Smiling Friends Co-Creator Shares Promising Update on Season 3 (Exclusive)

Smiling Friends is now in the works on a new season of the animated series for Adult Swim, and one of the creators behind it all has shared a promising update on the progress for the new episodes. Smiling Friends has been a runaway success for Adult Swim ever since it debuted its first pilot episode as part of one of Adult Swim’s April Fool’s Day pranks. The full animated series then made its debut shockingly over the course of a single night a few years ago, and has become a full franchise in its own right in the years since.

Smiling Friends Season 2 ended its run last year, and it was quickly confirmed by Adult Swim that a third season was going to be on the way. Speaking with Smiling Friends co-creator Michael Cusack ahead of the premiere of his own series, YOLO: Rainbow Trinity, this coming weekend, ComicBook got to ask about the now in the works season. While Cusack didn’t want to spoil any of the gags that or stories that could be coming in the new episodes, the creator did mention how he and fellow creator Zach Hadel are now writing and in production on the season.

Smiling Friends Season 3 Gets Promising Update

“Really good. Really good. We’re in such a great stride right now,” Smiling Friends co-creator Michael Cusack said about the now in the works Season 3. “Seeing as we’ve had two seasons to work up to this, we know the characters so much more now. It’s going really well. I’m trying to be careful not to spoil anything, but I won’t because I’m a professional. But, no. It’s good. It’s going very, very well. Zach [Hadel] and I are writing, and we’re in production. YOLO doesn’t slow it down at all because I can go back and forth. I can run between shows very quickly. So, we’re going well.”

In talking about that balance of developing new episodes of YOLO at the same time, Cusack revealed the challenge that goes into it, “A lot of the time, I’ll come up with an idea for YOLO and everything is vetoed in my mind of, like, ‘Would this be better in Smiling Friends?’ It’s kind of a challenge. It was much harder earlier on in Season One, making both seasons at the same time. You didn’t want to subconsciously do anything that you’re doing in Smiling Friends, and had to be very careful about that. But now I can divide it more in my mind as it gets like a muscle that you get better at.”

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When Is Smiling Friends Season 3 Come Out?

Smiling Friends Season 3 was officially announced by Adult Swim last Summer, so it’s likely going to be a while before fans will actually get to see the new episodes. With Cusack confirming that writing and production has begun on the new season, it’s likely not going to be a long wait for what’s next. But at the same time, all of the effort seen with the various animation styles in the series need as much time as they can get to really have full impact.

It’s why fans are loving Smiling Friends as one of Adult Swim’s key franchises for the modern era. If the third season has any surprises that are close to what was seen in the first two seasons, then the third is going to be a great one. You can check out the first two seasons of Smiling Friends now streaming with Max, and YOLO: Rainbow Trinity kicks off its own run of episodes this Sunday, March 9th with Adult Swim at midnight.