As they say, the fun never ends! With the final instalment of the Adventure Time: Distant Lands miniseries fast approaching, HBO Max has announced another exclusive spin-off of the beloved Cartoon Network series. This time, however, Fionna the Human and Cake the Cat will be the ones grabbing their friends, going to very distant lands, etc.
Emphasis on the distant. According to the official synopsis for the 10-episode series, it sounds like Fionna and Cake’s adventures won’t just be confined to their parallel version of Ooo:
Fionna and Cake — with the help of the former Ice King, Simon Petrikov — embark on a multiverse-hopping adventure and journey of self-discovery. All the while, a powerful new antagonist determined to track them down and erase them from existence lurks in the shadows.
Into the Adventure-Verse sounds like a heck of a good time to me. However, I wonder how this fits in the “origin” of Fionna and Cake, in that they’re fictional characters created by the Ice King. But is the multiverse real? Is this just Ice King’s fanfic magnum opus? Does it really matter? I don’t think so… unless Fionna and Cake stop by “Ooo Prime” (for lack of a better term), which to be fair seems like the kind of twist the makers of Adventure Time love throwing at the show’s fans.
The usual complaint about these AT side-stories is that they (rarely) have our pals Finn and Jake in them, and that’s who fans want to hang out with — understandable, given they’re the stars. But I think the “Together Again” instalment of Distant Lands, which aired on May 20, beautifully and satisfyingly brought their story to a close. While Fionna and Cake are obviously similar to the O.G. duo, they’re still unique characters, and we’ve really only seen them in four of Adventure Time’s 283 (!) episodes. There’s a lot to explain about them, Prince Bubblegum, Marshall Lee, Ice Queen, and their world.
The half-hour, 10-episode series will be overseen by Adam Muto, who did the same for Distant Lands and the original cartoon, too. No date was announced, but at least the fourth and final instalment of Distant Lands, starring the devious and arguably demonic Peppermint Butler, will arrive sometime this spring.