Hulu is again teaming with Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland for an animated series.
Roiland is an executive producer of Koala Man, which Hulu has picked up to series with an eight-episode order. The show, from creator Michael Cusack (YOLO: Crytstal Fantasy), is a family comedy where the patriarch (voiced by Cusack) has a not very secret identity as Koala Man, an Australian suburban hero with no power greater than a passion to stop petty crime and bring order to his community.
Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez (Detective Pikachu, Apple’s Central Park) will serve as showrunners on the project, which also represents a reunion between Roiland and Cusack: The latter wrote and directed the 2018 Rick and Morty April Fool’s special Bushworld Adventures.
The pickup of Koala Man continues Hulu’s push into adult animation. The Disney-run streaming service is home to Roiland’s Solar Opposites (whose second season debuts Friday), Crossing Swords and two upcoming Marvel series: MODOK and Hit Monkey. It also houses the libraries of long-running Fox series Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers and King of the Hill, as well as Futurama and American Dad.
Disney’s 20th Television Animation will produce Koala Man. Cusack, Samit, Hernandez and Roiland executive produce along with Princess Pictures and Fox-owned animation studio Bento Box (Bob’s Burgers, The Great North). The show will be produced in Los Angeles and Melbourne, where Bento Box’s recently launched Princess Bento Studios has a home.
Samit and Hernandez are repped by 3Arts, UTA and Jackoway Tyerman.
