Wickie and the Strong Men is cult, but the story behind it is still astonishing 50 years later

When the iconic intro flickers across the screens, the eyes of young and old light up: Wickie and the Strong Men is one of the most popular children’s series ever. Behind the success story there is an exciting story hidden.

Wickie is an absolute cult: The TV classic simply cannot be killed

Wickie and the Strong Men first aired on ZDF in 1974 and hit like a bomb. The turbulent adventures of the little Viking have thrilled generations of fans – not least because the show has been seen in endless repeats for decades. Whether in the 70s, 90s or today: Wickie’s adventures are considered a timeless classic that teaches children to use their own minds.

The adventures mostly consisted of rescuing Wickie’s clumsy crew from dangerous situations – but instead of muscle power, the little hero was able to convince with ingenious ideas. The children’s series has achieved what only very few manage to do: Young and old love the show; numerous adaptations allowed the material to live on.

Film legend Michael Herbig got his hands on Wickie and even dedicated a film to him in 2009. The live-action adaptation was so well received that a sequel was produced in 3D in 2011. But radio plays, comics, books and video games also followed. In 2014, a computer-animated reboot of the series was attempted, but fans preferred to stick with the original.

Actually, Wickie should have been completely different

ZDF actually didn’t invent Wickie and his crew – the idea came from children’s book author Runer Jonsson, who wrote down the stories about Wickie back in the 1960s. The books themselves caused enthusiasm: in 1965, Jonsson was awarded the German Youth Book Prize.

Today we can hardly imagine it, but Wickie and the Strong Men was originally supposed to have been completely different: the head of the ZDF children’s program at the time wanted the idea originally implemented as a puppet show series – based on the popular Augsburger Puppenkiste. But this plan had to be quickly scrapped. Instead, an animated series was supposed to be created, but the production costs in Germany would have been far too high.

Wickie is an anime and even inspired the most successful manga of all time

ZDF and ORF promptly decided to have the series produced in Japan – by an anime studio. That was the first international cooperation of its kind, but the risk paid off for the broadcaster. Even though many people think of Naruto, Dragon Ball and Co. when they think of “anime”, Wickie and the Strong Men belong to the same genre. A total of 78 episodes and one feature film were produced in Japan; one of the directors also worked on Maya the Bee.

Hard to believe: One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda has revealed that the German-Japanese cult classic Wickie was one of his biggest inspirations for his anime epic One Piece. So we have the German children’s series to thank for the most successful manga series of all time. Thanks, Vicky!