Winx Club

Winx Club
Genre
Created byIginio Straffi
Directed byIginio Straffi
Country of origin
  • Italy
  • United States (S5–S7)[2][3]
Original languages
  • Italian (S1–S4, S8)
  • English (S5–S7)
No. of seasons8
No. of episodes208 (+ 4 hour-long specials) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • Joanne Lee (S1–S7)
  • Massimiliano Gusberti (S1–S4)
  • Annita Romanelli (S5)
  • Kay Wilson Stallings (S5–S6)
  • Iginio Straffi (S7–S8)
Producers
  • Iginio Straffi (S1–S6)
  • Annita Romanelli (S1–S4)
Editors
  • Francesco Artibani (S1–S7)
  • Maurizio De Angelis (S5–S7)
Running time24 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network
Release28 January 2004 (2004-01-28) –
13 November 2009 (2009-11-13)
Release27 June 2011 (2011-06-27) –
17 September 2019 (2019-09-17)
Network
  • CBBC (United Kingdom)
  • Netflix (International)
  • RAI channels (Italy)
Related
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Winx Club is an animated television series co-produced by Rainbow and, later, Nickelodeon.[a] It was created and directed by Italian animator Iginio Straffi. It premiered on 28 January 2004, becoming a ratings success in Italy and on Nickelodeon networks internationally. The show is set in a magical universe that is inhabited by fairies, witches, and other mythical creatures. The main character is Bloom, a teenage girl from planet Earth who discovers she is a fairy and enrolls at Alfea College to train and hone her magical skills. At Alfea, she makes friends with four other fairies with whom she founds a group called the Winx Club, and together, they fight a long series of enemies who threaten the Magic Dimension, discovering in the process her true origins and the fate of her biological family. The series uses a serial format with an ongoing storyline.

Iginio Straffi initially outlined the show's plot to last three seasons. He chose to continue the story for a fourth season in 2009. Around this time, Winx Club's popularity attracted the attention of the American media company Viacom, owner of Nickelodeon. Viacom purchased 30% of the show's animation studio,[6] Rainbow, and Nickelodeon began producing a revival series. Production on the fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons was divided between Rainbow and Nickelodeon Animation Studio. To attract an American audience, Viacom assembled a voice cast of Nickelodeon actors (including Elizabeth Gillies and Ariana Grande), invested US$100 million in advertising for the series, and inducted Winx Club into Nickelodeon's franchise of Nicktoons.[7]

Beginning in 2010, episodes of Winx Club were jointly written with Nickelodeon's American team. Nickelodeon's writers aimed to make the series multicultural and appealing to viewers from different countries. In 2019, Straffi commented on his years of collaboration with Nickelodeon, saying that "the know-how of Rainbow and the know-how of Nickelodeon are very complementary; the sensibilities of the Americans, with our European touch."[8] The continued partnership between Rainbow and Nickelodeon on Winx Club led to the development of more co-productions, including Club 57 in 2019, on which much of Winx Club's staff worked.

The series was subject to budget cuts in 2014, during its seventh season; the 3D computer-generated segments and Hollywood voice actors were deemed too costly. The seventh season eventually premiered on Nickelodeon's worldwide channels in 2015. After a four-year hiatus, an eighth season premiered in 2019. At Straffi's decision, this season was heavily retooled for a preschool target audience.

A live-action adaptation of Winx Club for young adults, titled Fate: The Winx Saga, premiered in 2021.[9] In January 2023, Viacom (now known as Paramount Global) sold its stake in Rainbow SpA back to Straffi, allowing him full control of the studio's new projects.

In 2023, Rainbow announced an upcoming animated reboot of Winx Club, titled Winx Club: The Magic is Back, which will premiere on CBBC in the United Kingdom, Netflix internationally and on RAI in Italy starting in September 2025.[10][11]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Nickelodeon-2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Maffioletti, Chiara (2 September 2010). "Winx, fatine italiane coprodotte negli USA (Winx, Italian fairies co-produced in the USA)" (PDF). Corriere della Sera (in Italian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 July 2019.
  3. ^ "Copyright Catalog: Winx Club - Eps. 726". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vivarelli-2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nickelodeon-2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Vivarelli, Nick (26 February 2011). "Winx creator in the pink". Variety. Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Nickelodeon-2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Worldscreen-2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Weiss-2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Deals in Brief – May 20, 2025". Retrieved 1 June 2025.
  11. ^ "All-new Winx Club animated series to premiere on Rai and Netflix in 2025". Rainbow SpA. 10 June 2024. Retrieved 1 June 2025.


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