During TIFFCOM at the 2018 Tokyo International Film Festival on October 24, Toei Animation and Bona Film Group alongside Sammy and Marza Animation Planet initially announced the project, tentatively titled The Monkey Prince with John A. Davis initially set to direct the film from a screenplay by J. David Stem and David N. Weiss, based on an original story by Naoto Oshima with Oshima and Takao Noguchi handling character designs with Chuck Williams serving as a producer. The film will be initially produced in English before being adapted into Mandarin for the Chinese market and has received co-production approval from Chinese authorities. In order to produce the film, Tenh Animation Magic was established two weeks prior with investments from Toei, Sola Entertainment and Galaxy Graphics. Sanzigen was responsible for the film's production hub with the film being scheduled to be released in 2020, in time for that year's Summer Olympics prior to its postponement to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[1][2][3][4]
After being sat on development hell for six years, Toei Animation announced on February 2024, that the film, now titled Hypergalactic was in post-production with Weiss now being hired to direct the film (replacing A. Davis), alongside co-writing the screenplay with Oshima and Sola Entertainment founder Joseph Chou from their original story with the latter two replacing Stem and Bona, Sammy and Marza dropping out from the project. The studio is calling the film as their biggest CGI project to date. Adam DeVine, Elsie Fisher, J. K. Simmons, and Sam Richardson joined the film's voice cast, with Devine voicing the protagonist, the protector of Earth Okhan. Toei's Yoshi Ikezawa (replacing Chuck Williams) serves as the film's producer while Kozo Morishita, Katsuhiro Takagi, and Tim Kwok serve as executive producers with Charades handling international sales.[5] Main production was handled by Tenh Animation Magic (SOLA Digital Arts Inc) in Tokyo. Music was conducted by up-and-coming Canadian music duo Chen Brothers with orchestral recording performed in Bratislava early 2024. The color and finish service is provided by The Picture Shop Vancouver under the veteran colorist Claudio Sepulveda.
Post-production had begun by February 2024, still ongoing in August of that year, after nearly two years of production at Tenh Animation Magic in Tokyo.[6][7]
In April 2026, the film was retitled to Monkey Quest with a work-in-progress cut to be screened at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June.[8][9]
