‘Fiona and Cake’ creator Adam Muto talks about whether there will be a season 2

Curious about more seasons and episodes of the Max animated series Adventure Time: Fiona and Cake? Executive producer Adam Muto agrees. Muto said, “We are considering it.” variety At the SCAD Animation Fest in Atlanta last week. “But the person who gave the green light for the first season is no longer at Max.”

Muto said the future of “Fiona and Cake” and the entire “Adventure Time” series is still in the brainstorming stage. “I hope this series did well enough that I felt like I could invest in future seasons,” he said. “We’re still undecided as to what that will look like, whether it’s going to be Fiona & Cake Season 2, or whether it’s going to be more of an anthology approach and focus on different characters… We have a current list of things that we think could work as series, things that we think could work as miniseries or specials.”

Muto took over as executive producer midway through Cartoon Network’s hit “Adventure Time” and created the spinoff “Fiona and Cake” in the early days of what was then called HBO Max. Since then, the streamer, and in fact all streamers, have undergone a re-evaluation of their adult anime strategies. Because it was already part of an established IP, “Fiona and Cake” managed to continue, eventually premiering his ten episodes in late summer.

“Our show was already in production, it was already ready, so we couldn’t really change it at that point,” Muto said. “But we were seeing a lot of projects around us being crushed by rocks. If you just keep going, rocks are falling all around you. It felt so arbitrary that we didn’t actually There was nothing we could do about it. We couldn’t change direction and could only hope that whatever we were working on aligned with their strategy. Because it was a very opaque process.

“It was freeing in a way, because you can’t navigate that,” he added. “We don’t even know how those decisions will be made. One week you’ll hear about ‘we’re going to eliminate the 6-to-11 shift,’ or ‘we’re going to eliminate it from kindergarten.’ And then after a few months, you’re like, “Well, I guess I’ll go to kindergarten.” It has been very difficult to develop a long-term strategy because strategies are changing and evolving. ”

Muto is the last Cartoon Network alum to remain at Warner Bros. Animation, following the company’s merger late last year (which led to the cancellation of several series on Max).

“We’re all in the same building,” he said. “and [WBA head] Sam Register started on Cartoon Network.I mean, he’s no stranger [the Cartoon Network brand]. I feel like we’re learning how each other works. ”

“Adventure Time” may be the easiest pitch to sell because it’s a pre-established world that he knows well. However, Muto also wants to generate new and original ideas, which he knows is quite difficult in this environment.

“Because even when we have general meetings with people, we’re like, ‘This is the IP that we own,’” he said. “I see what the idea is that they can Trojan horse into something they already have. But it’s not entirely satisfying. I’m a little embarrassed that they’re going to try things.” I hope we get to a point where we don’t have to worry about it.”

Muto attended the SCAD Animation Fest to receive the 2023 Spotlight Award for his “innovative contributions to the animation and entertainment industry.”

The three-day event, held at Savannah College of Art and Design’s new Atlanta theater SCADshow, featured the outstanding achievements in animation of Theodore “Ted” Tye, Global Head of Character Animation at DNEG Animation, and SCAD Animation Studio’s “The Last ” was also honored. Dungeon. ”

The festival concluded with a screening of Fox’s new comedy animation Crapopolis, followed by a conversation with director Pete Michels and lead character designer Andy Ristaino.

The series, created by Dan Harmon, has already been renewed for a third season and centers on the powerful families of ancient Greece. Including Richard Ayoade as Tyranis, the benevolent king of Krapopolis. Hannah Waddingham: Deliria, the mother of Tyrannis and the goddess of self-destruction. Matt Berry: Tyrannis’s father, the mantitaur (half-centaur) Shrub [horse + human]half manticore [lion + human + scorpion]); Pam Murphy: “Stupendus”, half-sister of Tyrannis and daughter of Delilia and Cyclops. Duncan Trussell plays “Hippocampus,” Tyrannis’ half-brother and descendant of a shrub and a mermaid.

The show opened with great success on September 24th. Variety magazine gave it a positive review, calling it “a funny, high-concept riff on the family sitcom that very loosely recreates ancient Greece.”

One notable aspect of “Crapopolis” is that it doesn’t shy away from comic book gore. Even Michels and Ristaino admit they were surprised they got away.

“I feel like the crew was holding back on how dire the situation could have been,” Ristaino said. “And we kept getting told to make it more dire!” Michels added: “I’m surprised the notes we got aren’t about blood, gore and beheadings. It was a brutal time, the Bronze Age where everyone was stabbed in half, cut in half and decapitated. I did. I’m getting more and more notes about nudity. Like I can’t show my butt.”