'Tuca & Bertie' Canceled Again Following Adult Swim Revival

By Daniel S. Levine

The beloved animated series Tuca & Bertie has been canceled for a second time. The series, featuring the voices of Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong, debuted on Netflix in 2019, but moved to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim in 2020 after the streamer canceled it. Adult Swim aired two additional seasons, with the final episode aiting on Aug. 29.

Creator Lisa Hanawalt shared the sad news on Twitter Tuesday. "To all our fans, we love you and can't thank you enough for your support over the years," she wrote. "Please never stop making weird fan art (and dressing up for Hallowen!), it brings me endless joy."

Although the show is ending, Hanawalt had nothing but good things to say about her experience with Adult Swim. She called working with the network "very creatively fulfilling" and said the executives were "all smart and thoughtful." She was "grateful" to have their support in creating a wildly vibrant show.

"I'm so proud of the work done by all my talented coworkers and collaborators on thes how," Hanawalt wrote. "Please watch the end credits and take note of all these names in the cast and crew. I'm also very glad we were able to be covered by both the Animation Guild and the Writers Guild of America. I hope any show creators who have the leverage to fight for unionizing their productions will continue to do so." At the end of her message, Hanawalt said she still had a "beautiful and weird ending" to thes how in mind and was hopeful she would get to finish it in the future. In the meantime, she vowed to continue working and telling stories.

Tuca & Bertie centered on two friends, the anthropomorphic birds Tuca Toucan (Haddish) and Roberta "Bertie" Songthrush (Wong). The two live in the same apartment complex and have very different personalities. Steven Yeun, Richard E. Grant, Nivcole Byer, John Early, Reggie Watts, Jenifer Lewis, Kate Berland, Pamela Adlon and Natasha Rothwell also voiced important characters during the show's run. The series earned critical acclaim throughout its run and won an Annie Award for writing in 2020 thanks to the episode "The Jelly Lakes." This year, Hanawalt won a Writers Guild of America award for the episode "Planteau."

In August, Hanawalt told Variety she had ideas for the fourth and fifth seasons, before jokingly saying she had enough ideas for 10. "I have lots of things I want to write about and different avenues I want to go down and choose your own adventures I want to get into," she said. "I won't elaborate yet, but hopefully, we'll get the opportunity." Tuca & Bertie Season 1 is available to stream on Netflix, while Seasons 2 and 3 are on HBO Max.

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