HBO Max has just announced a two-season pickup for a reimagined The Boondocks animated series. Aaron McGruder, creator of the original series that launched on Adult Swim in 2005, is back as series showrunner and executive producer. The new series order of 24 episodes will launch in Fall 2020 with a 50-minute special. All 55 episodes of the original The Boondocks series library will also be available on the platform at series launch.
Sony Pictures Animation teased the new series in their Annecy Festival programming reveal this past June. They will produce the show in partnership with Sony Pictures Television. Alongside McGruder, Norm Aladjem will executive produce for Mainstay Entertainment, as well as Seung Kim and Meghann Collins Robertson.
Like its predecessor, the new series is based on McGruder’s widely syndicated comic strip, “The Boondocks,” which both depicted and presaged the nation’s most roiling cultural issues, earning McGruder a Peabody Award, and the devotion of fans who see him as both the voice, and the Nostradamus of his generation.
“The Boondocks was a revolutionary series that sparked conversations on hot button issues and brought dark subjects into the light with episodes like ‘The Trial of Robert Kelly’, ‘The Fundraiser’ and ‘The Story of Gangstalicious’,” said Kevin Reilly, chief content officer, HBO Max and president, TBS, TNT and truTV. “Aaron is a gifted visionary whose unique style of storytelling is a welcome voice and we are elated The Freemans are making their thugnificent comeback on HBO Max.”
The new Boondocks follows the adventures of self-proclaimed “Civil Rights Legend” Robert “Granddad” Freeman, and his two rambunctious grandsons Huey and Riley. The family has recently moved to an idyllic community in suburban Maryland only to see it taken over by the tyrannical Uncle Ruckus and his bizarre neo-fascist regime. Life under Ruckus turns out to be an everyday struggle to survive.
According to McGruder, “There’s a unique opportunity to revisit the world of The Boondocks and do it over again for today. It’s crazy how different the times we live in are now – both politically and culturally – more than a decade past the original series and two decades past the original newspaper comic. There’s a lot to say and it should be fun.”
HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s new direct-to-consumer streaming platform, debuts in spring 2020, and will bring together HBO, a robust slate of new original series, key third-party licensed programs and movies, and fan favorites from Warner Bros., New Line, DC, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Looney Tunes and others.
Source: HBO Max
