A Cartoon Network Movie Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary as Fans Await Its Revival

When it comes to the biggest Cartoon Network franchises of the modern era, there are plenty of surreal series to choose from. Adventure Time introduced fans to the Land of Oooo, with Fionna and Cake taking the reins from Finn and Jake. Gumball and Darwin recently made a comeback thanks to the sequel series, The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball, arriving on Hulu. With one major franchise set to make a comeback, Regular Show is planning to return with a new series as one of its biggest stories turns ten.

In 2015, Regular Show: The Movie arrived on Cartoon Network, giving Mordecai and Rigby one of the biggest and weirdest misadventures that they’ve ever experienced. Unfortunately, the film didn’t make its way to theaters, but was originally pitched as a special episode from the cable network, only for creator J.G. Quintel to flip the script and ask to do a movie instead. While most Regular Show episodes would routinely start small, only to become so much grander in scale, the 2015 film weaved in the earlier lives of Rigby and Mordecai to help deliver its science-fiction-based story unfold. While the pasts of both characters have been hinted at throughout the Cartoon Network series, the movie uses time travel shenanigans to help further flesh out the protagonists.

Regular Show remains something of a timeless classic for Cartoon Network and for good reason. The series focusing on park-workers struck a chord with older generations, as the more mundane issues that Mordecai, Rigby, and the rest of the cast tackle are reflective of many real-life viewers’ trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, while the Regular Show series is available to stream on Hulu, the same can’t be said for Regular Show: The Movie. If you want to revisit this Cartoon Network feature-length film, you’ll need to either rent it or purchase it from a digital outlet, as it’s surprisingly not a part of the main series. If you’re a Regular Show die-hard, this movie is one to watch, even if it isn’t necessary to the overall plot.

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The Future of Mordecai And Rigby

It’s impossible to deny that Regular Show didn’t have a long career on Cartoon Network, as the J.G. Quintel production ran for eight seasons, with close to two hundred and fifty episodes released. Even still, the series is planning on making a comeback with Regular Show: The Lost Tapes, a spin-off that has been mired in mystery ever since it was announced in 2024. To date, no footage has been released for the return of Mordecai and Rigby, while also revealing nothing about its story. Considering how the original series ended, giving viewers a definitive finale, the show might be a return to form that explores stories of the park employees we never witnessed.

The very final moment of Regular Show sees a VHS tape popping out of a player, labeled “Regular Show: The Lost Tapes,” hinting at what might be to come. While the future is bright for Regular Show, it’s unfortunate that another of Quintel’s projects has seemingly fallen to the wayside. Close Enough was a more adult-oriented follow-up to Regular Show, originally airing on HBO Max, but was completely stricken from the streaming service, making it that much harder to watch. Luckily, Quintel does have another series in the works outside of either Close Enough or Regular Show in the upcoming Super Mutant Magic Academy. Unlike its predecessors, the magical university is based on a comic book series, making for a major change for Quintel and company.

As for The Lost Tapes, it has been rumored to arrive next year, but nothing has been officially revealed as of yet. Luckily, fitting in stories that viewers never witnessed during the first run would be an easy task, as there was never a timeline in terms of when certain adventures happened. Regular Show’s continuity was somewhat fluid, and while big events were referenced from time to time, adding new stories that took place between certain episodes would make for some hilarious adventures that would fit right into the original eight seasons.

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