Good news, everyone! Matt Groening, co-creator of The Simpsons and Futurama, has a brand new TV comedy on the way, and it's got three awesome things going for it. First, it's being produced by Netflix. Second, it'll likely be a more adult animated comedy than his previous work. And finally, it's already lined up one of the funniest casts imaginable, complete with a host of Futurama voice talent. Oh, and it's called Disenchantment.
Before I start whooping like Zoidberg for the rest of the day, let's talk Disenchantment's mature-leaning plot, which will introduce audiences to the prestige-lacking medieval kingdom dubbed Dreamland. Here, viewers will follow a liquor-loving young princess named Bean, who has a pair of sidekicks in a rowdy elf named Elfo and a personal demon named Luci. While out on their adventures, the three characters will face a host of other entities, including imps, trolls, harpies, sprites, ogres walruses and, of course, human beings. For a possibly more succinct take on the tone, here's what Matt Greoning himself said in the announcement.
Ultimately, Disenchantment will be about life and death, love and sex, and how to keep laughing in a world full of suffering and idiots, despite what the elders and wizards and other jerks tell you.
Matt Groening's more adult take on the world of animation features a fantastic lead trio of comedic powerhouses. Leading the pack is Broad City star and co-creator Abbi Jacobson, who will voice Bean, while Friends From College's Nat Faxon will voice Elfo, leaving Adult Swim star Eric Andre to take on the demon Luci. What's more, we'll get to hear FuturamaI greats like Billy West, John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille and David Herman. Then we have a handful of Mighty Boosh vets in Noel Fielding, Rich Fulcher, Matt Berry and Lucy Montgomery. Rounding things out is Superstore story editor Jeny Batten, perhaps best known for her two-woman stage show Freak Like Tennessee.
It was first announced last year that Matt Groening and Netflix would be joining forces for what would presumably be one of the next great TV comedies, and though no details about it were given at the time, we obviously expected only the best. Which it kind of sounds like we're getting, and the whole suffering-through-everyday-duties angle hearkens to Groening's classic comic strip Life Is Hell. And if Netflix's other animated hits like BoJack Horseman and F Is for Family indicate anything, it's that Disenchantment will spare little in its attempts to make us laugh.
Though Netflix and Matt Groening are obviously having a positive time working together, the streaming giant did take some flak from some of the creator's fans when the first chunk of Futurama exited its library due to non-renewed contracts with Fox. (The sci-fi comedy already has another streaming home, though, so no more worrying is needed.) Now, is it too soon to start asking about an eventual crossover?
At this point, Netflix doesn't have a release date set in stone, but the service does have 2018 as when Disenchantment will make its way to audiences. While we're waiting to find out more information, head to our Netflix 2017 schedule and our summer TV rundown to see when all the new and returning shows are hitting primetime and beyond.
