WarnerMedia @ Upfronts 2021: Adult Swim Orders Bevy Of Series For Both Linear And Digital ; New Batman Animated Series Headed To HBO MAX

Adult Swim today announced two all-new original series from creators Jason Ruiz, Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel. Royal Crackers, Ruiz’s (Murder Police) first project with the network, will introduce fans to the cracker dynasty Hornsby family in a new half-hour comedy series. Cusack (YOLO: Crystal Fantasy), is partnering again with Adult Swim alongside Hadel (Hellbenders) on Smiling Friends, a whole new take on self-help.

In Smiling Friends, Smiling Friends Inc. is there to lend a helping hand to any city inhabitant who calls their hotline with their troubling situation. No matter how absurd, the folks at Smiling Friends will send representatives cynical Charlie and star employee Pim to save the day. Smiling Friends is a quarter-hour animated series created, written and produced by Cusack and Hadel and will premiere on Adult Swim later this year.

The pilot for Smiling Friends originally aired during Adult Swim’s 2019 April Fool’s Day stunt to massive fan reaction. On Adult Swim digital platforms, the pilot has generated 1.3M views and is the #1 most watched episode on AdultSwim.com since its release. Cusack’s first show with Adult Swim, YOLO: Crystal Fantasy regularly won the half-hour across ad-supported cable among all adult demos. Additionally, it beat the key late-night competition by mostly double and triple digits among young adult demos.

Courtesy: Adult Swim

Royal Crackers is a half-hour animated series that follows two brothers: Stebe, a family man with a wife and child; and Theo Jr., a single, bass guitar player trying to relive his glory days. Together they live in their comatose father’s house waiting for him to die (he never does) so they can inherit his cracker company empire. Royal Crackers is created by Ruiz who also serves as executive producer along with Seth Cohen. The series is produced by Titmouse and will premiere on Adult Swim in 2022.

Ruiz first started creating web animation at 12 years-old and was the first writer to emerge from the Fox/20th Joint Inkubation Program with a completed pilot. He was also listed in The New York Times as one of 5 rising animators to watch, which also included Rebecca Sugar and Justin Roiland. Ruiz previously created and developed original animated content for Super Deluxe and Fox.

Adult Swim has also announced that Lazor Wulf season two is headed to HBO MAX on June 10th.


Morty and Rick go on another crazy adventure together.

These new series will be based off break out characters from or inspired by the network’s hit shows Rick and MortyYour Pretty Face Is Going to Hell, Robot Chicken, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  Each mini spin-off series will comprise of 8-10 episodes and will be available across digital platforms, globally.

Each digital short series will highlight minor characters that have previously appeared in or been inspired by fan-favorite series and create new worlds with them as the stars. Fans will go on missions with The Vindicatorscatch up with the Aqua Teen villains, have fun with the demons in hell and explore the life of Alabama Jackson, a character invented at a Robot Chicken San Diego Comic Con panel by actor Donald Faison.

THE VINDICATORS
Answer the Vindibeacon and join your old pals Supernova, Vance Maxiumus, Alan Rails, Crocubot and Noob Noob as they fight crime, avert genocides, and yuk it up without Rick and Morty. The Vindicators is executive produced by Erica Rosbe, Sarah Carbiener, Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland.

“We are thrilled to work in the Rick and Morty universe again, and these shorts are an incredible opportunity to explore what happens in the aftermath of the Vindicators saving (or destroying) worlds,” said The Vindicators executive producers Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe. “We’re so excited to show how this team of superheroes is plenty dysfunctional whether Rick’s around to have half of them murdered or not.”

ALABAMA JACKSON
Donald Faison is Alabama Jackson, a smooth-talking time traveler who lands in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time, every time. If he can survive the past long enough to get back to the present, he just might find something he wasn’t looking for—himself.  Alabama Jackson is a hilarious action-packed stop-motion animated series created by Donald Faison and Produced by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

“It’s been my dream to create something with stop-motion animation ever since Seth Green showed me clips of this crazy sketch show he was working on where the stars were the toys I grew up playing with,” said actor and Alabama Jackson creator Donald Faison. “For it to come full circle and for my show to be made with this same team of artists only makes me more excited to explore the stories of Alabama Jackson!”

