Longtime fans of adult swim and specifically The Boondocks were dealt a hard blow earlier in the week. The much publicized revival for the beloved animated series, announced for HBO Max , has been canned.
The news broke a few days ago courtesy of Cedric Yarborough, voice actor for Tom Dubois, in an interview for the Geekset Podcast. “Right now, the show is not coming back,” said Yarborough. “We’ve been wanting to do the show, and Sony decided that they’re gonna pull the plug.” Details on the Boondocks’ return up to this point were extremely scarce, with the initial pitch being that teenagers Huey and Riley Freeman (both voiced by Regina King) and their grandfather Robert (the late John Witherspoon) would see their suburban city of Woodcrest be slowly taken over by Uncle Ruckus (Gary Anthony Williams) and his “bizarre” neo-fascist regime.
At the moment, a reason for the cancellation hasn’t been given. Back in 2019, HBO Max ordered a pair of “reimagined seasons” for the series, intended to start with a 50-minute special in 2020 that never came to life. At the time, creator Aaron McGruder was excited to return to his beloved world, acknowledging how the strange times we live in would make for some great satire. “It’s crazy how different the times we live in are now — both politically and culturally…There’s a lot to say, and it should be fun.”
Later in the video, Yarborough gave effusive praise to McGruder’s scripts, calling them “so damn funny,” and revealed that recording had already begun. As far as whether or not fate will intervene and the series will return, he was in the middle about its chances. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to revisit it. If we don’t, then that’s what that is.”
Back in its heyday, The Boondocks was one of the best animated shows that adult animation on television, and the first three seasons were one of many great cartoons that helped Adult Swim become the powerhouse that it is. It’s a damn shame that the show won’t be coming back: outside of its stellar voice cast, it had great animation and writing coming from McGruder’s, Rodney Barnes, and Angela Nissel’s extremely distinct voices. It remains extremely funny to this day, whether it’s the Freemans trying to escape one of Robert’s extremely dangerous blind dates or Tom being helpless as his wife Sarah gushes over Usher (could not be me, sir).
The original, four-season run of The Boondocks is available on HBO Max. Like Yarborough said to close out the video: “What we do have and what’s out there is evergreen. That’s out there forever, and those people will always be able to check those out.”