Smiling Friends to Release New Special Episode

Smiling Friends is currently in the works with an upcoming second season of the series, but Adult Swim has announced that the series will be briefly returning with a new special before the new season hits! Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel’s new animated series was one of the biggest debuts for Adult Swim in quite some time, and thus it was no surprise to see that the breakout hit would be returning for a second season in the future. While there has yet to be any word on when this new season will hit, at least fans can now look forward to a new special in between.

Adult Swim announced their plans for this year’s Adult Swim Festival Block Party in a press release, and with it stealthily confirmed that Cusack and Hadel will be in attendance for a special Smiling Friends panel that will reveal the first look at a new special. Taking to Twitter following the announcement, Hadel confirmed this new special with the following tease, “[T]his episode was originally planned to air on a certain fun little day of the year (between season 1 & 2) but our very small, very talented team put together something we hope makes [you] and your friends smile.”

Hadel confirmed that this new Smiling Friends special will be 11 minutes long, and will be releasing outside of the Season 1 and 2 schedules. There’s yet to be a release date set for this new special episode just yet, but the panel for it will be taking place during the Adult Swim Festival Block Party, which runs from August 5-7 in Philadelphia, PA. Adult Swim has confirmed that a few select panels and performances will be streaming through their website and YouTube channel much like years prior (it’s actually where we got to see some Smiling Friends the last time around) but has yet to reveal which panels will be available. 

Smiling Friends is now streaming on HBO Max and will be returning for a second season in the future. Adult Swim officially describes the series as such, “Smiling Friends follows the employees of a small company dedicated to bringing happiness to a bizarre yet colorful world. The quarter-hour animated series is co-created by Michael Cusack (YOLO: Crystal Fantasy) and Zach Hadel (Hellbenders) and animated by Princess Bento Studio.”

What do you think? Are you excited to see Smiling Friends coming back for a special episode? What are you hoping to see? What did you think of the first season? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!