On Wednesday, Adult Swim premiered President Curtis, a new installment in the hit comedy series, at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, expanding the reach of a property that many fans expected would struggle to survive following the departure of co-creator Justin Roiland.
Keith David reprises his role as POTUS, a Rick and Morty series regular since the season 2 episode “Get Schwifty.” The show’s voice cast includes Stephanie Beatrice and Jim Rash. The new series follows the Commander-in-Chief and his staff as they navigate inter-dimensional diplomacy, paranormal investigations, and other unexplained crises.
The launch comes more than three years after Adult Swim cut ties with Roiland following felony domestic violence charges that were later dismissed. At the time, many fans argued that the series could not continue without the co-creator, who voiced both Rick and Morty. Instead, the network recast the roles, with Ian Cardone taking over as Rick and Harry Belden as Morty, while co-creator Dan Harmon remained sole showrunner.
“It was different than when he was Michael [Cusack] And Zack [Hadel] “We said we didn’t want to do any more Smiling Friends,” said Michael Ouellen, president of Adult Swim, based in Annecy. “Even though we greenlighted two more seasons, we knew we couldn’t continue without them. With Rick and Morty, we had a group of people working on it. We knew the show could continue and perhaps continue to grow creatively.”
Far from downsizing, Adult Swim has expanded the franchise in the years since. The company has released projects including Rick and Morty: the anime and digital display Defenders 2: The last stand between Earth and destruction. Warner Bros. Also in development is a feature film, with series director Jacob Hare in talks to helm, while the main series has already been renewed through a twelfth season.
Owellen argued so Rick and Morty She evolved creatively in the post-Roiland era, becoming less pessimistic and more emotionally ambitious.
“The way they deal with the human condition is that it keeps getting better,” he said. “I’ll sit at my desk and cry. There’s also a fart joke.”
Addressing viewers resistant to change, Ouweleen compared the show’s evolution to that of a favorite band.
“The interesting thing about entertainment, or with a brand like Adult Swim, is that you have to keep moving and evolving,” he said. “Sometimes, people like a version of something, and if it develops, they have a hard time engaging with it. But that’s your job — to surprise them, and keep it interesting.”
President Curtis It’s also part of a broader effort to diversify Adult Swim’s programming slate. Besides existing franchises, the network has expanded to include new genres and formats with projects including dramas Common side effectsyoung adult series Super mutant magic academy And experimental comedies of a quarter-hour duration, such as: Haha, clowns.
“We’re trying to scale that up,” Olin said. “We have things in development, which are sci-fi comedy, fantasy, kind of gothic stuff, horror — there’s just a lot of different flavors coming.”
The expansion comes as Adult Swim continues to grow internationally. The brand owned by Warner Bros. Discovery is now available on HBO Max in most major global markets, including the UK, Germany and France.
“We are now pretty much fully global,” Ouellen said.
Despite this scope, Adult Swim has produced relatively few international originals, including… Rick and Morty: the animean Australian series Yolo and Women wearing shoulder padsan animated telenovela set in Ecuador and produced in Mexico. It is worth noting that European origin is absent from the list.
Part of the challenge lies in the differences between the European funding model and Adult Swim’s creator-led development process, O’Weilen said.
“[European creators] “They are used to working with government funding, doing co-productions in many countries, producing a lot of material, if not a whole season of something, and then looking for distributors,” he said. “That’s the opposite of what Adult Swim is like,” he said. “In Europe, creators often come to us with a completely ready-made idea, and then it’s too late. “We want to work with you before the cement dries.”
