Igiby family as they navigate a fantastical world filled with danger and wonder, has resonated with audiences of all ages. It is the #1 crowdfunded animated family series in history, with over $8.2M raised by over 10,000 investors.<\/p>\n

“When I’m on tour, seeing kids and families with ‘Wingfeather Saga’ shirts is just a blast, and so I couldn’t be more thankful,” Peterson said.<\/p>\n

One of the key factors that sets the “Wingfeather Saga” apart in the crowded children’s entertainment landscape is Peterson’s commitment to creating a show that appeals to both kids and adults. The series has attracted an impressive roster of renowned voice talent, including Billy Boyd (\u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d), Jodi Benson (\u201cThe Little Mermaid\u201d), Kevin McNally (\u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d),\u00a0 Lesley Nicol (\u201cDownton Abbey\u201d), Eva Whitaker (\u201cWolfwalkers\u201d), Matthew Rhys (\u201cThe Americans,\u201d \u201cA Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood\u201d),\u00a0 Kellen Goff (\u201cFive Nights at Freddy\u2019s\u201d) and Henry Ian Cusik (\u201cLost,\u201d \u201cThe 100\u201d).<\/p>\n

“We wanted to make it a TV show that would not just be safe,” he explained. “I wanted it to feel a little like high adventure there, there. It needed to feel a little perilous and a little dangerous, but also beating at the heart of it, this real sense that we worked hard to earn the trust of the people who are watching the show and reading the books.”<\/p>\n

Rather than relying on heavy-handed moral lessons, Peterson and his team have focused on crafting a compelling narrative that allows the audience to draw their own conclusions.<\/p>\n

“I always delete [the teachable moments], and I put in the note in all caps, ‘no teachable moments,'” Peterson said. “What I don’t mean by that is that the story doesn’t provide opportunities to do exactly what you’re saying. Hopefully, the families are talking about this stuff and unpacking it, but as soon as it feels like a Sunday school lesson, then we’ve failed to do our job.”<\/p>\n

This approach reflects Peterson’s deeper philosophy about the role of the storyteller. He believes that his job is not to be prescriptive about the message, but rather to trust that the story will resonate with the audience in its own way.<\/p>\n

“My job is to tell the story and entrust the rest to God,” he said. “It’s not my job to be prescriptive about what the story is supposed to do.”<\/p>\n

As \u201cThe Wingfeather Saga” continues to grow, with seasons three and four already in development, Peterson is humbled by the dedicated fan base that has emerged.<\/p>\n

“It’s the dream,” he said. “Because I think this about songs, as a songwriter, feel like you. You create this thing, you put it out into the world. You have all these high hopes for what it is, what is going to do in people you want to connect like you. You’d have to be crazy to not hope that this connects at a broad level, but at the same time, if that’s your main goal, you’re gonna lose sight of what you’re doing.”<\/p>\n

For Peterson, the true joy comes from seeing the story take on a life of its own, separate from its creator.<\/p>\n

“Sitting there at the premiere and seeing 1,000 people and people dressed up and all the hoopla that came with it, I felt very separate from it all, in a really good way,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt like I don’t really need to be here. This thing is taking on a life of its own, and that’s something that only God can do. I couldn’t be happier.”<\/p>\n

DEWAYNE HAMBY has covered faith-based music, movies, television, books, and the retail industry for more than 30 years. He is a film member of the Critics Choice Association and the author of the book <\/i>Gratitude Adjustment. Connect with him at on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/b><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/b><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>YouTube<\/i><\/b><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/i>InstaGram<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When author and musician Andrew Peterson set out to adapt his beloved book series “The Wingfeather Saga” into an animated series he knew it would be a labor of love. What he didn’t anticipate was just how much work would go into bringing his imaginative world to the screen. “I walked into this thing as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":683,"featured_media":4675,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tv-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAndrew Peterson on Letting Go, Trusting with 'The Wingfeather Saga'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When author and musician Andrew Peterson set out to adapt his beloved book series "The Wingfeather Saga" into an animated series he knew it would be a labor of love.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Andrew Peterson on Letting Go, Trusting with 'The Wingfeather Saga'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When author and musician Andrew Peterson set out to adapt his beloved book series "The Wingfeather Saga" into an animated series he knew it would be a labor of love.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Latest News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-22T11:19:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-15T19:19:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/452\/2024\/11\/wingfeather.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"402\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dewayne Hamby\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Andrew Peterson on Letting Go, Trusting with 'The Wingfeather Saga'","description":"When author and musician Andrew Peterson set out to adapt his beloved book series \"The Wingfeather Saga\" into an animated series he knew it would be a labor of love.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Andrew Peterson on Letting Go, Trusting with 'The Wingfeather Saga'","og_description":"When author and musician Andrew Peterson set out to adapt his beloved book series \"The Wingfeather Saga\" into an animated series he knew it would be a labor of love.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672","og_site_name":"Latest News","article_published_time":"2024-11-22T11:19:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-11-15T19:19:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":402,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/452\/2024\/11\/wingfeather.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dewayne Hamby","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672","name":"Andrew Peterson on Letting Go, Trusting with 'The Wingfeather Saga'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/452\/2024\/11\/wingfeather.jpg","datePublished":"2024-11-22T11:19:13+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-15T19:19:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/#\/schema\/person\/4004e447ddc012176fcab048a7ca1720"},"description":"When author and musician Andrew Peterson set out to adapt his beloved book series \"The Wingfeather Saga\" into an animated series he knew it would be a labor of love.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/452\/2024\/11\/wingfeather.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/452\/2024\/11\/wingfeather.jpg","width":768,"height":402,"caption":"Andrew Peterson and \"The Wingfeather Saga\" image courtesy of Angel Studios."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?p=4672#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Andrew Peterson on Letting Go, Trusting with ‘The Wingfeather Saga’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/","name":"Latest News","description":"Online Christian news with the latest headlines relevant to Christians. New stories updated daily from a Christian perspective.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/#\/schema\/person\/4004e447ddc012176fcab048a7ca1720","name":"Dewayne Hamby","description":"DeWayne Hamby is a longtime journalist, covering the entertainment industry for a variety of publications for 30 years, and currently a featured writer for Patheos.com, a premier religious and spirituality website. Through the years, DeWayne has conducted hundreds of interviews with award-winning actors, actresses and directors, popular media personalities, beloved music icons, pioneering industry leaders, and bestselling authors, centering on topics related to faith, spirituality, and family. His work has been referenced and featured in a variety of print and online publications such as Charisma magazine, Rolling Stone, Dove, Us Weekly, The Blaze, Movieguide\u00ae, and BeliefNet. DeWayne is also a member of the Critics\u2019 Choice Association, the #BestofSMS social media professionals\u2019 group, and has served in an advisory role in communications and marketing initiatives for a variety of non-profit organizations. DeWayne earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Lee University and currently lives in the Orlando area with his wife and three daughters. You can read his Patheos column, Reel Faith, here.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/author\/dhamby\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4672"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4912,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4672\/revisions\/4912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/latestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}