Popular Adult Swim Show Renewed for Two Additional Seasons

An Adult Swim show has been given a two-season renewal.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the absurdist animated series Smiling Friends has been picked up through Season 5.

News comes ahead of the Season 3 premiere, which is coming this fall. Co-creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel made the announcement alongside Adult Swim’s Vice President of Development Cameron Tang at the Annecy Animation Festival. Seasons 4 and 5 are in production at studio Williams Street. Smiling Friends’ pilot premiered in April 2020 and was ordered a full season in 2021, which premiered in 2022.

“It means you don’t have to make the same episode that the engine of the show relies on, which is the smiling friends go out and help a depressed character,” Cusack told THR. “Just like the shows we love and grew up with, the best part is now we can make a whole episode about a secondary character and zoom in on them more and explore the town.”

Cusack and Hadel provide some of the voices, alongside Marc M., with supporting voice cast including Mike Stoklasa, David Dore, Erica Lindbeck, Rodrigo Huerta, Chris O’Neill, Hans van Harken, Mick Lauer, Harry Partridge, David Firth, Monica Franco, Joshua Tomar, and Lyle Rath. The series revolves around the surreal misadventures of a small charity and its four employees dedicated to spreading happiness. Although there are still a few seasons left, including the forthcoming third season, the creators are already thinking about when it might be time to hang it up.

“It won’t go and go and go,” Cusack said. “We want it to be like a nice little box set, and we’ve talked about potential seasons that we’d want to stop at, for sure, and it depends on the day. Sometimes we’ll wake up and be like, ‘You know what? Three seasons could be enough.’ But then the next day, we’re like, ‘No, actually, another number sounds better.’ So we always go back and forth, but we are pretty staunch on it not going on forever.”

Premiere dates for Seasons 4 and 5 probably won’t come for a while, but fans will be able to look forward to Season 3 of Smiling Friends, premiering this fall on Adult Swim. Both seasons of Smiling Friends are streaming on HBO Max.