The creator of Samurai Jack is going back in time for his next Adult Swim series.
The WarnerMedia-owned cabler has ordered an animated show called Primal from Genndy Tartakovsky. The pickup extends the more than two-decade relationship between Tartakovsky and Adult Swim/Cartoon Network, where he also created Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack and the first iteration of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Primal is set in prehistoric times and focuses on “a caveman at the dawn of evolution and a dinosaur on the brink of extinction.” Their unlikely bond becomes the only hope of survival in a violent primordial world.
The half-hour series is scheduled to premiere in the fall.
The pickup for Primal follows series orders for Birdgirl, a Harvey Birdman spinoff starring Paget Brewster, and live-action comedy Three Busy Debras, which counts Amy Poehler among its executive producers. Adult Swim is also developing a Blade Runner anime series set between the timelines of the two films in the franchise.
The new shows join Adult Swim flagship Rick and Morty — which earned a massive 70-episode renewal in 2018 — the long-running Robot Chicken, Tigtone, Hot Streets, Joe Pera Talks With You and a host of others in the channel’s lineup of original series.
After a 13-year gap, Tartakovsky brought a final season of Samurai Jack to Adult Swim in 2017 (the original run aired on Cartoon Network). The show was a strong performer, winning its time period among Adult Swim’s core young-adult audience each week it aired and averaging 1.36 million same-day viewers per episode.
