Adult Swim is currently riding high thanks to the eighth season of Rick And Morty, as the Smith family deals with extraterrestrial and alternate reality issues. While Pim and Charlie of the Smiling Friends don’t find themselves primarily focusing on the problems of Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith, the series has still become a hit for the Cartoon Network programming block. At this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Adult Swim confirmed that Smiling Friends hasn’t just been renewed for a fourth season but a fifth season as well, as the third season is looking to potentially arrive later this year.
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This pick-up goes to show how popular the story of Charlie and Pim has become, putting it in league with Rick And Morty as not many other Adult Swim series have been renewed for multiple seasons. While rumors have swirled that the third season will arrive later this year thanks to a company working closely with Adult Swim Canada stating that Smiling Friends’ return was scheduled for this fall, an official announcement has yet to be made. Luckily, the co-creators of the series were more than happy to discuss the big comeback and hint at what is to come.
The Smiling Friends’ Bright Future
Following the renewal notice, co-creator Michael Cusack spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about what the series can do with new seasons, “It means you don’t have to make the same episode that the engine of the show relies on, which is the smiling friends go out and help a depressed character. Just like the shows we love and grew up with, the best part is now we can make a whole episode about a secondary character and zoom in on them more and explore the town.”
Cusack expanded on this by hinting at side characters that might receive more of a spotlight in the future, “There’s so many. Of course, Mr. Frog is always someone it’s fun to go back to. His spirit really is the spirit of the insanity of the show. Secondary characters can be tough because you don’t want to bring back people that they have already helped because we feel like that might be running out of ideas, in a sense. But there are some repeat characters that can come back, like DJ Spit.”
Adding to Cusak’s thoughts, Smiling Friends co-creator Zach Hadel noted that he does ‘read the comments’ when it comes to the Adult Swim series that has taken the world by storm, “The method I found is when an episode comes out, I will try to read everything that I can for about 24 hours. Once you’ve read about 20,000 comments across all the platforms, you’re like, ‘OK, I feel like I’ve absorbed most of people’s reactions to this episode.’”
Want to stay tuned on Adult Swim’s surreal series? Follow along with Team Anime on ComicBook.com for the latest updates on Smiling Friends and hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics and anime.
Via Press Release
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Image courtesy of Focus Features.
