Ninjago (previously known as Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu until 2019) is an animated television series. The show was produced by Wil Film ApS from the pilot episodes until the tenth season and by WildBrain Studios for the last five seasons. It is distributed by The Lego Group. It was created to coincide with the Lego Ninjago construction toys, and centres on the fictional world of Ninjago, telling the story of a group of teenage ninja and their battles against the forces of evil.
The pilot episodes were aired in January 2011, coinciding with the launch of the Lego Ninjago toy line. Their popularity led to the commissioning of the first two full seasons (Rise of the Snakes and Legacy of the Green Ninja), which each consisted of 13 episodes. The first season aired on 2 December 2011.[1] Both the Lego theme and the TV series had an intended shelf life of three years, so it was expected that the second season would be the last. However, after feedback from fans, it was soon revived and it continued for ten more years.[2] In 2017, a film adaptation of the series, The Lego Ninjago Movie, was released. In the eighth season of the show in 2018, the animation software of the show was updated and new character designs and aesthetics were adopted from the film. Despite these aesthetic changes, the eighth season continued the story of the previous seasons instead of the film's rebooted storyline. With the release of the eleventh season in 2019, the show was sold to WildBrain Studios who dropped the "Masters of Spinjitzu" subtitle and switched from a 22-minute format to an 11-minute running time.[3] In total, 15 seasons were produced,[4] along with two pilot episodes, several mini movies, a special, a four-episode miniseries, and a theme park movie.[2]