Michael Buckley is celebrating a momentous occasion: the 20th anniversary of his Sisters Grimm series and the arrival of an animated adaptation, slated for release October 3 on Apple TV.

To celebrate an anniversary while ushering in a new interpretation of beloved characters is a serendipitous event for the author. “It’s really hard to wrap my head around the fact that it’s been almost 20 years since I sat down with this idea, and that Sabrina and Daphne Graham have been part of my family ever since,” Buckley told PW.

The show follows sisters Sabrina and Daphne as they encounter monsters and creatures from a myriad of fairy tales living in their town. The original book series, and its animated spin-off, riffs on the well-known tales from the Brothers Grimm.

The Sisters Grimm made its debut from Amulet Books in 2005 and evolved into a nine-book series for middle graders that concluded in 2012. Since their publication, Buckley explained that the books had been optioned for film a few times over the years but in Apple TV, he’d finally found the right creative match.

“There’s this idea that having a television show based on one of your books is some great honor. I’ve never really seen it like that,” Buckley told PW. “I’ve always thought, if this TV show turns people onto the books, then it’s totally worth doing. And to make that happen, then I have to find people who really appreciate the source material and are fans of it as well.”

Amy Higgins, producer of such animated projects as Wander Over Yonder and Star vs. the Forces of Evil, is serving as showrunner for the series adaptation, with Buckley, Philip Alberstat, and Elliot Blake acting as executive producers. For Buckley, this wasn’t his introduction to animation, as he’d worked on his own show, Robotamy, for Cartoon Network in the late 2000s, but he was pleasantly surprised by his first experience in a writers’ room.

“There was a team of people, led by Amy, and it was thrilling to be able to be part of that,” Buckley said. “A lot of times it felt like Christmas morning, because I opened up my email and there’d be something amazing waiting for me to look at.”

The series features Modern Family actor Ariel Winter as Sabrina; actor Leah Newman as Daphne; Saturday Night Live alumna (and “probably one of my first crushes on TV”) Laraine Newman as Relda; Game of Thrones actor Abubakar Salim as Charming; and Ted Lasso actor Billy Harris as Puck. Buckley hopes viewers will appreciate “the voice actors and the talent that they’re bringing to [the show].”

In having the show adapted into animation, Buckley was most protective of maintaining the integrity of the book’s protagonist Sabrina. Buckley wanted to ensure that Sabrina, whom he considered a “challenging character,” was never watered down.

“Sabrina’s sarcastic and snarky and really hard to like at first,” Buckley said. “I worried that producers would be like, “No, little girls have to be sweet and they have to be nice and agreeable.” And I didn’t want that to change, because so many letters that I get from fans, especially young girls, tell me that Sabrina is very much like them. And so I was happy that they stuck with it.” On this new path that the Sisters Grimm take onscreen, empathy and compassion are still the core foundations to the story. “We live in such a complicated time right now, and it seems as if there are people whose job it is to just be bullies,” Buckley said. “I think that when you meet Sabrina, she might fall into that category a little bit at first, but her journey is about learning to see the world through other people’s eyes, to walk in other people’s shoes, and that we all really want the same things in life. We may have different methods but all in all, we’re all the same, and we all really want to be happy and safe.”

“That’s what you'll learn from this show,” he continued. “That no matter what the difference is, we can all find some common ground. That’s the journey Sabrina Graham was on 20 years ago, and I suppose she’s still on it now.”