Harlequin has announced a multi-year agreement with Dashverse, an AI entertainment company specializing in shortform video, to co-produce a slate of 40 animated microdramas inspired by Harlequin Romance titles, beginning with Catherine Mann’s A Fairy-Tail Ending next month.
Per the announcement, each shortform video series will be “developed by a team of illustrators assisted by Dashverse's proprietary production system, Frameo,” and will be distributed in English across “leading global microdrama platforms, including Dashverse’s DashReels.” The “concise, mobile-friendly episodes” are intended to appeal to “on-the-go” audiences, the publisher said.
In a note to PW, Harlequin EVP and publisher Brent Lewis declined to answer questions about the specifics of the deal. He said that authors will receive royalties from the videos, which will be monetized via ads and, on certain platforms, subscriptions.
Additional adaptations are slated for release in May, including Forbidden Fiji Nights with Her Rival by JC Harroway, Newlywed Enemies by Jackie Ashenden, The King's Pregnancy Proposition by LaQuette, and Mistletoe Baby Mix-Up by JC Harroway.
“Harlequin romance stories have a long-standing legacy of resonating with readers through their universal themes of love and connection,” Lewis said. “This partnership with Dashverse represents an exciting opportunity to reimagine these cherished stories for a new audience, leveraging cutting-edge technology to bring them to life in an innovative and engaging medium.”
Harlequin’s expansion into microdramas comes just over a month after it slashed its long-running historical romance line, in light of “evolving reader interests globally.”
“Some of the most powerful stories in the world already exist, they just need to be experienced in new ways,” said Sanidhya Narain, CEO and co-founder of Dashverse. “With Harlequin, we’re unlocking a vast library of beloved stories and reimagining them for a format that is visual, immediate, and built for today’s generation. This is a step toward building global entertainment franchises from existing IP, powered by AI.”
On Dashverse’s website, Frameo is described as a “generative video studio for storytellers” that combines text prompting with automated editing protocols, capable of churning out a “complete short film with consistent characters and dynamic audio.”
In a September 2025 interview with India’s Business Standard, Narain indicated that Frameo microdramas take about three weeks each to produce, and have amassed millions of views on DashReels.
