Netflix to adapt Cuphead video game into an animated comedy series

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Happy Tuesday, everybody! Are you ready for Netflix and King Features Syndicate to serve up some fun? I sure hope so, because both studios are joining forces to develop an animated comedy series based on the indie platforming video game Cuphead!

Titled THE CUPHEAD SHOW, this bold new venture aims to bring the frantic action and old school animated appeal of Cuphead to the masses. Since Cuphead's 2017 launch, the zany, uber-difficult platformer developed and published by Studio MDHR has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide. Upon pressing the Start button on Cuphead, players are transported into a weird and wacky world filled with hand-drawn animations inspired by the classic Fleischer cartoons of the 1930s. If you ask me, this project is sure to be a dream come true for fans of animated shows the likes of Betty Boop, Happy Harmonies, Phantasies, Cubby Bear, Count Screwloose, Looney Tunes, and every questionably offensive animation from that era.

When the new animated series pours onto Netflix, the show will expand upon the characters and world of the game, which revolves around heroes Cuphead and Mugman making a deal with the devil after a high-stakes poker game goes south.

Executive producing THE CUPHEAD SHOW for King Features is C.J. Kettler of Netflix's CARMEN SANDIEGO fame. Joining her for the effort will be Cuphead creators Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, who will executive produce via Studio MDHR. Meanwhile,  Netflix Animation will produce with Emmy and Annie award winner Dave Wasson, who is also set to executive produce. Lastly, Cosmo Segurson will co-executive produce. For those of you wondering about Serguson's animation chops, he's currently the co-director and co-writer of ROCKO'S MODERN LIFE: STATIC CLING, a film based on the popular Nickelodeon animated series that finds Rocko and his friends returning from space and having to adjust to even more modern life.

THE CUPHEAD SHOW will serve as the first long-form animated series production for King Features, and if successful, could pave the way for even more adaptations with characters like Popeye, Garfield and Archie being welcomed back into the pop culture zeitgeist.

I can't imagine that anyone who's played Cuphead won't be excited by this news. The world presented in the game is positively twisted and the hand-drawn aesthetic is something that's been missing from the realm of animation for far too long. These days, damn near every animated film that hits the big or small screen is CGI animated, so you'll have to pardon me if I find this announcement to be a breath of fresh air – even if that air is nearly 90 years old.