Netflix canceled Tuca and Bertie after just one season, but now season 2 is officially happening at Adult Swim. Fans were shocked when Netflix canceled Tuca and Bertie after season 1 last year, as the show seemed to be building a dedicated cult-following. Show creator Lisa Hanawalt issued a statement about the show being saved, saying (via THR): “I’ve been a fan of Adult Swim shows since my teens, so I’m thrilled to bring my beloved fowl to the party and be a new voice for a fresh decade of absurd, irreverent, yet heartwarming adult animation.”
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Season 2 of Tuca and Bertie is expected to arrive in 2021, with the option for additional seasons. The titular characters are voiced by Tiffany Haddish (Girl’s Trip) and Ali Wong (Birds of Prey, Always Be My Maybe), both of whom are returning for season 2 – along with The Walking Dead‘s Steven Yeun.
The series follows Tuca (Haddish) and Bertie (Wong), two 30-something bird-women ex-roommates, still living the same apartment complex. Tuca is strong-willed and care-free bird, while Bertie is her anxious and aloof songbird foil. Yeun plays a robin named Speckle, who is Bertie’s live-in boyfriend and the reason Bertie and Tuca’s time as roommates ended. The show was hilarious and irreverent, while also dealing with deeper issues of female friendship, adulthood and maturation, family bonds, and other such themes of middle-aged life.
There was considerable backlash to Tuca & Bertie‘s cancellation, from both fans and critics. Social media hashtags and petitions to save the show went up almost immediately, saved by a full-on SaveTucaAndBertie.com website. It wasn’t just the fans: Tiffany Haddish and Lisa Hanawalt both openly expressed desire to see the show saved. And now it has been.
One of the more interesting things about Tuca & Bertie‘s cancellation, in particular, is that it raised question about Netflix’s algorithmic system of making shows visible (or not) to viewers. In one of the more absurd examples of the flaws in Netflix’s system, the streaming service didn’t even recommend Tuca & Bertie to Lisa Hanawalt, the show’s creator! In the end, a lot of fans walked away feeling like Netflix had grossly mis-measured the potential of Tuca & Bertie – and now Adult Swim will put that theory to the test. In a traditional broadcast TV model, fans have only to tune into Tuca & Bertie on Adult Swim, an prove with indisputable ratings that Netflix indeed made a mistake.
This news adds another big win for fan movements, following Warner Bros. announcement that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is officially on the way.
Tuca & Bertie season 2 will air on Adult Swim in 2021
