Prime Video’s ‘Follow My Voice’ Gets January Launch Date As Webtoon Productions Team Explain Webnovel Boom: “These Are Unique Voices Not Listening To Mandates”

EXCLUSIVE: Ariana Godoy’s Follow My Voice (Follow My Voice) will debut on Prime Video on January 2, 2026, as webnovel adaptations continue to drive streamers’ strategies in the YA space.

Launching worldwide in 240 territories, the film is based on Godoy’s Wattpad webnovel of the same name and comes from Sigue y No Pares AIE, Zeta Cinema, Beta Fiction Spain, and Webtoon Productions.

The launch comes in a boom time for webnovels, where the likes of Prime Video’s Guilty films have become major hits after debuting on social storytelling service Wattpad. Webnovel writers have emerged as what Webtoon Productions Head of Global Film Jason Goldberg called “unique voices who are not listening to the traditional mandates of Hollywood, CAA or HarperCollins,” tempting even cautious buyers with their massive readerships and reams of data attached to their work.

Follow My Voice follows Klara (Berta Castañé), who after a health crisis that keeps her at home for 76 consecutive days does nothing but listen to her favorite radio program, Follow My Voice. She begins to wonder if its possible to fall in love with someone she has only heard on the radio and if she feels something for Kang (Jae Woo Yang), the radio host whose voice she has only heard once.

Inés Pintor and Pablo Sandrian (The Time It Takes) are the writers and directors, and stars Castañé (Graduation Trip: Mallorca) and former Spanish soccer player Yang are joined in the cast by Claudia Traisac (Unauthorized Life), Nuno Gallego (Olympus), and Fernando Guallar (Red Queen). Antonio Asensio and Paloma Molina produce for Zeta Studios and Mercedes Gamero and Pablo Nogueroles do the same for Beta Fiction Spain. Additional executive producers include Wattpad President Aron Levitz, Lindsey Weems Ramey and Bego Robles.

The news came during an exclusive Deadline interview with Webtoon Productions’ Goldberg and Director of International Development Mar Vila Barcelo and María Contreras, Head of Scripted for Amazon MGM Studios Spain, who has played a key role in the plethora of Spanish-language originals on Prime Video.

In the talk, they addressed the explosion of YA series and films based on webnovels an webcomics – a trend in large parts driven by streamers such as Prime Video, which has found success with Mercedes Ron’s Guilty trilogy. That was based on a series of Wattpad stories, which are establishing the likes of Ron and Godoy as sought-after creative stars.

Godoy’s original ‘Sigue Mi Voz’ book has been read 37 million times on webnovel platform Wattpad, which sits next to webcomic platform Webtoon and production wing Wattpad Webtoon Productions in the Naver stable.

“Ariana is one of our top Spanish-language creators,” said Barcelo. “We worked with her on the Through series of films for Netflix and we’re now releasing Follow My Voicewhich is a story that was very special and very close to her heart. She’s one of our biggest creators, and all of her stories have performed so incredibly well on the platform. She’s one of those creators that has been able to build a community of fans that have been following not only her stories but her as a creator as well.”

YA’s moment

Goldberg and Barcelo outlined how focusing on YA creators was finally giving a moment to a global audience that has traditionally been underserved.

“Fans have been following some of the stories that we are now adapting for years,” added Barcelo. “It feels like an incredible moment for them to be able to see, for example, Follow My Voicewhich was recently released in cinemas in Spain, but also released in Mexico, Chile and several Latin American territories. That’s been a wonderful experience for them.”

Amazon MGM Studios’ Contreras said: “We’ve seen how hungry viewers are for content in this space – the response to Guilty or The Summer I Turned Pretty proved that – and Follow My Voice delivers that same emotional resonance, but with a totally different type of story that touches important topics for YA audiences.

“This is about reinforcing our commitment to the YA genre and meeting our audiences where their passion is. We believe this film will delight the fans who’ve already fallen in love with our slate, and it’s a big part of how we’re continuing to build and strengthen our position with young viewers globally.”

