MTV Rebooting ‘Celebrity Deathmatch’

MTV is bringing back irreverent claymation series Celebrity Deathmatch for another round.

The revival will be produced by Ice Cube, who will also lead the new show’s voice cast. The series will be shopped around to networks, including streaming services.

Celebrity Deathmatch is the latest property from MTV‘s vault being revived as part of Viacom CEO Bob Bakish’s plan to revitalize several once-popular MTV brands. The Real World was the first of these reboots from MTV Studios and landed a new home at Facebook Watch.

Original Celebrity Deathmatch creator Eric Fogel will executive produce the revival alongside Ice Cube. Also executive producing is Jeff Kwatinetz and Ben Hurwitz of Cube Vision.

MTV Studios is aiming to have Celebrity Deathmatch on a third party network in 2019 as Viacom attempts to monetize its back catalog. Daria, Aeon Flux, and Made are also all being revived, though The Real World is still the only one of these projects to find a home.

Ice Cube’s Cube Vision already works with Viacom producing Hip Hop Squares for VH1.

“We’re excited to grow our partnership with Ice Cube and Cube Vision to reimagine this fan favorite,” said MTV president Chris McCarthy. “Deathmatch was the meme before memes, remains a hot topic on social media and will be a smart, funny way to tackle the over-the-top rhetoric of today’s pop culture where it belongs — in the wrestling ring.”

Celebrity Deathmatch ran for 93 episodes over six seasons. The show originally ran from 1998 through 2002. It was previously revived in 2006 and aired on MTV2. MTV tried to revive the series again in 2015, filming a new pilot, but the series wasn’t picked up.

The series pitted clay caricatures of popular celebrities, politicians, and other media personalities against each other in professional wrestling like bouts with over-the-top violence. For a time, the MTV series was a counter-culture touchstone that was popular enough to spawn its own video game.

Were you a fan of the original Celebrity Deathmatch? Are you excited to hear that Celebrity Deathmatch is making a comeback? Let us know what you think about it in the comments section!