AQUADONK SIDE PIECES 
Aquadonk Side Pieces is the long-awaited continuation of the beloved Adult Swim animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force where fans will be bestowed with the gift of learning what happens in the later lives of various side characters and villains such as The Mooninites, The Plutonians, MC Pee Pants, The Frat Aliens, Happy Time Harry, Handbanana, and The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past. Aquadonk Side Pieces was created by Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis. The new series will premiere later this year.

YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL: THE ANIMATED SERIES 
Hell is eternal, and so is the beloved Emmy-nominated cult show Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell as it returns for a fifth season, this time in animated internet shorts. Cruel boss Satan (Matt Servitto), bumbling demon Gary (Henry Zebrowski), and all your other favorites return in America’s beloved workplace comedy set in hell. Expect more laughs, more gore, and maybe a talking animal. Seems like it’s a cartoon they should add a talking animal. Maybe a fish? A Williams Street production, the show is created by Casper Kelly and Dave Willis.

“We are thrilled to expand the Pretty Face universe into animation, especially since it will be animators sweating over their Cintiqs (alt. drawing tablets?) rather than us sweating in a humid Georgia August swamp battling mosquitoes while covered in red make-up.” said the Your Pretty Face creators Dave Willis and Casper Kelly. “We just hope the bosses will let us release the ten-hour Snyder cut of Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell: The Animated Series.”


Courtesy: HBO MAX

HBO Max and Cartoon Network have greenlit a straight to series order for Batman: Caped Crusader, an all-new animated series and reimagining of the Batman mythology through the visionary lens of executive producers Bruce Timm, J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves and produced by Warner Bros. Animation (WBA), Bad Robot Productions and 6th & Idaho. The news was announced today by Tom Ascheim, President, Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics (GKYAC) and Sam Register, President, Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) and Cartoon Network Studios (CNS).

Batman: Caped Crusader represents Timm’s return to the iconic DC character in animated episodic television, which began with the Emmy® Award-winning Batman: The Animated Series. Praised by many to be the gold standard of animated superhero storytelling, Batman: The Animated Series is considered one of the best depictions of the Dark Knight in any medium.

Now, nearly 30 years since the series premiered, Timm once again takes on the mantle of the Bat alongside two of the most acclaimed filmmakers in the industry: J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves. Utilizing state-of-the-art animation techniques and technologies available, this powerful creative partnership will once again reinvent Batman and his iconic rogue’s gallery with sophisticated storytelling, nuanced characters and intense action sequences all set in a visually striking world.


 

HBO MAX exclusive is going to get a Fall 2021 premiere on the network that originally ordered it…TBS. Since staples like Family Guy will be vacating the network in favor of parent company Disney-owned nets, Close Enough will be the one getting the call-up to help fill that void and get good animation lead-ins to the very fruitful American Dad premieres that happen on Monday Nights.

The animated series revolves around a couple who are in their early thirties who have a five-year-old daughter and live with their divorced friends in a Los Angeles duplex. As they get into what seem like normal domestic crises that usually escalate in surreal, often science fiction-esque, ways.

So far, two seasons have premiered on HBO MAX, with another season having already been ordered.


 

Courtesy: HBO MAX

HBO Max and Cartoon Network announced today a two-season series order for My Adventures with Superman an all-new kids and family animated series following the action-packed, comedic and romantic adventures of Superman and Lois Lane. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) and based on characters from DC, My Adventures with Superman catches up with twenty-somethings Clark Kent, the bright and driven Lois Lane, and their best friend Jimmy Olsen as they begin to discover who they are and everything they can accomplish together as an investigative reporting team at the Daily Planet.

In this serialized coming-of-age story, we follow Clark as he builds his secret Superman identity and embraces his role as the hero of Metropolis – and perhaps the world. Lois, now growing into a star investigative journalist, takes aspiring photographer Jimmy Olsen under her wing. All the while, Clark and Lois are falling in love, sharing adventures, taking down bad guys, stumbling over secrets, and discovering what it means to be Superman and Lois Lane. Jack Quaid (The Boys) and Alice Lee (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) lead the voice cast as Clark Kent and Lois Lane, respectively.