Contreras praised Wattpad and similar digital platforms, saying they “aren’t just content sources,” but “communities with passionate, engaged audiences.” She pointed to Ron’s ‘Culpables’ novels, adding: “When we saw the direct feedback and conversations Mercedes Ron’s novels generated on Wattpad, we knew we were engaging with a living fandom, not just adapting a book.”

“What’s important to understand is that while we’re in a peak moment right now, these genres – romance, coming-of-age, new adult – are cyclical. They never really go away; they’re dormant at times, but always come back because the human experiences they explore are timeless.”

‘Not listening to traditional mandates’

Goldberg outlined the process of identifying Wattpadd and Webtoon stories that could be adapted for TV or film. “It’s a combination between our feeling about the story and then data and metrics – the alchemy of those two things plus where the audience is, as that’s how we decide which territory to explore with that piece of content,” he said.

“We also look at the global trends that are going on and what the marketplace wants. With a lot of the stuff we do in deep development, we often just trust our gut and what we think we will be able to sell, versus just listening to mandates. Obviously, we still take into consideration what people are buying at the moment.”

Goldberg was effusive about the Webtoon Productions business model, calling its library of webcomics and webnovels “a gift” given the IP-driven nature of commissioning right now.

“I’ve spent other times in my career trying to fight for other people’s IP or trying to sell original ideas and it’s such a gift working at a company like ours, where not only do we have this amazing library of content that we could go out and sell, but the content itself is brilliant. It comes from creators from all around the world with such unique voices who are not listening to the traditional mandates of Hollywood, CAA or HarperCollins on what works and what doesn’t work.”

That said, selling the brand narrative into Hollywood hasn’t been the easiest process, even with the growing chorus of excitement around digital IP. “We’ve had to do a lot of education with the traditional film and TV world about what our content is and why it’s important, but day by day the incoming calls come in more for our stuff as people are seeing the successes of the things that are going on around the world here,” said Goldberg.

He and Barcelo also explained how they bridged the gap between the creators, who often fit more neatly into a content creator bracket than a traditional screenwriter, and the streamers and networks eyeing their stories.

“A big part of our role is to protect that source material – the original IP and the essence of what the creators are trying to tell with that story,” said Barcelo. “It has been the case with all the adaptations that we’ve done as of today that all our partners have very respectful of those ideas of the creator. It’s been a collaborative effort between us, the creators and the creative teams to work towards having the best adaptations possible.

“It’s also really nice for the creators themselves in that they are having the opportunity to be a part of a journey that most of the times I would say they would have never expected when they started writing that story.”

Quizzed on how deal terms break down, Goldberg declined to go into detail, but said: “We make sure that people are properly compensated,” adding, “We want the best deals for our creators, always.”

We were speaking to Goldberg and Barcelo following the October rebrand of Wattpad Webtoon Studios to Webtoon Productions, a reshuffle that saw David Madden upped to President.

Barcelo, who is based in Madrid, had joined Webtoon Productions from ITV Studios’s Cattleya Producciones earlier this year, while Former HBO, Lee Daniels Entertainment and HBO exec Goldberg has joined as North America film chief in 2022, and was upped to a global role in 2024. The merged Wattpad and Webtoon production division came into being in 2021, when South Korean giant Naver committed $100M to development and production.

Along with Godoy’s Through My Window (Through My Window)which is one of Netflix’s most-watched non-English films of all time and was followed by two sequels, Webtoon Productions’ recent titles include Tubi film Sidelined: The QB and Me, which premiered at #1 on the free streamer and, according to the producer, brought in the most new viewers for any title to date to the streaming service; and Bad Influenceanother high-rating Spanish-language film for Netflix.

Upcoming projects include Sidelined 2: Intercepted for Tubi, an animated adaptation of Lore Olympus with The Jim Henson Company; Death of a Pop Star with Oscar winner Diablo Cody and producer Mason Novick; and Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Imagine Entertainment.

“For the new year, we’re going to keep on doing what we’ve always done, and that’s bringing creators stories to new fans in new formats,” said Goldberg. “We’ve had a lot of success with Wattpad and Webtoon adaptations this year and we have many more in the works that we’re excited to announce soon.”