Hello Kitty’s First Major Movie Is Coming to a Theater Near You

The school supply icon and fashion muse are coming to the big screen. 

From sheet masks to stationary, there isn’t much Hello Kitty’s face hasn’t been featured on. The only thing the silent cat hasn’t been on is the big screen, but after 45 years that’s changing. New Line Cinema, a division of Warner Bros. has been granted the film rights from Hello Kitty’s parent brand, Sanrio, to create a feature-length English film.

According to New Line Cinema, this announcement comes after 5 years of “courting” Sanrio in order to gain permission to use the Hello Kitty character. It is the first major movie to be created using any of the Sanrio characters, which include Gudetama the cracked egg and My Melody. It has not yet been announced whether the movie will be animated, live-action, or a combination of the two. It may take cues from the new Netflix stop-motion series, Rilakkuma & Kaoru, which is based on the popular Japanese character Rilakkumu. There have also been hints from New Line Cinema that Hello Kitty will talk in this film, making it the first time since Hello Kitty’s creation in 1974.